Loki, Episode 1: “General Purpose” (Review)

Written by,
J. Johnson

The God of Mischief… wait where are we right now?!

Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is the most complex character in the entire MCU, so him getting his own show will hopefully dive further into who the character is and what’s his purpose in this universe of heroes and villains. Especially in this first episode of Loki, it could be the most deliriously entertaining MCU series to hit Disney+. We can truly appreciate Showrunner Michael Waldron (Rick and Morty) jumping right in to introduce a new facet of the TVA’s (Time Variance Authority) surreal multiverses operations. Also can’t forget Hiddleston having fun reprising his role as Loki with that original characteriztion of a 1930’s villain.

The episode opens up with a scene from Avengers: Endgame, in which Marvel’s mightiest traveled back in time to the events of the first Avengers and bumped into The God of Mischief. He would then, pick up the stray Tesseract and uses it to escape but this would ultimately send the past on a different path. Doing this would bring him to the attention of an unseen agency known as the TVA. They are set to wipe out Loki from existence unless he turns out to be the key to a time-bending threat that could rewrite the entire MCU.

I guess the magic of episode one is the fact that much like WandaVision, the notion of an action filled introduction doesn’t have to take precedence over establishing how the world works with its characters filling each corner of the story. That goes for he comedic tone this first episode takes as it’s pretty reminiscent of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok. You get a sense that the entire series will also focus on the mystery element that it provides the series with a wider range of exploration in uncharted territory that can possibly take us further into a whole new myth of the MCU.

You have to remember this version of Loki is the one whom at the end of his journey came to peace with Thor. Though we already see him growing immediately making it easier to invest in this version of Loki than taking several movies to do the job. Not to mention this new direction is developed along by a strong support as he’s sort of teamed up with time-twisting agent Major Mobius. Owen Wilson’s dry line delivery could play a possible foil to Hiddleston’s Loki. As Mobius can keep Loki in check of his actions.

In the end, we get this complete unorthodox approach to the first episode that lays the groundwork for the entire series. It will be exciting to see how Tom Hiddleston will play different variants of Loki that varying degrees of evilness could alter the exist of his character if he possibly appears in the next phase. We can only wonder how this road will end or where it will end up with such an entertaining series.