24 Comments

Color me impressed! I mean, I liked season 1 already, but genre shows can often lose their way after that, and this was such a confident launch to connect what worked before to wherever the story goes next. (And ugh, so refreshing after the mediocrity of Secret Invasion and to a lesser extent Ahsoka. Nice to know Disney can still make these series work, on occasion.)

Ke Huy Quan is a great addition, too -- I thought at first he was only going to be in that one scene behind the desk, fun as it was, but he adds so much to the whole episode after that too. I hope he sticks around for more this season.

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Great episode! It’s the best thing I’ve seen on Disney+ since Andor and maybe the best thing from the MCU since Loki S1.

Agree completely with your review. Just really well done all around. Surprising and engaging. Everything looked fantastic. O.B. is a great new character.

Ok, we get a reference to EEAAO, but this was a serious missed opportunity to introduce the phrase “Okey dokey Loki”.

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Speaking of sly references, I thought his cadence when he said "temporal loom" sounded a lot like "temple of doom," but I couldn't quite tell if that was intentional or not.

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Great episode and review! I really like that you are as excited as I am for the new season despite Jonathan Majors (ugh!).

I find Owen Wilson truly perfect for his role, and as you say, Mobius and Loki's relationship is the core of this show.

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I honestly didn't even realize how excited I was until I started working on these reviews. I love the feeling of getting to dive in deeper to a returning series, and I'm looking forward to chatting with y'all over the next six weeks!

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What a fantastic start. They need to do a WHAT IF? addressing what if every Marvel/Star Wars show was this well cast, written, directed and just plain fun. Adding Ke was such a slam dunk, I was grinning the entire hour. Here's to hoping Jonathan Majors is more like Jonathan Minor (character this season). Welcome aboard Caroline! Looking forward to your thoughts this season.

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They have this show as a precedent that variants can come in all shapes and sizes, so here’s hoping they use it. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this season since it was already in the can.

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I wasn’t sure how this would go - I found Season 1 to be such a mixed bag, with some great Tom Hiddleston/Owen Wilson stuff that really worked combined with some rejected Doctor Who material that really didn’t.

This season has started off really strong though. Ke Huy Quan is such a delight, I hope we see more of him and he isn’t just a one episode guest star. And fingers crossed this season doesn’t go off the rails like the first one!

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founding
Oct 11, 2023·edited Oct 11, 2023

I'm surprised no one is mentioning the fact that the title of this episode (and the name of this exciting new character) is a reference to the symbol of an animal eating its own tail, which is often taken as representing a cycle that repeats itself : https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ouroboros.

I wouldn't conclude anything from it, but this seemed like something worth noting 🤔

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I noted this as well and commented on it to my parents only to find out my dad didnt know what an ouroboros was! (which really shocked me)

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founding

Yeah, I'm not sure many people know what an Ouroboros is. Another funny thing I realised is that both Mobius and Ouroboros have names that allude to closed loops 💡

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Enjoyed this a lot and looking forward to more (the show and the reviews!)

I see a lot of “best Marvel since Loki S1” chatter out there. This is definitely a step up from some of their recent stuff but was Ms. Marvel that unpopular? I really liked it

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I was a big fan of Ms Marvel too, but definitely get the sense that relatively few people saw it. Perhaps because it was the Marvel show with the least connection to the movies?

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I enjoyed Ms. Marvel too, especially compared to most of the other MCU series, but it’s supposedly among their least watched series to date.

Which is a shame, as it’s a step or two away from being the closest thing to this generation’s Buffy that’s out there.

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Agreed. I think Ms Marvel is probably the Marvel series of the Disney era that I would rank highest. With Loki and maybe Hawkeye at some points, I think it is the only truly original thing Marvel has produced in a long time.

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One of the things that strikes me as odd about Disney’s non-reaction to the Majors allegations is that in a show where characters exist in different forms across multiple timelines you’d think it would be the easiest recasting to justify narratively. But here we have a season premiere where him staying in the role is literally set in stone.

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I’ve been trying not to think much about the Majors situation because I really just want to enjoy the season. I understand that’s going to be pretty much impossible if I want to participate in discussions about the show once he starts to be a bigger (live) presence.

Disney is in a tough spot given the show was wrapped before his arrest, there has not yet been a trial, and I am going to guess he crushed the role.

This may be out of the realm of possibility, but I think a potential masterstroke on Disney’s part would be to switch actors over the course of the season. Maintain some continuity, don’t completely toss out the original work, and bring in an actor who isn’t going to drive audiences away.

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Broxton!!!!!!;;

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Eh, maybe it was just me watching the premier too late (and not 100% sober) on a Friday night, but I found all of the timey-wimey flim flam extraneous to the character work. I had close to 0% idea what was going on (again, me problem) and the recap from season 1 only did a bit to lighten the load.

But it didn't matter that much, because I don't really care about the plot for this show, the strength is in its characters. Hiddleston is the main reason I'm watching the show, and he continues to be amazing. His friendship with Wilson is endearing as heck, and Ke Huy Kwon makes everything better that he's in, amazing new addition.

I love the TVA's color scheme, the light browns, tans and oranges strongly evokes a slightly quirkier DMV, which I assume is its goal. I'm here to see the fun stuff Marvel has planned with this show; if not for its hard-to-follow plotline, then its strong characters doing fun weird things.

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i felt the same way about the plot but the characters, acting, cinematography, and production design are top notch. the attention to detail on this show is incredible and i am mesmerized by the end credits.

which reminds me i have been meaning to watch The Making of Loki!

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So nice for a new Marvel thing to actually be good. I really liked the first season of Loki and was surprised at what I perceived to be a not super enthusiastic critical and audience reaction to it so I'm really glad it seems that more people liked it than I thought and are excited for this second season.

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Just getting to this now after I finished Secret Invasion. A thousand times better (outside of Olivia Coleman)

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Finally getting to this. I enjoyed this episode, especially the ongoing "lose all your skin" bit. Very funny stuff from Quan and Wilson. I also like that Loki has somehow become the most comic-book-y thing in the MCU.

Slightly surprised that the device OB comes up with to save Loki is something he just sort of had, and not something past Loki inspired him to spend the next couple hundred years figuring out how to create. That's been done before I guess but I think it would've been nice.

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I enjoyed Loki Season 1, even if the middle felt uneven, but I'll be the first to admit I was nervous about how the show would handle that cliffhanger. There is definitely a lesser version of this show that has Loki essentially repeating some Season 1 beats by trying to get Mobius and B-15 to remember him. Thankfully, the show sidesteps all of that and gets us right back into the action.

Put me down as another person very happy to see Ke Huy Quan killing it in this episode. He is a delightful addition and I can't wait to see some more of him. I especially love the dynamic he has with Wilson.

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