Follows the events of Endgame.

Loki broke the rules. He didn't know that he was doing that, and wasn't aware that there was a governing body to cross, and this doesn't really matter to them. They are the TVA, or Time Variance Authority. And they protect the Sacred Timeline by ensuring that no one steps out of line and becomes what is known as a Variant. The vast majority of the time, if that happens you are severely punished. This one time, he may be more useful to them.

So as you can tell this is in part about bureaucracy. It draws on the Terry Gillian masterpieces Time Bandits and Brazil. There's also some resemblance to Timecop, though without a soft spoken, "more compelling the less lines he has because his physical acting is not hampered by the fact that he did not learn to speak English as a child", Belgian martial artist who does the splits and some very impressive spinning kicks.

This is significantly more complex than that. It explores fascism, Free Will versus Determinism, and what it does to have complete knowledge - if that makes you go in a completely different direction, or more determined to remain on the same path.

It's one of the most mature of the MCU Disney Plus shows. With that said, it has the pacing issues that the others do. The fact is plainly obvious that these were not made for television, where there's going to be an ad break every seven minutes, and you have to have something really dramatic to make sure the audience doesn't change the channel, since there's a lot of competition for eyeballs. They aren't particularly worried that people will stop and because of that there are things that need to be tightened.

The thing that especially stood out to me as frustrating about that, is that this simply is too slow with the necessary drip feed of information for a mystery. There are not enough red herrings the way that there were on Wandavision. It's pretty easy to figure out where it's headed, and it feels padded and bloated as it very gradually gets to where it's going. As far as I can tell, this is not on account of the talent of the writers, rather, it's a direct result of them having to change some stuff because of Corona, which necessitated very strict rules. And it was definitely the right thing to do to follow those. This is also seen in that, essentially, they have here the ability to go anywhere and any when, and while they make some creative use of it, it also at times feels awkwardly limited.

The action is quite good, largely physical fights, enhanced by magic powers and time manipulating gadgets, including one that enables rewinding the person it's attached to, which they have some fun with. There are also chases, on foot and by vehicle. It's convincing, and a lot of the time there is weight to it, though at other times it does feel like it's there because there is an expectation. The fact that some of it is second unit and abuses the Volume definitely costs it some points there.

The acting is phenomenal and there's great chemistry between the main cast. I love the pairing of Tom Hiddleston with Owen Wilson's Mobius. There is a brotherly, or perhaps father son, dynamic to them. Basically, the latter has seen it all. He is very difficult to impress. Where the former feels, like, a compulsive need to mess with people around him. And now he's dealing with someone who's literally carefully watched every moment of his life. This also serves as a friendly reminder that he can actually act. Like, we think of him primarily as very funny, which he is, yes, still, that's not all he is.

Ravonna Renslayer(Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is a judge, B-15(Wunmi Mosaku) is a cop, both are all about the job, and both of them will have that challenged. In general, this does what it can do to put a lot of major and main characters through the emotional ringer, and really expose them to incredibly different circumstances, which is of course an excellent way to explore them. Ke Huy Quan plays O. B., as part of his current career renaissance, which I could not be happier about. He was truly incredible in Everything Everywhere All At Once, and it's no wonder that he so soon got another role in something mind-bending like this.

Tara Strong voices Miss Minutes, who we meet early on and gradually learn more and more about, and I found each revelation to be fascinating. At first I thought she would only appear in the pilot. Which transitions nicely into me talking about how strong that is. We get to know most of the people who we are going to be following, learn what this new world is like, and get a good sense of what's coming up. It is very much mainly about accomplishing those things, and isn't able to have as much fun as later.

You can go into this not familiar with any of the rest of the franchise, it will tell you all the things you need to know in order to follow it. Of course, it won't hit the same emotionally. They've been good at doing that recently, realizing that there are a number of people who are not going to sit down and watch 33 films. All 12 episodes that make up the two seasons are solid and worth watching. You could binge this in a weekend.

This features some disturbing content and a little gory, gruesome violence. I recommend this not only to fans of Marvel, no, also anyone who enjoys science fiction that makes you think and that has fun with such a free concept as being able to go to any point in human history(like, they straight up visit Pompeii at one point, moments before the eruption). 8/10.