As I saw mentioned on the AV Club's take, the end of Loki's second episode felt a lot bigger than it seems it really was in the grand scheme of things. This, however, feels like the real dramatic shift in the series, which is good because we've only got two episodes left.
Let's go into spoiler territory.
Time travel as a genre is very difficult to write if you want the story to make any sort of sense. But the payoff is that you have some really amazing "chronodynamic" possibilities. It's a sci-fi genre that engages the left-brain quite a bit - the trick, of course, being to ensure that the right brain is also satisfied (I'll admit I'm sure I'm oversimplifying the left/right brain divide, but you get the general idea.)
The second episode of Loki has the title character make a rather brilliant logical leap that made me, as a viewer, go "oh yeah, that's actually really clever!
Let's back up. Ok, spoiler goggles on.
Looking for something new to watch, I checked out Shadow and Bone, Netflix's adaptation of a fantasy novel series (or rather set of series within the same world) called the "Grishaverse." I've just finished the first season.
The world of Shadow and Bone is one in which a small number of people are born with the ability to do what is, effectively, magic (though the distinction between their "small science" and true magic is the sort of nitpicky thing you love to see in the fantasy genre.) These people, known as "grisha," are treated very differently depending on the culture in which they find themselves, but most of the story takes place in a nation called Ravka. And in Ravka, the grisha are the elite, serving as privileged officers in the "Second Army," and living lives of luxury.
As someone who's always excited to see a full-on fantasy story (with invented geographies and histories and cosmologies) that is based on anything later than the high middle ages, Shadow and Bone's late 19th/early 20th century aesthetic is mesmerizing. It's a world in which there are land-ships that traverse a scar of shadow across the land (more on that later) and has people calling fire and wind at their commands, but also has a guy in a top hat twirling six-guns. This, to be concise, is my shit.
The first season follows a couple groups of characters, some more engaging than others. But before we get to them, we need to first talk about The Fold.
The nation of Ravka has, for centuries, been divided by a massive curtain of shadow that runs down the middle of the country. This region, known as the Fold, was formed by a historical villain known as the Black Heretic - a grisha who could summon and manipulate shadow. Now, it's an uninhabitable wasteland filled with bat-like monsters who will drag off and tear apart anyone they find.
As such, crossing the Fold is a dangerous prospect, as any light will draw the monsters to you.
Throughout all this, there's a prophecy of a Sun Summoner - a grisha who can call upon light, who is thought to be capable of tearing the Fold down. But that whole prospect itself is complicated - especially because there are those who benefit politically from Ravka being divided in two.
Anyway, here are the characters we follow in the first season.
The first is Alina Starkov. A humble cartographer in the Ravkan army, she and her childhood friend Mal serve together, and when he's assigned to cross the Fold, she arranges it so that she will accompany him. However, the crossing goes awry, and almost everyone is killed until Alina manifests her previously unknown power as a grisha - she is the Sun Summoner.
And I'll be honest, it's here that the show demonstrates its YA focus, not only with a Chosen One narrative, but also when she is whisked away by the dashing General Kirigan to the "Little Palace," where the 100% grisha "Second Army" have their headquarters. The Little Palace even has what seems to be the requisite YA trope of sorting people into different categories (in this case based on the nature of the grisha's powers.)
So, as someone who turned 35 a couple days ago, I have to take a step back and remember that things don't have to be written to my tastes to enjoy it. Yes, almost all the main characters look like they're under 30, but that's fine (I think I'm just anxious about being a fossil - and I remember how when I was in my early 20s I thought 30 was too old to be relatable, so I'm just burning myself here.)
Alina has to first prove herself capable of wielding her powers, and then she has to discover the degree to which she is being manipulated. Naturally, nothing is as it seems, and there are conspiracies and plots afoot. There's also a love triangle, though the dramatic tension is a little undercut by the clear right choice (even if said choice is a bit bland.)
Among those conspiracies is the story of our next group of characters: Kaz, Jesper, and Inej. Off in West Ravka, Kaz is a minor crime boss with his own nightclub and a whole lot of problems. His crew include Jesper, a fun-loving gunslinger, and Inej, basically a ninja whom Kaz is trying to help escape her debts to the human trafficker she owes. Kaz gets wind of a job to kidnap... actually Alina Starkov, and gathers his crew to perform the high-stakes bag job - 1 million kruge (which one gathers is a lot of money,) but also the potential to get killed trying to kidnap the most important person in the country.
When putting together their job, they intend to recruit Nina, a "heartrender" - in other words, a grisha that can manipulate other peoples' hearts, often being able to adjust their emotions or even cut off their circulation until they pass out (or worse.) However, before they can meet with her, Nina is taken by witch hunters from Fjerde - a rival nation of Ravka's to the north that has a much less positive attitude toward grisha.
Nina's story is the least focused-on, but we follow her as she forms a connection with one of her captors, named Matthias.
Familiar YA tropes aside, the show has fantastic world-building, and the production design alone might be worth the watch. Also, you know me: you throw a fantasy world at me with interesting rules of magic and I'm there.
The show has been confirmed for a second season, though given the pandemic, it's always a bit of a mystery when such a thing will be happening.
So, I'm going to start with a qualifier: since watching Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Back to the Future as a little kid, I've been obsessed with time travel stories - the mechanics, the aesthetic, and the mind-bending possibilities that make it insanely difficult to write (well).
On top of that, I've got a fascination/fixation on the sort of 1960s, midcentury modern architectural and design aesthetic - I think because it's from an era in which people were extremely future-oriented, looking to space travel and the dawn of the electronic age, but it also just look so cool, even when it's intentionally as uncool as possible.
I'm not alone in this admiration for the style. In fact, in other shows that adapt comic books and involve time travel, there's a kind of default assumption that this is what "the establishment" looks for: you see a similar style in the Company in Umbrella Academy, as well as Division 3 in the second season of Legion. So, I think you could fairly levy a criticism for Loki for unoriginality, but I won't because I freaking love the look so much.
What's the premise of this show?
Well, the whole show is a walking spoiler for a two-year-old movie that was itself the culmination of 11 years of Marvel movies. At this point, though, does anyone who cares enough about the MCU to worry about spoilers actually not know what happens in Endgame? Can I possibly spoil the biggest blockbuster cinematic event ever?
Screw it, we'll do a spoiler cut just in case. I guess I'm going to be writing about the episode anyway.
