That tardiness itself tells you something about my feelings on the season. I found it a bit of a slog, especially in the middle of the season, and it became enough of a "chore" to watch for a while there that I fell behind. (What with so many other more enjoyable shows to watch.) The season did pull out of its stall for a decent ending... but it nearly crashed completely for me before doing so.
In its second season, Loki basically amplified everything I felt about season one. Its peculiar isolated-but-not status from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe grew more peculiar still. The show leaned into an elaborate plot that managed to be several contradictory things at once. It was both dense and "important" and Macguffiny meaningless. It required no real MCU background knowledge, while fundamentally being all about the new Big Bad for the current and future sequence of films. The biggest contradiction of all was how often the show relied its greatest strength -- its actors -- while so rarely actually writing moments designed to featured that strength.
In my view, Tom Hiddleston remains the most charming performer in the MCU. And yes, given the A-list star wattage throughout, that's a Big Claim. But he has crackling energy with everyone he shares a scene with, and he basically forced his character's evolution from villain to antihero by being so likeable. Loki was at its worst in season two during back-to-back episodes that basically didn't have enough Loki; it became mired in "too much story" about the weird villain team-up of Renslayer, Miss Minutes, and Kang variant Victor Timely, and totally lost sight of the fact that Hiddleston is the reason to watch the show.
It was surely clear for all to see that the best moments in season one revolved around Hiddleston's chemistry with Owen Wilson as Mobius and Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie. And yet season two wasn't written to give us nearly enough "more of that." (Again, it was far more interested at times in developing other characters and relationships.) When we did finally get more of Loki-Mobius and Loki-Sylvie in the final episodes of the season? Well, that's when the show managed to stick the landing of its uneven season. But you could uncharitably characterize it as too little, too late.
And on the subject of the show not getting the most out of its actors, I have to comment on the season two addition of Ke Huy Quan as OB. He too was a charming presence on the show... but he was always just used to make the dispensing of exposition and technobabble lighter and more entertaining. This was probably a case of having the whole season written before the role was even cast, but I couldn't help but feel like he was squandered a bit as well.
I don't want to get too spoilery for others who also may not have finished the season yet, but as I said, it does all wind up in a decent place. (Indeed, another issue with the season may have been that they knew their "perfect ending," but didn't really have 6 episodes' worth of material to get from A to B.) I just don't think I would have hung in there were it not for Hiddleston, and his character, being so likeable. I give Loki season two a C+. This seems to have been crafted as a series, not just season, finale. And I'm perfectly happy to leave it at that.
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