What to Know From Disney Plus’s Countdown to Doomsday

An epic trailer for Avengers Doomsday was released at D23. Shortly after, the "Countdown to Avengers Doomsday" collection appeared on Disney Plus. I did a few prep lists of my own (including twenty-five movies and five television series). Disney's list is a bit more concise and is very doable between now and Doomsday, but in case you don't have time to binge fifteen movies/series, I've broken down the basics of what I think you need to know from each:

X-Men

This movie established Fox's X-Men series with a number of core characters set to appear in Doomsday: Professor X, Magneto, Mystique, and Cyclops. It began the "mutant threat" facing humanity. While the politicians debated the issue, Magneto set out to turn them into mutants (not knowing that the process would kill them). Other than establishing our X-Men, I'm curious how this movie will play into Doomsday. Is it just to introduce us to the mutants or is the "mutant threat" going to create a rift between the X-Men and the Avengers?

X2

It was in my "extra credit" section for the introduction of Nightcrawler, but the plot continued the saga of the X-Men and the mutant threat, as Strucker used mind control serum (harvested from his son) to frame Nightcrawler for an assassination attempt and to attempt to destroy the mutants. It also gave us glimpses into Wolverine's lost memories (later explored in X-Men Origins). However, I'm not sure how this continued mutant threat will contribute to Doomsday, except to introduce Nightcrawler.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Okay so we're prepping for an Avengers movie. Captain America is the first Avenger. Pretty straight forward "why" for this movie. Steve Rogers went from being a scrawny young man to having a body and powers that men would envy for generations. After losing his best friend (for now) and thwarting Red Skull, Cap sacrificed himself to save countless people, leaving him frozen in ice until the 21st Century. 

Avengers

We had the "first Avenger" and now we have the first Avengers movie. Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Hulk teamed up to fight Loki and his army. They became the core team of the Avengers. Though they'd only team up every few years, this was the jumping off point for all Marvel superhero crossovers.

Avengers: Infinity War 

After all their phase two and phase three shenanigans, Infinity War brought our heroes together again. By this point, the roster included names such as Vision, Falcon, War Machine, Black Panther, and Spider-Man, and more. All our heroes fought Thanos to keep him from using the six Infinity Stones and lost. Thanos decimated half the population of the universe and sent many of our remaining heroes spiraling.

Avengers: Endgame

Five years after the events of Infinity War, the remaining Avengers teamed up to jump across time streams to retrieve the six Infinity Stones and revive the missing half of the universe's population. It took the sacrifice of Black Widow to complete the set of stones, but they succeeded in the end. The epic movie culminated in a massive head-on fight against Thanos's forces. Despite the Avengers best efforts, it took Tony Stark sacrificing himself to use the Infinity Stones to win the battle. And in the aftermath of the fight, Captain America returned the six Infinity Stones to their time streams, taking his sweet time in a parallel Earth, until he came back as an old man. With the Avengers left with three members missing, we headed into Phase Four and beyond.

Loki

Because of the time travel antics of Endgame, a variant of Loki escaped captivity... for a moment before the Time Variance Authority apprehended him. Through his manipulation of the TVA, Loki eventually ended up at the end of time with a female Loki variant (Sylvie). She killed a Kang variant, releasing the shackles on the multiverse. But as reality started crumbling, it took our Loki variant from Endgame to hold all the strands of the multiverse together. Perhaps it's something to do with this Loki's new role in the multiverse that causes the rumored incursions of Doomsday.

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

The biggest thing this movie brings for Doomsday (as far as we know) is the reluctant hero Shang Chi. After defeating his father and a soul-devouring demon, our new hero was recruited by the Avengers. The mystical Ten Rings that he won off his father gave off some sort of energy that the Avengers noted. Perhaps this unknown energy is interwoven with the multiverse and that's why Disney included Shang Chi in their Doomsday countdown.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Our first multiversal movie! Spidey hasn't been confirmed for Doomsday, but even if he doesn't appear we still learned a lot about the multiverse in this movie. After the events of Far From Home, Peter didn't want people to remember his secret identity anymore. Using Doctor Strange's powers, he tried to make them forget, but instead a number of villains came from other universes after Peter botched the spell. By teaming up with two others Spideys, the villains were defeated and/or redeemed. To save the multiverse from caving in on them, Doctor Strange made everyone forget Peter Parker (which led into Brand New Day).

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever 

After the death of her brother T'Challa, Shuri and her mother were left leading Wakanda without a king. As they encountered Namor, things got more complicated. Especially after the death of Shuri's mother. The Wakandan princess ended up leading the nation of Wakanda against the Namor's forces. By the miracle of science, she was able to synthesize the herb that turned her into the Black Panther. She was able to broker peace with Namor's people. And since Shuri and Namor are both supposed to appear in Doomsday, it's obvious why this is on the list.

Captain America: Brave New World

The passing of the torch (shield) from Steve to Sam happened in Endgame and was further explored in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. This solo adventure (which could have been a Hulk movie) was his first cinematic adventure as the new Cap. Sam chased a mystery across the globe to thwart the mind games of Samuel Sterns and to clear the name of Isaiah Bradley. The new Cap also had to face off against Red Hulk. Any sane person would have been scared out of their mind to face any Hulk, but Sam managed it somehow.

Deadpool & Wolverine 

This movie finally bridged the gap of the MCU and the Fox's Marvel movies (not just X-Men). Even if you don't watch R-rated movies, the movie taught us many things about the multiverse. Deadpool got dragged into the TVA where we learned about anchor beings. Instead of sitting quietly, Wade ended up multiverse hopping through X-Men universes to find a new Wolverine for his world. The two fought and defeated Cassandra Nova and Paradox to save the multiverse. With Fox's X-Men coming into Doomsday, at the very least this movie establishes those Fox movies as part of the MCU multiverse. Also, we have Channing Tatum's Gambit returning (or maybe a variant).

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 

It's right there in the title: Multiverse of Madness. Universe hopping Doctor Strange was working to save America Chavez and save Wanda Maximoff from herself. Like with Deadpool 3, we learned a lot about the multiverse here. We learned more about variants, incursions, and dreamwalking. Stephen Strange had to dreamwalk into his variant's corpse to save America from the Scarlet Witch. In the end, Wanda sacrificed herself to redeem herself, but not before Doctor Strange read from the Darkhold. During the credit scene, a woman named Clea came to Doctor Strange to address incursions he caused. Supposedly incursions will play a big part in Doomsday, though Doctor Strange hasn't been confirmed for the movie yet.

Thunderbolts*

Our New Avengers will be major players in the movie. We can tell that much from the trailer. This movie put together a Suicide Squad of Marvel pseudo-heroes. After Valentina sent the group to kill each other and clean up her mess, the band of misfits ended up on the run. When Bob became Sentry, his alterego Void was unleashed. The new team had to enter into Bob's nightmares to talk him down and bring him back to reality. It's a beautiful scene relevant to anyone's mental health and I love it. I just hope Bob is okay during Doomsday.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

An essential part of Doomsday is Fantastic Four. Though Doctor Doom doesn't appear until the credit scene, he's always be tied to these heroes. The movie began with the Fantastic Four already established as Earth's heroes (on a parallel Earth with retro 60's vibes). With Galactus on the way and Sue pregnant, the Fantastic Four headed into space to intercept the Devourer of Worlds before he could reach Earth. In exchange for Earth, Galactus wanted the newborn baby. The Fantastic Four worked tirelessly prevent the Earth's destruction. When Galactus finally arrived, the heroes were able to send him to the far reaches of the universe. The baby was safe. However, the credits rolled, Doctor Doom appeared with obvious interest in the child.

If you don't have time to rewatch all fifteen (or to watch the ones you've missed) hopefully these breakdowns give you a decent understanding of where we're at in the MCU going into Doomsday. Or maybe it has wet your pallet and made you want to watch them (not sure I'm that good of a writer, but I can dream). As of this post, you could watch one item per week and finish in time for Avengers.

Avengers assemble!

More Content You Might Like:

• "Thunderbolts: What About Bob?" by Spencer
• "Mr. Fantastic Knows Nothing… Welcome to Parenting" by Spencer
• "Deadpool & Wolverine - What You're Missing" by Joe

Spencer's Doomsday Prep Lists:

• "5 Marvel Movies to Watch Before Avengers Doomsday"
  
• X-Men
• Iron Man
• Captain America: Winter Soldier
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Avengers: Endgame
• "5 Marvel Shows to Watch Before Avengers Doomsday"
• WandaVision
• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier 
• Loki
• Hawkeye
• What If...?
• "5 More Marvel Movies to Watch Before Avengers Doomsday"
• Spider-Man
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• Thor: Love and Thunder
• Thunderbolts*
• Fantastic Four: First Steps

5 Marvel Shows to Watch Before Avengers Doomsday

Several months ago, I did a blog post about pre-Endgame movies to watch before Avengers Doomsday. Especially with the recent Doomsday trailers, I thought it a good time to revisit some more Marvel projects to rewatch before the big day. One thing the post-Endgame saga did was canonized television series on Disney Plus. Say what you will about the inter-workings of movies and series, but I’ve enjoyed it. (Though I'm still waiting for them to officially canonize SHIELD)

WandaVision

In the midst of the pandemic, this was our saving grace for nine episodes. It was definitely an amazing way to begin the Multiverse Saga. Remember all the theories and anticipation, watching for Mephisto and Agatha? While Wanda isn't confirmed to be in Doomsday (or alive for that matter) this was our first look at grief during early post-Blip life. A lot of mysteries have been answered from this series, but there are still plenty of question marks, including Wanda's boys and White Vision.         

Extra Credit - The Marvels

Say what you will about this movie (and it making Carol Denvers into a Disney princess) but there's one big thing from this movie to address leading into Doomsday: The X-Men. After getting her superpowers in WandaVision and teaming up with the Marvels in this movie, Monica ended up thrown into another corner of the multiverse where she met Beast and Binary from the X-Men universe. Plus I swear I'm one of the few people who wants to see Ms. Marvel back.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier 

A number of mixed emotions during this series but I think we were all happy to have this adventure during the pandemic. I'm not sure it was the best received Marvel project, especially after the energy surrounding WandaVision (that was a hard act to follow). It was an emotional adventure transitioning Sam Wilson from the Falcon to being Captain America, but it also introduced our new Falcon, US Agent, and of course Val.

Extra Credit - Captain America: Brave New World

If you went straight from Falcon and the Winter Soldier and straight past this movie on your way to Doomsday, you'd probably be alright. There's no indication that Red Hulk or Sterns will play a part in the next Avengers movie. That being said, this movie serves to further establish Sam's role as Captain America and Joaquin's role as Falcon (I had honestly forgotten there was a new Falcon).

Loki

We can't have a multiverse movie without addressing the Loki who triggered the multiverse. After this variant escaped in Endgame, there was humbling to happen and some Kangs to be discovered. If it weren't for this Loki, we wouldn't have the X-Men universe, What If, Tobey's Spider-Man, or any of the parallel worlds. Last we saw of Loki, he was woven into the fabric of the multiverse, so I'm curious what his role will be in Doomsday.

Extra Credit - Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

This movie was underwhelming for many people (especially since the Kang storyline was scrapped). However, it attempted to connect the threads of our Avengers to the big bad of Loki. I'm curious what would've happened with this movie and Loki if Kang Dynasty were still happening. I heard rumors we'll see something of Kang being taken care of off-screen in Doomsday, but we'll see.

Hawkeye

On the grand scale of things, this show probably won't have much impact on the events of Doomsday (especially since Jeremy Renner isn't confirmed to appear). However, it does feature Yelena, previously seen in Black Widow, who would become a major player in Thunderbolts. Plus, I also just adore her character interacting with Kate Bishop. 

Extra Credit - Black Widow

Like Hawkeye, this movie doesn't look like it will have direct impact on Doomsday. That being said, this movie introduced the aforementioned Yelena and her adopted father. Both these powerhouses (Red Guardian for his strength and Yelena for her wit) reappeared in Thunderbolts. It's hard for me to decide if this movie or Hawkeye are more crucial.

 

What If...?

Slim chance of any of these characters appearing in Doomsday (except perhaps a variant of Captain Carter), but this hit series gave us a glimpse of what a multiversal epic could be. Three seasons and three epic finales. I think it would be a shame to let this series fade into obscurity, despite the release of Marvel Zombies, so I'd love to see Kahhori or the Hydra Stomper again.

Extra Credit - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

If we're going into a multiverse grand finale, we ought to include the epic (and horrific) journey that Doctor Strange took across the worlds. This movie isn't exactly what I'd envisioned from a multiverse hopping story, but it was the first (aside from Loki) so it would be a fun (and traumatic) one to revisit.

I'm sure there are plenty of other movies and series to revisit before the epic crossover of the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. In a few months I plan to highlight a few more post-Endgame movies. I have my list already and I probably won't finish it (especially as more and more cast members are revealed). I appreciate all that the MCU has done for superhero movies and, despite what vocal internet people say, it's not dead and I can't wait to see it continue to grow and evolve.

LDS Geeks Podcast #6: Loki Season 2

I had the chance to sit down and record with Rob about where in time and space Loki Season 2 took us. Check out the most recent episode of the podcast to listen in on our thoughts, what we liked, and where the series fell short.

--Spencer

Marvel Dad Jokes: Cosmic Edition

Ready for some marvelously, out-of-this-world humor? You’ve come to the right place! Enjoy jokes featuring Guardians of the Galaxy, and some of their cosmic Marvel cousins.

Ant-Man Binge List

As we enter 2023, we also enter phase five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We begin with the third movie starring Ant-Man and the second movie starring Wasp (though technically she was in the first Ant-Man too, just not as Wasp yet). Ant-Man is one of my MCU favorites, and not just because of a man-crush on Paul Rudd. Regardless, we've got four movies featuring Ant-Man and one Disney Plus series featuring his villain. So let's review before Quantumania comes to theaters. 

Ant-Man 

I absolutely loved this movie. If you haven’t watched it in a while, watch it before the new movie comes out. A gem at the end of Phase Two, it was the solo hero origin story. Kind of refreshing after sequels and team ups. Getting to focus on ex-burglar Scott Lang and his inner battle trying to be a good father and a productive member of society. Now especially as a dad, I love this movie even more.

Captain America: Civil War 

Though he played a small part in this Avengers conflict, this movie bridges the gap between the two Ant-Man movies. After his encounter with Falcon during the first Ant-Man movie, it’s no surprise that Scott would be Team Cap. This movie also introduced Ant-Man’s super-sized “Giant Man” ability, which would become a staple of his powers later on.

Ant-Man and the Wasp 

After being put on house arrest in the aftermath of Civil War, this movie saw Scott teaming up with Hank and Hope (who were on the run, after the Avengers Civil War). On one hand, you had Ghost coming after them. But from other directions you have mobsters and the FBI chasing down Ant-Man. When you look at it like that, it almost sounds like a Scooby-Doo chase scene.

Avengers: Endgame 

Despite being absent in Infinity War (because of the events of Ant-Man and the Wasp, I suppose), Scott played an integral part of Endgame. After Chang freed him from the Quantum Realm, it was Ant-Man who put events into motion to carry through the Time Heist to bring back the Snapped. If Ant-Man wasn’t an Avenger after all that, he definitely is now.

Loki (Season 1, Episodes 1-6)

I’m still anxiously awaiting the second season. But I’m guessing the events of Quantumania will play directly into the events of Loki. The first season saw the Loki variant from Endgame going into the TVA and inadvertently taking it down (more or less). In the finale, his variant, Sylvie, kills the guy behind the TVA… who just so happens to be a variant of the main villain in Quantumania. 

Unfortunately, even after refreshing myself on all these movies, I’m unlikely to see Quantumania when it first comes out, as it premieres two days after my little girl is due. So to all of you seeing Quantumania in theaters, enjoy! And no spoilers! Once it hits Disney Plus, you can bet I’ll watch it right away.

Doctor Strange Binge List

The multiverse has been opened and nothing will ever be the same. Or something like that. Doctor Strange is certainly in for something crazy. Multiverse of Madness premieres in about a month, so now’s your chance to refresh your memory on the adventures of our esteemed doctor thus far.

Doctor Strange (1 hour 55 min)

If you’re rewatching Stephen’s adventures, the natural place to begin is Doctor Strange (duh, right?). Our not-yet-magical doctor gets in his accident and goes soul-searching… sort of. Along the way of trying to heal himself, he learns magic, stops a group of fanatical zealots (perhaps that’s redundant), and basically makes himself Sorcerer Supreme. And there he is. Master of the Mystic Arts. Don’t forget it also introduces his rival Mordo, who’s set to return in the Multiverse.

Thor: Ragnarok (2 hours 10 min)

Half of Doctor Strange’s scenes in this movie are also in the Doctor Strange post-credit scene. The mystical doctor finds Thor and Loki in New York City. Detaining Loki for a moment, the good doctor takes a moment to talk with Thor before directing the two brothers to their father Odin. If you’re just trying to prep for Strange’s sequel, you can skip this movie. Though I do still love it.

Avengers: Infinity War (2 hours 29 min)

When Bruce Banner crashes through the roof of 177A Bleecker Street, Doctor Strange is pulled into an Avengers level conflict. First during the fight in Greenwich Village and then into space. While waiting for Thanos on the titan’s home planet, Doctor Strange fast-forwards to millions of different futures to find one in which they’d win. In order to make their victory a reality, Stephen gives up the Time Stone and is dusted not much later.

Avengers: Endgame (3 hours 2 min)

After the core Avengers snap half the universe back into existence, Doctor Strange opens his portals to bring probably hundreds of heroes to the destroyed Avengers Compound to fight the Mad Titan and his followers, who’ve arrived from 2014. It took the sacrifice of Tony Stark for the good guys to win, leaving Doctor Strange the leader of the Avengers, but Iron Man will not soon be forgotten.

WandaVision (Episodes 1-9)

We don’t know exactly what role Wanda will play in Doctor Strange 2. Many have speculated she’ll be the villain. Seems like there’ll be multiple versions of Wanda, so anything is possible. But before you watch Doctor Strange 2, it’s a good chance to rewatch WandaVision. In her grief post-Endgame, Wanda ends up trapping the town of Westview in her chaos magic. As she tries to hide from her grief, things get progressively worse and convoluted in town, finally climaxing in a witch fight against Agatha. Also, check out Wanda’s history prior to Westview.

Loki (Season 1, Episodes 1-6)

During the Avengers time travel shenanigans in Endgame, Ant-Man and Iron Man accidentally set free a version of 2012 Loki. It doesn’t take long before this Loki is apprehended by the Time Variance Authority. Working on their consultant, he betrays them (naturally) and teams up with a female Loki who ends up killing a Kang variant at the end of the universe, bringing us the multiverse. We don’t know exactly what way Loki will tie into the movie, but it’s rumored that Loki and Sylvie will appear. Maybe even Mobius. If you’re interested, you can also check out Loki’s previous adventures too. 

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2 hours 28 min)

Following the events of Far From Home, Peter Parker wants a quick fix from Doctor Strange to save his anonymity. Unfortunately, things are never that simple. So a botched spell brings two other Spider-Men and their respective villains to the main MCU branch of reality. So Spider-Man fights Strange, the villains fight Spider-Man, and in the end Doctor Strange ends up casting a spell to make everyone forget Peter Parker. It’s horribly heart-breaking and tragically beautiful. But the breach in the multiverse wasn’t solved that easily. 

And that brings us to the Multiverse of Madness. We’ve got lots of other characters teased and rumored. If you want more Wong, make sure you watch Shang-Chi. If you’re one that believes Professor X will appear (though Patrick Stewart has denied his involvement), I’d recommend at least watching the original X-Men trilogy. At least two new versions of Doctor Strange are appearing, possibly Strange Supreme, so you can also check out What If (episodes 4, 8, and 9). Captain Carter from What If is also rumored, so check her out as well (episodes 1 and 9). But regardless of who you think you’ll see, it’s going to be an exciting ride.

What Loki Teaches about Self-Love

Partway through the Disney Plus exclusive series Loki, a "nexus event" occurs. Loki falls in love with Sylvie, a variant of himself. Let’s set aside any discussion about “selfcest” or “Loki-cest” or "Sylki" shipping. Instead, let’s focus on the symbolism behind the relationship between these two characters, who are the same but different. I choose to look at this as falling in love with ourselves.

No, not the romantic kind of falling in love, cuz ew. But just truly loving ourselves. Self-love.

Even though Loki and Sylvie are not the same person, we can interpret the relationship as a form of self-love. Loki depicts this self love developing amid chaos and turmoil in the episode “Lamentis”, a slower episode that focuses more on character development than action (despite that crazycool one-take scene), and pushes the idea that a relationship with yourself is more important than anything else going on in the world. When the pair finally let down their guard to become vulnerable and fall in love in the episode “Nexus Event”, we see that it has universe-shattering consequences. The very nature of Loki falling in love with somebody with similar character traits causes the timeline to literally start wobbling, and things change faster than Pietro Maximoff.

Our Heavenly Father wants us to love ourselves. Sometimes it happens after an amount of strife in our lives. But the act of loving yourself can have earth-shattering consequences. There are two types of loving oneself: being conceited, prideful, and arrogant thinking you’re better than everyone; and there is naturally loving yourself and accepting who you are and being thankful for what God made.

Growing up, I hated myself. I hid this self-hatred with humor and a gregarious personality. When I went to therapy and realized just how much I hated myself, I decided in a heartbeat that things needed to change in my life. Although the decision was made in a heartbeat, the process took a lot longer, and will probably continue to evolve my entire life. Some things I did to start loving myself.

• 
  I accepted myself for who I am. No more trying to hide or pretend or be somebody I’m not. I just accepted myself.
• I found comfort in the “in-between”. I often don’t feel completely at home in any one culture or with any single identity. That used to bother me. But somewhere along the way, I found that I could be comfortable with a foot in more than one world. My home isn’t in any single world, but on the bridge between those worlds. I’m okay with that.
• I developed a much more real relationship with Heavenly Father. Now talk with Him, instead of just saying prayers in my head. Sometimes I get mad at Him. Sometimes I disobey Him like a petulant child. Sometimes I walk with Him and take His advice. Sometimes I choose to do things my own way. But I learn from the way He loves me, and I love myself that same way.
• I say “no”. In order to mask my own self-hatred, I became a colossal people pleaser. Wanting to make others happy isn’t a bad thing, but doing so at the expense of your own needs is toxic and self-destructive. I would amputate parts of myself just to please others, or in an attempt to get them to like me. Not anymore. Now I say “no” when I need to.
• I am kind to myself. I am working to be more careful in the language I use about myself, both verbally and in my head. I try to talk to myself like I would talk to a loved one. I don’t cut myself down, I don’t call myself names, and I don’t criticize myself.
• I practice self-care and self-love. I literally take time to go on dates with myself. This might include a warm bath, time at the gym, taking time to do hobbies such as geocaching, or clearing an evening so I can spend time with myself. This might be the simplest and most concrete thing on this list, but I found that in practice it was the hardest thing to actually do.

Loki and Sylvie are variants of the same person and they are not the same individual, but I still think there’s a lot to be learned from watching this symbolic depiction of loving yourself. And if along your journey of self-love, all you end up doing is loving alligators, then at least progress has been made.

Loki - Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey

Wow, that was a long six weeks. 

Bla bla bla spoilers bla bla bla....

Beating a Dead Six-Legged Horse

Thought experiment: What is Loki about? Meaning if you were to pitch it to someone to watch who hasn't seen the last decade of Marvel movies, how would you pitch it? My answer is that Loki is about Loki, a deep analysis of Loki's character, his motivations, his flaws, his strengths and every other aspect of the character analyzed in excruciating detail like a grad student who thought it would be fun to write his thesis paper on him and ran out of things to say about halfway through. 

In-depth character analysis can be done well, ala Joker,  but that's if the character is shown making the decisions that lead them to where they are. Loki instead features characters telling Loki who he is and why he does what he does, with Loki arguing with them trying to defend himself. This gives us less character exploration and more character explanation, which leads to audience exasperation. 

Pacing Pacing Pacing

Stories tend to have a flow, one which allows the consumer to follow the story to its natural conclusion. One thing that can hinder the flow of stories is by having a massive cliffhanger at the end of every. Single. Telling. Cliffhangers can be a fine thing to keep your audience's attention and have them come back, it's a formula that soap operas have perfected, but Disney already had the Loki audience with the title alone. They could've ended every episode with a Sonic the Hedgehog style PSA warning people about playing with fire and people were going to tune in next week. Instead we got an unsatisfying heavy cliffhanger that would hardly be satisfied in the next episode. For example: episode 4 ends with a promise that everything will be explained, but the next episode is spent running around the Land of Easter Eggs and answers nearly nothing. It wasn't until the final episode, when we're with manic Kang the Conqueror that we finally get some sort of resolution to what's been happening over the entire show. 

Loki's Worst Crime

They talk about all the horrible thing's Loki has done in his life, and would still do on the timeline, but for me his worst offense was just how boring the show ended up being. Long segments of exposition and taking up time to have characters quip endlessly back and forth made each episode feel padded. Coupled with the high fantasy/sci-fi/time travel and all the British accents and I feel like I watched a season of Doctor Who cut down to just the filler episodes. 

Lokis in the Rough

While I am not a fan of Marvel's latest streaming series, they're were a few highlights I wanted to mention that shone above the dross. 

Miss Minutes: Adorable. Voiced by one of my favorite voice actors Tara Strong. Especially in the last two episodes where she added an air of creepiness to the narrative. 

Classic Loki: Played by the talented  Richard E. Grant this Loki gave me what I wanted the series to give me: The consequences of Loki's actions. Sadly it was once again all through telling instead of showing but at least his telling was worth hearing. 

The Destruction of Lamentis 1: Call me a psychopath, but anytime I can watch an apocalyptic event unfold in basically slow motion I'm a happy guy. 

Alligator Loki: I WANT ONE!!!

-JOE