Loki

Online explainers will surely lay out the logistics in exhaustive detail, but they can’t create the sense of emotional urgency the season palpably lacks. At least there are the performances, delivered by an ensemble within the MCU’s mega-ensemble that remains one of its best.

The four new episodes sent to critics have only a little of the esoteric oddness that so frequently made the first season a blast. The plot is so convoluted that the sense of fun rarely breaks through, but thanks to the sterling cast and some of the best production design on TV, there’s almost always something to hold your attention — if not to trigger any emotional investment.

Its convolutions overwhelming its charming personalities and freewheeling spirit of paradox-laden adventure, it’s another indication that the once-mighty franchise has lost its direction.

“Loki” looks grand and ups the ambitious scale factor by a large degree. But as penned by head writer Eric Martin (who seems to have taken over for Michael Waldron, having graduated to writing ‘Avengers’ level events), the narrative leaves much to be desired.

Loki Season One was able to move nimbly despite being tethered to so much of the larger MCU. Season Two, though, frequently feels so sluggish that it may as well be locked into one of those puffy suits.

Those expecting a new multiversally manic season of Loki should temper their expectations; the absence of director Kate Herron has seemingly removed the series’ wily sense of anything-goes possibility, effectively turning Season 2 – and, shockingly, Loki himself – into an obedient, uninteresting cog in the MCU’s increasingly unwieldy mega-structure.

It’s with great regret and zero surprise that I can report “Loki” Season 2 does not evolve, does not bring its best parts to the forefront, and does not escape the stagnant familiarity hindering Marvel’s uninspiring spate of recent projects. It’s more of the same. And it knows it.

Loki season two is nowhere near as dreadful [as Secret Invasion]. Instead, it is merely dreary and hollowed-out.