--- title: "Loki" year: 2021 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/loki" fi1m_id: "loki" imdb_id: "tt9140554" tmdb_id: 84958 wikidata_id: "Q64349029" fi1m_score: 71 critics_score: 68 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-22T21:36:26.744057+00:00" updated: "2026-09-22T21:36:46.209235+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Loki (2021) Created by Michael Waldron · MPA TV-14 · Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy ## Identity Loki - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/loki - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** loki - **IMDb ID:** tt9140554 - **TMDB ID:** 84958 - **Wikidata ID:** Q64349029 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9140554/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/84958, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q64349029 **Fi1m score: 71** · Critics 68 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* Owen Wilson explains the end of time in the voice of a man selling you a jetski > Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson make a proper double act in a time-police office designed like a 1970s tax department. The show explains its rules in nearly every episode, and by the second season the explaining has taken over. ## Synopsis New York, 2012, in the moments after the Avengers lose track of the Tesseract: Loki (Tom Hiddleston) uses it to escape and lands in the Gobi Desert, where he is arrested by soldiers of the Time Variance Authority under Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku). The TVA is an office that enforces the one approved history and destroys any timeline that strays from it, and Loki, by escaping, has strayed. Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is ready to erase him when an analyst, Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson), asks for him instead: a Variant of Loki is killing TVA hunters across the centuries, and Mobius wants a Loki to help catch one. A cartoon clock, Miss Minutes (Tara Strong), explains the rules. Loki wants the throne he has never had; the TVA wants him in a shirt and tie. ## Review Michael Waldron’s series picks Loki up at the moment he slipped away with the Tesseract in [*Avengers: Endgame*](https://film.one/film/avengers-endgame) (2019), drops him in the Gobi Desert and has him arrested within minutes by the Time Variance Authority, a department that prunes any history it has not approved. The idea is to take the franchise’s best villain, remove his powers, his brother and his audience, and see what is left. What is left, for most of twelve episodes, is Tom Hiddleston talking to Owen Wilson. That is the good news, and it is enough to carry a season. Wilson plays Mobius M. Mobius, the analyst who wants Loki’s help catching a Variant, as a middle manager who has read the whole file and is not impressed by any of it. He interrogates the way other men talk about golf. Hiddleston, ten years into the part, plays the vanity as a nervous habit rather than a pose, and the scene in the first episode in which Mobius sits him down and shows him the rest of his own life on a projector moved us more than we expected a Marvel series to manage. It is one man watching a film about himself and forgetting his lines. Hiddleston does most of it with his mouth, which keeps starting sentences and giving up. Kasra Farahani builds the TVA as a government office from about 1975: brown carpet, orange partitions, pneumatic tubes, a filing clerk (Eugene Cordero) who has never heard of a fish. Autumn Durald lights it in a warm amber that makes the place look cosy and slightly unwell at the same time. Tara Strong voices Miss Minutes, an animated orange clock who explains the Sacred Timeline with the good cheer of a public information film. Christine Wada puts Loki in a TVA-issue shirt and tie with VARIANT stamped across the back, which is the whole series in one costume. Natalie Holt’s score sets a wobbling electronic wail over the brass, so that even the office corridors sound haunted. The trouble is the trouble everyone has noticed. Nearly every episode stops so that somebody can explain how time works this week: Miss Minutes, then Mobius, then Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the judge who wants Loki erased, then in the second run Ke Huy Quan’s OB, a repairman in the basement whose job is to describe the machine the season depends on. Quan is a pleasure and the machine is not. Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie, the Variant Loki is sent to catch, is the one person with no patience for anybody’s rules, and Di Martino gives her a flat, tired anger that suits the part; the writing gives her less to do each week than it gives Hiddleston. Wunmi Mosaku’s Hunter B-15 gets a change of heart the show handles better than most of its plotting. The first season, directed throughout by Kate Herron, moves, and its middle stretch takes the pair to a doomed moon lit in purple where they have nothing to do but talk, which turns out to be what the show is for. The second, with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead directing most of it, is people running down corridors towards a gauge while the needle climbs. Around the fourth episode we were bored, and then cross about being bored, because the office was still lovely and the people in it were still worth an hour. Calum Ross, Emma McCleave and Paul Zucker cut the cross-timeline chases cleanly enough that we always knew where we were; the problem is that where we were was another room with a countdown in it. Loki was always best when someone declined to take him seriously, and Wilson declines more entertainingly than anyone since Loki’s brother. Whenever the series remembers that, it is the most likeable thing Marvel has made for television. Whenever it forgets, it is a lecture with good lighting. Watch the first six. Watch the second six if you need to know how it comes out, and feel free to make tea whenever anyone points at a machine. It carries a 12 certificate and each run is six episodes. *Fi1m score 71, published 22 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Loki, and nearly all of them like it for the same reason: the pairing of Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson. The sparring between the god of mischief and his patient handler at the Time Variance Authority is the one thing every review, warm or cold, points to as the source of the fun. Beyond that the praise settles on the world-building, with the TVA’s bureaucratic absurdity called fresh and lived-in, and several reviews rank it above Marvel’s earlier television series. The reservations are about pace and talk. Even admirers concede the opening episodes carry a heavy load of exposition, and the sceptics find them static, with too much rule-setting and too little of the character’s mischief. The spread is wide. The Telegraph argues the time-cop premise strips Loki of what made him enjoyable; The i Paper finds the premiere limp and short on ambition; The Guardian calls the setup flat while still enjoying the double act. ## Straight answers **Is Loki worth watching?** *Loki* is worth watching for the double act of Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson, and we scored it 71. The first six episodes move and the TVA office, built like a 1975 tax department, is a pleasure to sit in. The second run spends too much of its time explaining machines, so we would say watch the first season and treat the second as optional. **How long is Loki, and what is it rated?** *Loki* is rated TV-14 by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and sci-fi & fantasy series. **Where can I watch Loki in the US?** *Loki* is streaming on Disney+ in the US. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Loki, and is it suitable for children?** *Loki* carries a UK 12 certificate, so it is fine for most children of secondary-school age and older. The threat is mostly bureaucratic, a time-police office that erases people rather than shoots them, and Natalie Holt's score makes the corridors sound haunted without anything on screen being gruesome. Younger children may be bored by the talk about timelines before they are frightened by anything. **How does Loki compare to Brazil?** *Loki* borrows its office furniture from [*Brazil*](https://film.one/film/brazil), whose ducts-and-forms dystopia is plainly where the TVA came from, but it is a much gentler series. Gilliam's film is funnier, more frightening and harder to shake, though its storytelling loses shape; Loki is warmer company and easier to watch for twelve hours. Choose *Brazil* if you want the cruelty to land, *Loki* if you want to enjoy the corridors. **What should I watch after Loki?** After *Loki*, try [*Brazil*](https://film.one/film/brazil) (1985, Fi1m 83): Gilliam’s ducts-and-forms dystopia is where the TVA’s office furniture came from. Then [*Thor: Ragnarok*](https://film.one/film/thor-ragnarok) (2017, Fi1m 74): Loki at his most enjoyable, sharing scenes with people who refuse to be impressed. ### Reviews we read (12) - **Empire**, Helen O’Hara (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the entertaining odd-couple dynamic between Loki and Mobius and calls the series Marvel’s most purely entertaining show yet. It gives depth to the central character while retaining his essential mischief and flightiness. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/loki/) - **Radio Times**, Huw Fullerton (4/5): The critic calls it the best Marvel Disney+ series yet, praising its confident swagger, strong performances, world-building and the fresh TVA setting that allows Loki to shine. Minor quibbles about time-travel rules and accents are outweighed by the fun and character depth. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/loki-disney-plus-review/) - **Vulture** (80/100, inferred): The series is a fun, playful entry in the MCU TV lineup that leans into the inventive spirit of WandaVision rather than the slog of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It stands out for its bureaucratic time-cop premise and Owen Wilson's grounded, charismatic performance as a TVA agent. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/loki-premiere-review-disney-mcu-tom-hiddleston-series.html) - **The Times**, Ed Potton (★★★☆☆): The critic calls the premiere a slow-burner that still shows promise and feels closer to the inventive WandaVision than more pedestrian MCU spin-offs. They single out the light tone and the effective interplay between Hiddleston and Owen Wilson as highlights. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/loki-review-a-slow-but-promising-start-tbz20gdtt) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (70/100, inferred): The critic enjoys the charming buddy-comedy chemistry between Hiddleston and Wilson but notes the heavy exposition and questions whether the series will deliver enough traditional superhero thrills or remain talk-heavy. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/loki-1234963891/) - **Variety**, Caroline Framke (60/100, inferred): The critic notes that the series sticks to Marvel basics with heavy exposition in the pilot but finds the second episode more engaging and highlights the chemistry between Hiddleston and Wilson. It questions whether the show can carve out its own identity beyond franchise needs. [Read](https://variety.com/2021/tv/reviews/loki-review-marvel-tom-hiddleston-disney-plus-1234990533/) - **The Guardian** (55/100, inferred): The critic finds the first two episodes flat and overly reliant on exposition and static setup. They single out the strong on-screen chemistry and playful dialogue between Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson as the main source of enjoyment. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jun/09/loki-review-time-hopping-with-a-tedious-tom-hiddleston) - **The Telegraph** (40/100, inferred): The critic argues that the series strips away Loki's signature mischief by turning him into a time cop and burying the fun under heavy exposition and safe plotting. They single out the promising but underused sparring between Hiddleston and Owen Wilson as one bright spot. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2021/06/08/loki-episodes-1-2-reviewmarvels-latest-tv-spin-off-missing-mischief/) - **The i Paper**, Emily Baker (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the first episode disappointing and limp despite strong chemistry between Hiddleston and Wilson. The introduction of timeline rules feels overly knotty and the episode lacks Marvel-style ambition or action. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/loki-disney-review-a-limp-opening-for-one-of-marvels-most-ambitious-characters-1042739) - **/Film**, Ethan Anderton (91/100, inferred): The series gives the villain a brilliant second life as a complex, peculiar, sharp, and wryly hilarious time-traveling mystery that is nothing short of spectacular. It stands out for its confident world-building of the Time Variance Authority, sharp dialogue, strong performances from Hiddleston and Wilson, and direction by Kate Herron that blends multiple stylistic influences. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/581530/loki-review/) - **Collider**, Liz Shannon Miller (A-): The show proves a great villain is always the hero of his own weird, wild, wonderful story, delivering weird, wild, funny, and emotional entertainment with philosophical depth. It excels in crafting a visually rich and lived-in TVA world, with standout performances from Hiddleston and especially Wilson, and a fresh take on time travel and character redemption. [Read](https://collider.com/loki-review-disney-plus-tom-hiddleston/) - **Den of Geek**, Kirsten Howard (4/5): The premiere exceeds expectations with Tom Hiddleston's strong performance and an ambitious, detailed world built around the Time Variance Authority's bureaucratic absurdity. The show benefits from sharp direction, scoring, and the chemistry between Hiddleston and Owen Wilson. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/loki-episode-1-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Michael Waldron - **Creator:** Michael Waldron - **Director:** Kate Herron, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Kasra Farahani, Dan DeLeeuw - **Writer:** Eric Martin, Michael Waldron, Katharyn Blair, Bisha K. Ali, Elissa Karasik, Tom Kauffman - **Story:** Eric Martin - **Teleplay:** Eric Martin, Kasra Farahani, Jason O'Leary - **Cinematography:** Autumn Durald, Isaac Bauman, Oliver Loncraine - **Editor:** Paul Zucker, Calum Ross, Emma McCleave - **Music:** Natalie Holt - **Production design:** Kasra Farahani - **Costume design:** Christine Wada - **Producer:** Tommy Turtle, Rachel Alter - **Cast:** Tom Hiddleston as Loki Laufeyson; Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie / The Variant; Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15; Eugene Cordero as Casey / Hunter K-5E; Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ravonna Renslayer; Tara Strong as Miss Minutes (voice); Ke Huy Quan as Ouroboros 'OB'; Owen Wilson as Mobius M. Mobius - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-14 - **Release (the US):** 9 June 2021 - **Genres:** Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW948Va-l10 ## Where to watch in the US - Disney+: streaming, uhd *Checked 2026-09-22.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Brazil* (1985), Fi1m 83: Gilliam’s ducts-and-forms dystopia is where the TVA’s office furniture came from — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/brazil.md) - *Legion* (2017): A comic-book series that treats its hero’s mind as the set and redecorates weekly - *Russian Doll* (2019): Time misbehaves, a sardonic lead objects, and the jokes arrive before the metaphysics - *La Jetée* (1962): Twenty-eight minutes of still photographs that do more with time than most seasons - *Thor: Ragnarok* (2017), Fi1m 74: Loki at his most enjoyable, sharing scenes with people who refuse to be impressed — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/thor-ragnarok.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/loki