Every episode so far has dealt with portentous topics – how the world was saved, how it was lost and who died to make it so. In each case the stakes have been about as high as they could be. Even Thanos and Star-Lord in Episode 2 traded in might have beens which felt weighty.

Episode 7 is like the charming but naughty kid at the back of class, refusing to listen, feet up on the desk, chewing gum and looking at their phone – rather like the Thor Odinson imagined within its bounds.

Because what we have here is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off via 10 Things I Hate About You in a meet cute with Clueless. It is both weightless while also managing, somehow, to give us something none of the other episodes has managed – a small, character driven sitcom in which outward looking relationships make the difference.

Now, this might not be for you. Thor here is a spoiled brat, a frat boy who has no idea other people are actually real and who is used to just doing whatever he wants in search of fun. It doesn’t delve into why people can be like that (apart from a very brief explanation early in the episode that’s spoken over the action rather than shown). It doesn’t explore the kind of neglect and homogenous affluence which produces people whose emotions have never matured in a way which allows them to become part of wider society.

Nor does it really look at the consequences of arriving at adulthood so emotionally underdeveloped.

This is not Ken Loach or Stephen Frears.

Yet nor is it Judd Apatow, casually throwing everything at the wall and hoping some of it sticks.

It’s frivolous but careful with it – Thor is a himbo without righteousness. He hasn’t learned the lessons we see his counterpart learn in the MCU and it’s posited as the fault of not having Loki to contend with. It’s an interesting idea which isn’t explored either, even if Loki’s appearance in this episode is fantastic.

If that sounds like I didn’t like the episode that’s not what I mean.

I did. After an uneven start it made me laugh several times. The real star of the show though is Captain Marvel who gets to be glorious, snarky, irritated and just all round done with Thor’s shenanigans. I certainly sympathised with her and I suspect many other people will have been in her shoes too often to count.

There’s really not that much more to it – the story could only have happened to Thor, or perhaps Tony Stark (there are a lot of potential man babies in the MCU aren’t there…?). It’s fun, full of delightful little moments (such as when someone particularly special calls Thor a loser) and inconsequential. Yet it’s insubstantiality shouldn’t trick you into thinking it’s bad. It’s fine swimming out in the depths, but everyone needs to come back to shore sometimes and this episode brings us all the way in, greets us with a towel and a pina colada before reminding us there’s a disco starting at 10pm.

In other words, it knows what it is and has a lot of fun being it.

Rating? 7 warning punches out of 10.

Stewart Hotston