The Atypical "Tales From the Loop"

Trying to describe "Tales From the Loop," the new science-fiction series from Amazon Prime, it's easy to draw comparisons to other genre media. The core concepts are familiar - mysterious devices allow people to travel through time, body-swap, create artificial life forms, etc. However, we rarely see these stories told quite like this. Instead of action spectacle or queasy horror, "Tale From the Loop" uses its concepts for meditative humanist melodrama. It's slow paced and introspective to the point where many viewers will find it tedious - "The Twilight Zone" by way of "The Leftovers." However, it captures a certain mood of melancholy and wonder that is very rare to see in current sci-fi. I found myself drawing connections to the more contemplative episodes of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine."

Created and written by Nathaniel Halpern, and based on the books and paintings of Simon Stålenhag, "Tales From the Loop" takes place in the town of Mercer, Ohio, some time in the early '80s. It's an alternate universe, where we see robots and massive, ominous infrastructure all over the landscape, often standing in stark contrast to the scenes of nostalgic, small town American life. The show is set up in an anthology format of interconnected stories. Many of them center around the Willard family. Paterfamilias Russ (Jonathan Pryce) is the creator of the Loop, an underground facility responsible for all the technical wonders we see throughout the show. His son George (Paul Schneider) and George's wife Loretta (Rebecca Hall) are both employed there, and it's expected their teenage son Jakob (Daniel Zohlgadri) and younger son Cole (Duncan Joiner) will follow in their footsteps. We also spend some time with Jakob's friend Danny Jansson (Tyler Barnhardt) and his family - father Ed (Dan Bakkedahl), mother Kate (Lauren Weedman), and younger sister Beth (Alessandra de Sa Pereira). Other key characters include a security guard, Gaddis (Ato Essandoh), and a girl named May (Nicole Law) who is good with machines.

What initially got me interested in the show was it's roster of accomplished directors - including Mark Romanek, Jodie Foster, Andrew Stanton, Ti West, Charlie McDowell, and So Yong Kim. It also features a delicate, moody score from Philip Glass and Paul Leonard-Morgan, helping to sustain the show's very particular, quiet atmosphere. "Tales From the Loop" is not always quiet, with some of its stories involving wilderness survival, robot battles, and misadventures in home security. However, the pacing here is much slower than the average genre show, and much more intensely focused in the characters' emotional lives. The purpose and function of the Loop isn't the point of the show - in fact, nobody ever really talks about what goes on there. Most of the stories involve characters accidentally coming across pieces of tech detritus or abandoned projects that somehow still retain certain reality-bending properties. The origins are never explained. It's what the characters decide to do with these phenomena, or how they are affected by them, that the show's creators are interested in.

So, encountering a canister that freezes time helps illuminate the faults of a girl who embarks on a bittersweet romance. And the episode where a grieving technician buys a towering mecha is really about the man's paranoia and feelings of loss of control. The metaphors and allegories aren't subtle, and sometimes the style is laid on awfully thick, but I like the show's commitment to telling these very human, very existential stories. And while the show wants viewers to think and engage with the material, it mostly wants them to feel and empathize with the protagonists - their loneliness, guilt, regret, and yearning. I found the most affecting stories are the ones where the fantastical elements simply create a profound change, and then the characters are left to grapple with consequences as best they can.

"Tales From the Loop" is a gorgeous series, and often feels like it's pushing back against the visual status quo of years of cyberpunk and dystopian futures. The community is very Small Town, surrounded by woods and nature and plenty of open spaces. All the tech we see, even the impossible stuff, tends to look very clunky, industrial, and retro-futurist. I was struck by '80s anime influences in the design more than once. It's a beautiful show, with high production values and a lot of thoughtful cinematography. The performances are mostly good, though there are some weaker actors among the kids. The writing, however, is consistently impressive. The worldbuilding is slow, but methodical, and does a good job of knowing how much information to relay, and what viewers can puzzle out by themselves.

This is not a show for everyone, but I appreciate its novelty and its ambitions. It's a show about reflection rather than action, and for those who connect with it, it'll be a difficult one to forget.

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