We can always tell when we’re witnessing something truly new. In this age where everything is a remix, original works stick out all the more. As it was with anyone who encountered the striking artwork of Simon Stålenhag in the early to mid 2010’s. Stålenhag’s paintings of pastoral scenes combined with otherworldly technology were like nothing else, captured in prints and a number of books, Tales from the Loop, Things from the Flood and The Electric State. Each somehow evokes the feel of a lost 80’s, while being utterly unique at the same time.
Amazon Prime Video’s adaptation captures a spirit of melancholy in much of Stålenhag’s work but doesn’t quite add enough to make it stand out as a TV show.
In the Blink of an Eye
Set in the town of Mercer, the 8 episode series takes place around the mysterious Mercer Center for Experimental Physics, the “Loop” of the title. Housing the inexplicable “Eclipse”, the Loop is where “the impossible is made possible” and if you expect more of an explanation than that, you aren’t going to get it. What you do get is eight episodes of sci-fi tinged sadness that capture the “feel” of Stålenhag’s work, and sometimes even more. The series bases some of its scenes directly on his paintings, but fails to build on it consistently.
The main purpose of “The Loop” seems to be the manufacture, and subsequent careless disposal of, exceedingly dangerous artefacts. Sad robots and bizarre spheres are strewn about the landscape just waiting for the towns inhabitants to blunder into, often with terrifying consequences.
The series gets off to a shaky start as the first few episodes all concentrate on well worn sci-fi tropes such as time loops, body swapping, and freezing time altogether. They may be wrapped up in a cool aesthetic, and focus more on the human impact these events have rather than any cool science, but it makes the show feel predictable.
An adult sees themselves, disparagingly though the eyes of their child self. A young couple tries to maintain the first blush of love by literally freezing time around them. A body swap, where one person doesn’t want to swap back. These scenarios don’t quite set the show apart from various similarly sci-fi slanted shows over the years. It all looks great though, even if the forlorn tone can be a bit disheartening.
Bad Things Happen – Not to Us, Not Anymore
Things change with Episode 4, however, as the sci-fi elements take a back seat to the story of a family coming to terms with the impending, unavoidable death of one of its members and the show improves immeasurably. The only sci-fi elements in this episode are a device that gives a rough indication of how long you will live, and the fact that despite a lifetime of work making the impossible possible at the Loop, nothing can stave off old age. It’s a fantastic episode of TV and while it might have needed the previous episodes to establish the world and it’s characters in order for it to work, I wonder how many people will turn off before making it this far.
For those who do, the next few episodes continue this pattern of minimising the fantastic, or just using a tiny element of it, to examine a particular person in greater detail, to far better effect. A man has to travel to a parallel Earth to realise what he’s missing is right under his nose. Another realises that he doesn’t need a remote controlled robot to protect his family. Some of these episodes contain striking moments of observation and honesty that hint at how good this show could be. Like a server at a funeral who asks a clearly adrift child to help her fill salt shakers. A wife subtly correcting her husbands posture at the dinner table. A family elder, in response to a child’s question about where do we go after we die, simply says: “In an urn”.
Great moments like these are spaced out between beautiful shots that capture the look of Stålenhag’s art but can feel cold due to its glacial pacing and icy characters.
I Don’t Really Want to Talk About It – Well Who the Hell Said I Did
Both Rebecca Hall and Paul Schneider give great performances throughout the series but, for the most part, they are playing distant, emotionally unavailable assholes. Jonathan Pryce, Jane Alexander, and Duncan Joiner (who carries the series) provide something of a counterbalance, and by the end of the series, some of this emotional distance plays into its overarching themes, but it’s hardly a “fun” time.
The tone stays in keeping with Stålenhag’s art throughout, but outside of that it’s not clear. Is it a horror? It certainly features horrific elements. Repeatedly, and to some of the same people, which can, again, be hard to watch.
Art House Eureka
As I watched Tales from the Loop I couldn’t help but think of SyFy Channel’s Eureka (or A Town Called Eureka in certain markets). That show too focused on a town built around an advanced scientific community that regularly redefined what was possible, but unlike Mercer, Eureka had Sheriff Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) around as the town dumb-dumb who would rein in the greater excesses of his egghead townsfolk and save them, the town, and sometimes the world from the fallout of their experiments and hubris.
Tales from the Loop feels like what happens when there’s no one to do that. It is an incredibly emotional watch, but the majority of the time that emotion is intense sadness. When it works, as in the hands of directors Andrew Stanton or Jodie Foster, it provides a very different kind of sci-fi show. When it doesn’t, however, it can feel a little tired.
Hopefully the scientists at Amazon can refine this formula to include more of that good stuff in future seasons. Should there be any.
Tales from the Loop
Amazon Prime Video, Season 1, 8 Episodes
Showrunner: Nathaniel Halpern
Writers: Simon Stålenhag and Nathaniel Halpern
Directors: Mark Romanek, So Yong Kim, Dearbhla Walsh, Andrew Stanton, Tim Mielants, Charlie McDowell, Ti West, and Jodie Foster
Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Paul Schneider, Rebecca Hall, Duncan Joiner, Daniel Zolghadri, Ato Essandoh, Nicole Law, Jane Alexander, Dan Bakkedahl, and Lauren Weedman
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