Prime-Video - Tales from the Loop : A must see series

By Mulder, 03 april 2020

Tales from the Loop, a new series from Amazon Prime Video, is able to boast that it’s the first fictional series to tell a story through digital pictures. The artist of these pictures Simon Stalenhag and the book of the same are the inspiration for the series.

We are shown various scenes throughout the first episodes and the sci-fi theme is not lost on us. Giant robots and high tech skyscrapers are evident in the story. Nathaniel Halpern is in charge of creating and adapting the screen play that takes place in a town in Ohio, USA that’s built on top of a grand machine known colloquially and “The Loop”. The series in an anthology the episodes have protagonists and different histories but they all fall within the main story we are shown Rebecca Hall, Paul Schneider, Daniel Zolghardi, Jonathan Pryce, Duncan Joiner and many others.

The style of Tales from the Loop in anchored in a vintage 80’s style even though in reality we are only shown the small town in Ohio. A visually good mix of styles gives tranquility when it comes time to tell the stories.
Whoever is looking for a series that is heavy in science fiction and how it affects technology can start looking elsewhere. In actuality this is closer to a “Black Mirror” or two mention two series that it is not, “Westworld” and it’s not “Devs” and it doesn’t aim too. The science fiction serves as a way to push the personal drama of the show forward in each episodes protagonist. The Loop is a drama is every meaning of the word and an existentialist drama at that.

Tales from the Loop is unexpectedly conformist. We find ourselves with stories and worries of everyday people that just happen to live in a technologically advanced period of time. Everything is executed with calm, pauses as if we were watching hour long shows. Tales from the Loop just launched on Amazon Prime Videos and hopefully is able to find its stride and audience. Episodic anthologies struggle sometimes to live up to what the audience expects as there is no real sense of urgency to keep on coming back in order to tie all the stories together to see what happens next. If you are ok with how this show is portraying its stories then there is a lot of things to dig for in this new series.

Synopsis :
Inspired by the wondrous paintings of Simon Stålenhag, Tales from the Loop explores the mind-bending adventures of the people who live above the Loop, a machine built to unlock and explore the mysteries of the universe - making things previously relegated to science fiction, possible.

Tales from the Loop
Based on Tales from the Loop by Simon Stålenhag
Written and Developed by Nathaniel Halpern
Directed by Mark Romanek, So Yong Kim, Dearbhla Walsh, Andrew Stanton, Tim Mielants, Charlie McDowell, Ti West et Jodie Foster
Starring Rebecca Hall, Jonathan Pryce
Composers : Philip Glass, Paul Leonard-Morgan
Executive producers : Matt Reeves, Adam Kassan, Rafi Crohn, Nathaniel Halpern, Mark Romanek, Mattias Montero, Johan Lindström, Samantha Taylor Pickett
Running time : 50-57 mins
Production companies : 6th & Idaho, Indio, Amazon Studios, Fox 21 Television Studios
Original network : Amazon Video

Written by Felipe Acevedo