Early on in the third episode of the new Amazon Prime series, “Tales From The Loop,” Russ Willard (Jonathan Pryce) brings his young grandson Cole (Duncan Joiner) to an abandoned and rust, dilapidated sphere somewhere on the outskirts of the fictional town of Mersa, Ohio. Russ tells Cole to step up and yell inside it. Cole does as he’s told and hears “Hello” repeat six times in what sounds like six increasingly different voices. Russ tells him, “That voice is you as an old man. This place tells how long your life will be.” Cole then asks his grandfather to call into the sphere. Russ says “Hello” and there is no echo at all. And then there is a silence between them. These are the sort of moments that reverberate through the three impressive episodes of “Tales” that were provided to the press. And they are moments that will stick with you long after you’ve seen them on your screen.
WATCH: The trailer for Amazon Prime’s “Tales From The Loop”
Adapted from a book of paintings from Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, “Tales From The Loop” takes place in the late 1970s, early 1980s (an increasingly popular era for content creators) and is primarily set in a small town that has sprung up around an underground facility known as the Mersa Center for Experimental Physics or by locals as The Loop. Pretty much everyone in the area works for or is somehow connected to the facility which has been in existence for decades.
Signs of The Loop are found scattered around the suburban area. A tall, but kind-looking robot hides in the woods peeking at the humans paying it now mind. Russ’ typical ranch style home features a one-story sized metal sphere with giant tubes piped into his office. A tractor levitates a few feet above the ground even when broken. Call it an alternate history or an exploration of retrofuturism, but these provocative Sci-Fi elements are not the center of the stories series creator Nathaniel Halpern (“Legion”) is trying to tell. They are there to inform the narrative mostly, but not completely, centered on Willard’s extended family.
Halpern noted, in an interview that will run on The Playlist next week, that while each episode is standalone, there is an intentional timeline for the series. Front and center are Loretta (Rebecca Hall), Cole’s mother and Russ’ daughter-in-law as well as his colleague at the Loop. Her husband, George (Paul Schneider), has a robotic arm made of steel and wood. That’s not explained in the episodes previewed, but neither is his clearly strained relationship with his parents (his mother is played by Jane Alexander). Credited with writing the entire series, Halpern is more than happy to – like Stålenhag’s original artwork – provoke more questions than answers.
The best example of this creative direction is in the first episode. It begins in the early 1950s, where a younger Loretta (“Ant-Man’s” Abby Ryder Fortson), comes home from school one day to find the home she lives in with her mother has vanished. Moreover, she learns she’s somehow in the future (the show’s present-day timeline) where she meets Cole and, eventually, her future self. This is peak prestige Sci-Fi. The reasons how she gets there and if she gets home are less important as the lessons her two selves can teach one another.
What’s most impressive about “Tales,” however, is the imprint the individual directors brought on to helm each episode brings to the series. Mark Romanek, also an executive producer, sets the aesthetic in the first episode along with director of photography Jeff Cronenweth and production designer Philip Messina. It’s ’70s fetish chic, but as subtle as possible. Romanek’s aesthetic is so distinct you can almost imagine the series taking place in the same world as Ang Lee’s “The Ice Storm,” which is set in the same era. But when Andrew Stanton arrives to helm the fourth episode he brings his own recognizable eye. He’s got that Pixar spirit whether he’s working in animation or live-action. Charlie McDowell sticks closer to Romanek’s framing in the seventh installment, but even he can’t help with bringing another visual twist in a tale of two doppelganger characters who have much to teach one another (it should be noted that birds and duplicates seem to be two themes Halpern returns to throughout the season).
As with the best in prestige television, Halpern and his producing team, which includes executive producers Adam Kassan, Matt Reeves and Rafi Crohn, allow each episode to breathe. Phillip Glass (yes, that Phillip Glass) and Philip Leonard-Morgan’s collaborative and gorgeous score echoes throughout each episode. Nothing is rushed. There is tension without bombs, laser beams or fistfights. Lifelong television critics will wince at the description, but the creative collaborations are truly cinematic. And not only are there moments that will make you gasp but likely shed a tear as well (thank you, Mr. Stanton).
Halpern also owes a great deal of gratitude to actors such as Hall, Pryce, and Alexander – who are as stellar as you’d expect them to be – but also lesser-known cast members such as Ato Essandoh. The later is particularly captivating in a tale centered on a somewhat closeted gay man who discovers the object of his affection is already in a relationship with another version of himself in an alternate timeline. Would you betray yourself for a chance at true love? Halpern’s answer isn’t what you think it might be, but then again he’s wonderfully measured in the life lessons that pepper the series.
It should be easy for this critic to say that “Tales From The Loop” is one of the best narrative pieces of content we’ve watched this year, but Amazon Prime strangely only made three specific episodes available. A rare move for a streaming service that usually only holds content for review if it involves season-ending spoilers. But after watching the three episodes “The Loop,” “The Sphere” and “The Parallel” it’s hard to hide the fact we were blown away. Here’s hoping the remaining chapters live up to what we’ve seen so far. [A-]
“Tales From The Loop” debuts on Amazon Prime on April 3.
