Tales From The Loop

[John (Nevets)]

I believe when this got announced someone had a quick burns post about it, so it's been on my radar for a while. And then last week I saw some review headlines that reminded me about it. I was looking forward to it, based on some of Simon Stålenhag art I've seen over the years. I figured if nothing else, at least it would have a cool aesthetic. But I was completely shocked by how good this first episode was. I haven't watched past this first one, so my hope is that the rest is just as good.

To me this is the type of science fiction that I love. It was just really good story telling. I started watching it, and I just couldn't take my eyes off of the screen. While the story is completely different, in a lot of ways it reminded me of that feeling I got the first time I saw "Contact". I just was fully absorbed in it. But, I could also see it not getting a huge pop following, it is a bit slow paced, and a lot of the story telling is done through the visuals, not the dialogue. It also isn't much of an action piece, just more of a straight drama. The story itself is a bit more old school sci-fi, it has a very Philip K. Dick feel to it. It fit me great.

The creators are interesting. The main writer's other big thing was writing a bunch of "Legion". A show I had heard good things about, but have not watched more then the first episode. And apparently the director for this episode had mostly just done a bunch of music videos, but he did a great job with this.

I'm not a binger, so I'm going watch this slowly, and savor every bite of it.

[Seth]

Thanks for pointing this out. For some reason I thought it was still in development instead of already here. I love Stalenhag's art books. I was a kid in the 80s which Stalenhag enhances with robots and all sorts of other crazy technology. I'll be watching this tonight.

[Kev]

I just started watching this today.
I enjoyed the first one. The second was kind of meh but had an intriguing ending. Only about a third of the way through the third episode.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

I hope they're better that the re-booted "Amazing Stories" by Steven Spielberg on Apple TV+ :-?

"Mediocre Stories" more like it ;-)

[Nils]

Having seen the first Story, the visuals are surely striking. The story was nice - is this an anthology? Or will there be an overarching plotline?

[Kenley]

Based on two episodes of Amazing Stories and one of The Loop, I’m gonna say the latter is much better. Looking forward to digging into it more.

[John (Nevets)]

Nils wrote: "Having seen the first Story, the visuals are surely striking. The story was nice - is this an anthology? Or will there be an overarching plotline?"

I've only watched two episodes and read a few reviews, so this is not definitive, but it seems much more an anthology. Probably all set in the same small town, and thus using some of the same charcters. So it looks like the world building, and possibly themes, are overarching, but the plots themselves are more contained.

I want to say other series have used this same device, but off the top of my head, I cant think of the names. Eureka!, Erie, Indiana, and others did sort of a similar thing, but they all used the same lead characters. "Sin City", and "Four Rooms" did similar things as movies. Although I've never listened, I think I've heard the podcast "Welcome to Night Vale" may be similar.

[Nils]

After the second Episode I am rather sure you are right. As others (and my wife) have called it, it seems to be Black Mirror Lite.
Not something I will binge, but that may be a plus (there is other stuff to follow). And I do dig the atmosphere.
Seeing that robot from now on will be sad, though… The consequences of Episode 2 seem rather horrific, thinking more About it.

[Seth]

Nils wrote: "Seeing that robot from now on will be sad, though…..."

Yeah, absolutely. Ohio was a pretty astute choice (though I don't see why they needed to move it to the US from Sweden). There are plenty of parts of that state (and adjacent ones across the rust belt) that have really appropriate vibes of decay.

As appropriate as it is to the books, after three episodes I feel like I can't binge it because it's pervaded by melancholy. I have to switch over to something happy or ridiculous to balance things out.

[John (Nevets)]

I just finished episode 4, and that hit close to home. I was born in '77, so would have been about Cole's age at about the period of time this appears to be set in. And had to deal with a similar situation. It brought back a lot of memories.

The following is a bit of a spoiler, but more about how my past relates to the story. (view spoiler)[My dad died of cancer in 1984 when I was 7, after he had fought it for at least a year. Just like for Cole, some of the stages of grief actually happened before he actually passed. I think the writing of this was very true to how it worked for me, and not something that I find is told well often. Even the scene at the memorial was similar to how I remembered. Down to one point at the post funeral meal, I went for a walk, and ended up at the grave site, and talked to the grave digger as they back filled the hole. Very similar to Cole's discussion with the waitress. (hide spoiler)]

The storytelling has been excellent throughout, with the first episode being an absolute standout to me so far, but this was a close second. Like the tone of the show it self, I both look forward to watching it, and feel a bit said there are so few episodes left. But I guess the only thing to do, is to keep slowly moving through them.

[Kev]

I just finished eps 4 and 5. Four was good, but it's one of those episodes where nothing really happens.

I agree, the first episode so far has been the best.

Someone else commented, either here or elsewhere, that it's a good show but you can only take so much melancholy in one sitting.

[John (Nevets)]

I just finished up the series tonight. I thought it was great. Some of the episodes are better then others, but the series as a whole was really good. For the most part I think my 2nd paragraph from the 1st post here about the 1st episode, holds up for the whole series.

And the last episode had a connection I didn't even know about until the credits. I mentioned how it made me feel like the first time I watched "Contact". Funny enough, Jodi Foster directed this last episode. And she did a great job. She brought out a lot of great acting in these charcters. And like the rest of the series it was beautifully shot.

This isn't the sort of series I'm going to want to watch again soon, but I hope it's still around when I do want to watch it again sometime. It wasn't what I was expecting, but I'm so glad I watched it.

[Kev]

Where in Ohio, apart from Lake Erie, is there a huge lake like that with a large enough island someone could live on?

That town would suck to live in if stuff like this happens to all the residents (or even most of them)...

I enjoyed most of this series, even though it's quite melancholy.

@John (Nevets) what was the connection you didn't know until the credits?

[Trike]

Kev wrote: "Where in Ohio, apart from Lake Erie, is there a huge lake like that with a large enough island someone could live on?

That town would suck to live in if stuff like this happens to all the resident..."

I haven’t seen the show yet. Is there a whole town on the lake island? If it’s a wee little town of a hundred people, you could fit it in Grand Lake St. Mary or Indian Lake, which are both near my hometown of Dayton.

But a real functioning town of a couple thousand people? Nowhere that I know of, unless there’s a big reservoir somewhere.

[John (Nevets)]

Sorry, I guess I needed to phrase that paragraph better. What I meant was there was a connection between the movie "Contact" and the last episode, and it was the actress Jodie Foster. She was the lead actress in the movie, and the director of the last episode. I just found it a fun coincidence that I had mentioned the movie earlier, after only having watched the first episode, and with out knowing the connection until I saw her name listed in the credits as I watched the last episode.

I'm probably the only person out there that reacted the same way to seeing these for the first time, but with both, I felt compelled to stop the other thing I was doing, and just watch them. For Contact I was working on some homework in college, while playing movies on the local campus station, and for the first episode of this I was playing around on my laptop while I put this on, and just needed to close it and watch. That's not a reaction I have to many things I see on the small screen, so I took note of it.

[Kev]

John wrote: "What I meant was there was a connection between the movie "Contact" and the last episode..."

Oh I see.

Trike wrote:"Is there a whole town on the lake island?"

No, the Island wasn't "city" big, and it was undeveloped/all forest, but it was in a lake where you couldn't see land on the other side. I didn't think Ohio had lakes that big, other the Erie.

[Colin]

Late to the party, as we often are, my wife and I have been watching this over the last week. Really enjoying it and hope that they decide to make more.

The overall tone is a little downbeat, I suppose, but it's really good storytelling.

[John (Nevets)]

100% agree Colin. Unfortunately I haven't heard of any more being made. I'm not sure how well it did for Amazon, and with the craziness of the last year, I can't say that is a huge surprise.

But thank you for reminding me of this. It's been almost a year since I watched it, so I might give a couple of my favorite episodes a go again. Like the first one.