This
little Middle American community is a company town, but that plant where
everyone works is an underground laboratory for cutting edge physics
experiments known as “The Loop.” At its core is a huge Macguffin called “The
Eclipse.” Think of it as three parts super-collider and one-part Obelisk from 2001.
The Eclipse seems to make strange things happen for those whose lives revolve
around—or maybe they just happen on their own in writer-creator Nathaniel
Halpern’s sort-of science fiction sort-of anthology series, Tales from the
Loop, which premieres Thursday on Amazon Prime.
Perhaps
it is fitting Amazon supplied the press with non-sequential episodes,
considering Tales addresses subjects like time-loops and alternate
realities. Episodes 101: “Loop” and Episode 104: “Echo Sphere” pair up well together,
because they closely follow the domestic dramas of the Willard, whereas Episode
106: “Parallel” could very well be the best of the series. Think of it as Somewhere
in Time with more overt science fiction elements.
In
contrast, the fantastical is decidedly dialed down in “Echo” and possibly
intended as a matter for interpretation in “Loop,” despite the depressed
looking robot constantly trudging across the background. The series starts with
a suitably cryptic introduction from Russ Willard, the founder and director of
the Loop. We then meet a little girl whose emotional disturbed mother works as
a researcher at the Loop. She befriends Willard’s grandson, Cole, after her
mother and all traces of the woman’s existence disappear after conducting an
off-the-books experiment using a stolen fragment of the Eclipse. However, the
well-meaning Cole has a hard time finding an adult who will bother to listen to
them.
“Echo”
is definitely the least genre of the episodes up for review, but it is
definitely a showcase for Jonathan Pryce, portraying Russ Willard. It still
features the same eerie retro-futuristic, post-industrial, alternate 1980s
landscapes that distinguished Simon Stalenhag’s original conceptual art books,
particularly the rusted out Echo Sphere itself. Supposedly, the number of times
your voice echoes inside foretells the length of your life, so if it doesn’t
echo at all, you can guess what that means.
Instead
of the Willards, “Parallel” focuses Gaddis, the lonely and lonely-hearted
security guard posted in a small booth outside the entrance to the Loop. He
happens to find a tractor abandoned in the field behind the bungalow where he
lives, which is interesting to us, because it appears to levitate like the
landspeeders in Star Wars. However, it is interesting to Gaddis because
he finds a picture of a man inside that becomes the focus of his romantic
fantasies, much like Dana Andrews in Laura. When he finally fixes the
tractor and fires it up, it returns through the wormhole it came through, where
he finds his alternate, more sociable self is engaged in a relationship with
the man in the picture.
Ato
Essandoh is terrific as Gaddis and also as Alternate Gaddis, clearly differentiating
the two, in very human ways. He really makes us feel for the poor original
Gaddis, but he makes Other Gaddis so likable and reasonable, it makes the
prospect of a love triangle dashed awkward for viewers. Yet, Halpern resolves
the story in an altogether fitting and graceful way. Helmed with a sensitive
touch by Charlie McDowell (The One That I Love), “Parallel” represents
some of the best romantic genre work on-screen since Su Lun’s How Long Will I Love U.
Frankly,
it is hard to say how well Tales from the Loop hangs together as a
series, since reviewers only had a look at three non-continuous installments,
but it certainly is an ambitious program. Even if you are unsure whether such
moody existential sf is for you, “Parallel” is totally worth cherry-picking.
Based on what we have seen, it is promising, with at least one gem to its
credit. Recommended for grown-up genre fans, Tales from the Loop starts
streaming this Thursday (4/2) on Amazon Prime.
