Tales from the Loop: Both Original and Stupid

This series is reminiscent of Twin Peaks in that it can be viewed differently if you understand everything is intentional, especially what you don’t like. I can easily see it being revered by a small group of pretentious film majors and detested by everyone else. Neither party would be entirely wrong. There are elements of genius mixed in with elements of stupidity, and the end result is a weird mesh. Let me explain.

The show is beautiful visually; the style, retrofuturism, takes a lot from the book of art it’s based off of, and many shots are taken directly from its pages. Retrofuturism is a blend of depictions of the future and  depictions of the mid-20th century, from the 1940s to the 1970s. Here, it’s used exquisitely, with everything from the sets to the costumes being phenomenal. The series might work better, or just as well, if it were silent and played on a projector in a museum, presented as an art piece. There are parts where I paused to fully experience the sad beauty of the setting. In it, there’s a lot of emptiness and silence. There are these magnificent, huge structures sitting idly while nothing around them moves. There’s a beautiful sadness to it all.

The writing, unfortunately, isn’t as wonderful as the visuals. Partially due to the acting, the lines were empty of substance. It was hard to differentiate between the characters as a result, as all of them were variations of distant and cold. Again, everything was intentional; it was clear emptiness was a huge motif throughout the series, and the creators wanted to show it through the characters. But, as a result, they weren’t likable. I was waiting for the moments where you would see emotion, or vulnerability, in them. While these moments did occur, they were far and few in between. There were episodes that did have a perfect amount: “Parallel”, “Control”, and “Transpose”. If you were to view these episodes on their own, you’d think there’s a degree of excellence in the storytelling. The five other episodes didn’t have these moments, or enough of these moments.

Another poor, but intentional, aspect of the series, and this is a mild spoiler, so if you don’t want spoilers, skip to the next paragraph, was its mysteriousness. We never get the “aha” moment, where everything becomes revealed to us. We get this mysterious organization that produces these mysterious devices, yet we never know why. We get these characters who mess with time and space, but we don’t see the end result of the environment. This, while impactful in some episodes, is irritating in others. With the mysteriousness, I wanted more in order for me to be satisfied, knowing just enough information for me to be both enticed and confused. In Twin Peaks, things didn’t make sense, but little by little details were revealed, which left you interested in the main plot. In many episodes, Tales from the Loop answers nothing, leaving you uninterested.

There are plenty of moments where you question why characters are doing what they’re doing. For example, in the second episode, we’re introduced to teenage boys Danny and Jakob. This is a spoiler so if you don’t want spoilers skip to “This is one example…”. These two find a machine in the woods that allows them to switch bodies. They both sleep with women in the other’s bodies, which is rape as they don’t disclose who they really are. Also, Danny, in Jakob’s body, sleeps with Jakob’s crush for no reason. He hadn’t displayed interest in her previously, and he wasn’t doing Jakob a favor as he had no intention to switch back with him. This is one example of the many times where something unrealistic happens.

Like many shows direct-to-streaming, the episodes are each a full hour long. Also like many shows direct-to-streaming, the hour long format forced the creators to add unnecessary shots to fill time. There were scenes where characters are doing basic tasks: walking around,  playing guitar, or taking photographs. Again, this was intentional, as the silence with the lack of dialogue adds to the loneliness that is a motif. But, it’s boring, and doesn’t add anything to the plot or character development.

The acting, as mentioned before, fluctuates. There are good actors, particularly Rebbecca Hall (Loretta), Tyler Barnhardt (Danny), and Ato Essandoh (Gaddis). Other than those examples, most of the acting was mediocre. There were few scenes actors had to show emotions, these scenes crucial for their characters to be likable. In these scenes, most of the actors failed.

The score was brilliant. It was both memorable and fit the show. As I’m writing this review, the score is playing in the back of my head.