Is this appropriate for kids?
I’d say not really. Some episodes are, but some moments are scary, there are some adult themes (a little bit of nudity and sexual content), and heavy themes abound (very frank conversations about death, for example).
I watched the whole thing this weekend and…I don’t know exactly why, but it really worked for me. I mostly loved the tone, the aesthetic, the atmosphere and the cinematography. Some very good acting, too. But I’ve ever seen anything quite like it. Kind of an anthology show like Twilight Zone or Dark Mirror, and kind of not. There is certainly a complete story told within the eight episodes, with some lyrical payoffs, but I’m not sure everyone will find things to be “resolved” by the end of episode eight. I, for one, really liked how things ended and am not interested in a second season, or anything.
Full disclosure: I am an admirer of Stålenhag’s artwork, and had high expectations for this going in. The show exceeded them.
This pretty much sums it up for me. I finished the last two last night. It has its own… well, everything. Look. Feel. Structure- both overall and within each narrative.
As for the poster above that said they wished each episode was 15-20 minutes shorter, I (obviously) disagree. I mean, that would be good if all they wanted was the ‘twist’, the ending. But the show isn’t about that, not really. It’s just about people, which is somewhat odd, as you kind of expect it to be about the tech. But it really doesn’t care at all about the tech- it literally makes no attempt to ever explain anything, and that’s amazing. So much time spent getting to know just these random people who are real and alive and have all their hopes and worries and reducing the running time to get to the ending would undermine that terribly.
I’ve watched the first two episodes, and I’m very curious to see how it develops because I love the tone and concept. Perhaps strangely, based off these first two episodes, I sorta wish they’d take… bigger swings? Get a little weirder. Also, I see a lot of potential here to take background elements from one episode and spin them into their own full episode, so I hope that’s something they do.
That’s what you want? Oh, you just wait.
Early on I thought this was more comparible to shows like Black Mirror and Electric Dreams, but when I hit the fourth episode I realized I was wrong. If those shows are direct descendents of the original Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, Tales from the Loop is more like a nephew or a niece. The strengths of this show can’t really be used, imo, to criticize Black Mirror in the way I was talking about earlier, because Loop weaves its story in a fundamentally different way. Whatever shortcomings BM and its siblings might have, they aren’t all that relevant when examining Tales from the Loop.
And I agree with everything said above (minus the nitpick about length), just wrapped it up last night and was super happy with where it went.
By the time I got to the end of the season I was right there. Like a lot of great Sci Fi stories this show isn’t really about Science Fiction but is very much about the human condition. The Sci Fi trappings are just a framework about people confronting very common human issues, which is exactly what Science Fiction normally does the difference here it is that it is smaller, plainer, more personal metaphors than we, or at least I, had come to expect from modern Science Fiction. No grand journey to an alien planet as a metaphor for Vietnam or colonization for example. The science fiction here is much more low key and resonates on a personal level. We’re talking some old school Science Fiction. It’s really nice to see this and I loved this series.
I have begun watching this, and my initial impression is…holy cow, is this slow! It takes them forever to get anything across. So many slow pans with ominous music. I like what I’ve seen as far as story/mystery/characters through two episodes, but I couldn’t just sit and watch it. I’d be asleep if I wasn’t simultaneously playing some game on my tablet.
So… are we just gonna not talk about the robots in the woods?
Only 2 episodes in and am really liking it. Cool mystery, strange technology, a small town kind of out of time or space. Stuff like the robots that are clearly yesterday’s news to the people and we, the viewer, are left on our own about what it could mean. The overall tone is very cool as well; ‘chill’, even. No violence, gore, cheap laughs or any of a number of typical TV tropes.
Not much to talk about there - it’s part of the world building. Even the kids don’t know how the robots got there.
Finished up the eight episodes. It was good, and could have been great had they cut about 10-15 minutes of navel-gazing time out of each episode.
Finally finished the season now as well. Very cool and as @Tom_Mc put it, it’s great “old school Science Fiction”. Telling stories about humans and ideas and not flashy war space battles. Reckon I’ll need to give it a rewatch after I’ve let it settle a bit.
But damn, that’s a dangerous town to live in!! So many freaky things happening and time and lives can be over in the blink of an eye.
Was hoping we’d see the iconic cat somewhere in the background of one of the scenes…
No kidding! I guess in their world there are no corporate liability laws! :)
If anyone really enjoyed the setting (I haven’t watched the series yet), a Kickstarter for a boardgame set in that world with the original illustrator launched this week:
Wife and I are only 3 episodes in, but we’re having no problems with the pacing. Most of the plot points are telegraphed, but I think the writers did a good job of skewing the destination a little from where you were expecting them to. I also think it does a much better job at dealing with the emotions of living in a sci-fi situation than most efforts. In fact, this show seems to be more of a psychological survey than simply demonstrating the rather typical tropes.
I’d also like to mention how great the female characters were in the first and third episodes.
Just watched the first episode. There’s about 3 minutes worth of story in it, and that is a done-to-death SF story trope (Dark did it, e.g.).
I guess the pacing doesn’t change? Should I stick with it?
It’s worth watching, but the pace does not speed up.
The 2nd episode (with the body switching) was good enough to make me watch the 3rd episode (with the time-stopping) which made me dread the 4th episode.
I thought the 3rd episode was one of the better ones. Don’t go expecting great ideas or even interesting story beats, they’re mostly mood pieces with great music.
The thing about the 3rd and 4th episodes is that they are not, in any sense, science fiction. The 3rd episode was just a teenage-relationship drama (yuck), and the 4th was a straight family drama (which at least had a good amount of Jonathan Pryce in it). I mean, that’s fine and all, but I feel a bit bait-and-switched.
Also, I loathe the music, but I suppose that’s just me.