Lade Omotade is a News Author at Collider with a passion for exploring the ever-evolving world of the Film & TV industry. Her work centers on covering the latest news, from casting announcements and franchise scoops to streaming updates and behind-the-scenes shifts that shape the way stories are told.
Omotade approaches storytelling with both professional insight and unapologetic fandom; digging into what makes a franchise successful, spotlighting rising voices in Hollywood, and asking the questions fans are already buzzing about. Her writing reflects that mix: part industry analysis, part fan excitement, and always grounded in a love for the craft of storytelling.
In an era when streaming giants are crowded with overly complicated sci-fi spectacles that quickly become too much to handle, Prime Video released one of the most human sci-fi shows of this century, Tales from the Loop. Tales from the Loop, an adaptation of the Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag’s futuristic art narrative of the same name, isn’t like your typical sci-fi favorites; the show swaps out traditional action for a series of interconnected plots that explore the fragility of time and the loneliness associated with being human.
Developed and written by Nathaniel Halpern, Tales from the Loop was released on Prime Video on April 3, 2020. It instantly stood out as a masterpiece, albeit quietly, establishing itself as one of the most heartbreaking sci-fi shows of the 21st century. Sadly, that wasn’t enough to attract the attention it deserved, even with its Certified Fresh 87% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. The eight-episode series follows the interconnected lives of the people of Mercer, a fictional town in Ohio, where the impossible becomes possible. And in each episode, the series proves that the most terrifying thing about the future isn’t the machines we build, but the pieces of ourselves we lose along the way.
‘Tales from the Loop’ Is The Most Human Sci-Fi Entry
Tales from the Loop isn’t so easy to define. The sci-fi drama centers on “The Loop,” a mysterious facility beneath the town that explores the universe, causing diverse space-time anomalies. All episodes feature interconnected characters encountering these unusual phenomena, such as time shifts, parallel selves, body-swapping, objects defying gravity, and more. There are no grand answers or explanations of the sci-fi lore, just human moments of love, loss, and memory. Even critics approve of its humanness, as the consensus on Rotten Tomatoes notes that Tales from the Loop “provides a welcome dose of warmth and humanity with its sci-fi.”
The critics-approved series redefines high-tech, making it ordinary and part of the characters’ daily routine, which is very different from many big-budget sci-fi series today that get lost in the mechanics of time travel and robotics. In Mercer, it’s not uncommon to see a mechanical arm or rusty robots sitting randomly alongside buildings or in fields. Some of these machines are often abandoned and worn out rather than shiny, as viewers expect.By treating them as everyday infrastructure, it compels viewers to look past the extraordinary factor and focus on the actual people, so they aren’t watching to see what the machine does; they are watching to see what a character is willing to do with it.
Each episode of Tales from the Loop has a person step forward to tell their story. It begins with Game of Thrones’ Jonathan Pryce portraying Russ, the founder of The Loop, hinting at the concept of his titular creation. While glimpses of Russ are seen in parts of the series, his POV isn’t shown until Episode 4, “Echo Sphere.” The episode’s premise is a perfect metaphor for human grief, whereby losing a loved one feels more world-ending than a galactic invasion. In it, Russ tries to prepare his grandson for his inevitable death by showing him a giant, rusted metal sphere in a field. If you shout into the sphere, the number of echoes you hear tells you how much longer you have to live.
‘Tales from the Loop’ Fixes The Problem with Modern Sci-Fi
Some may see Tales from the Loop as a less complex version of Dark, Netflix’s hit German sci-fi series. However, they’re quite dissimilar: Dark, like several major sci-fi shows, relies on puzzle-box storytelling, where the audience is focused on solving a mystery, so there’s more foreshadowing and big reveals. Tales from the Loop doesn’t fall into the same trap by not dwelling on the existence of mysteries, while also removing the intellectual barrier of sci-fi; it never explains the physics of The Loop or even the mechanics behind the body-swapping pod in Episode 2, “Transpose.”
Technological cynicism is another major problem with modern sci-fi shows, which you won’t find in Tales from the Loop. Technology is almost exclusively portrayed as a tool for surveillance, exploitation, or human ruin, thereby turning sci-fi into a series of predictable cautionary tales like in Black Mirror. Even creator and showrunner Halpern famously described Tales from the Loop as the “Anti-Black Mirror” because it refuses to be cynical:
“Tonally, it’s rather unique, and I don’t want to give the wrong impression, necessarily. It’s not a cynical or bleak show, so it’s certainly like the anti-Black Mirror.”
If you’re tired of the excessiveness of modern sci-fi but still want something that challenges your mind, Tales from the Loop is the perfect change of pace. It’s a rare 8-episode journey that doesn’t demand you solve a complex mystery but simply asks you to sit with its characters and witness their quiet lives, which will certainly leave a lasting impression.
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Tales from the Loop is streaming on Prime Video. Follow Collider for the latest sci-fi film and TV updates.
Tales from the Loop Like TV-MA Drama Mystery Science Fiction Release Date 2020 – 2020 Network Prime Video Directors Andrew Stanton, Dearbhla Walsh, Jodie Foster, So Yong Kim, Charlie McDowell, Ti West Cast See All Daniel Zolghadri Jakob Robert Nahum Allen Logan the Bartender Where to watch Close WHERE TO WATCH Streaming
Genres Drama, Mystery, Science Fiction Creator(s) Nathaniel Halpern Powered by Expand Collapse
