Tales from the Loop: Season 1 – Review

TALES FROM THE LOOP is a new Sci-Fi series on Amazon’s Prime Video. Season 1 has 8 episodes and you can watch them all now. This new series has a lot going for it, so you’re in for a real treat. Read our Tales from the Loop season 1 review here and watch it on Prime Video!

Tales from the Loop is a new Amazon Prime Video series in the Sci-Fi genre. If you needed some escapism during these trying Coronavirus times, then this should do the trick. The visuals alone are absolutely stunning. Then again, what else would you expect from a series based on the work of Simon Stålenhag.

Season 1 of Tales from the Loop has 8 episodes each with a runtime around one hour. This Prime Video series is pure sci-fi in all its glory, so if you like the genre, you should definitely check it out.

Continue reading our Tales from the Loop season 1 review below. We’ve watched the first two episodes for this review.

The cast of the new Prime Video sci-fi series

Rebecca Hall plays one of the key characters and she does a great job. Of course, she always does. You might know Rebecca Hall from genre movies such as Joel Edgerton’s The Gift from 2015 or the horror movie The Awakening from 2011. Also, she’s in the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong from Adam Wingard. It’s due out in November 2020. Hopefully, anyway.

Young Duncan Joiner is one of the stars of Tales from the Loop. He plays Cole in the series and is the son of Rebecca Hall’s character. Duncan Joiner is also in the season 1 finale of the Apple TV+ reboot of Amazing Stories. In episode 1 the main character is portrayed by Abby Ryder Fortson from the Antman movies (she’s Antman’s daughter in them). She’s awesome!

Jonathan Pryce is also in several episodes. He was awesome in the series Taboo (2017) and, of course, Game of Thrones. Most recently, he was in the Netflix movie The Two Popes. which earned him an Oscar nomination. Also, Jane Alexander who has been in so many productions. Including the horror movies The Ring (2002), The Unborn (2009) and Dream House (2011).

Look, this sci-fi series is full of familiar faces and big names, so I’ll just list some of them for you. There’s Paul Schneider from season 1 of Channel Zero, Tyler Barnhardt from  the vampire series The Passage, and Jodi Lynn Thomas from Preacher (2016-2019).

Tales from the Loop plays out like an anthology

While Tales from the Loop is often referred to as a sci-fi series, it’s more like a sci-fi anthology. Each episode focuses on a new story starring some of the characters in this universe. In other words, the main characters from one episode are merely background characters (almost cameos) in other episodes.

This means you’ll get wonderfully familiar with a lot of characters but in the most amazing ways. Time dedicated to a few characters at a time allows you to reach new depths. Also, it expands the entire Tales from the Loop universe in a very organic way.

For the record, this is not a series for small kids. A lot of the characters in this Prime Video series may be kids or teens, but the stories tend to get pretty dark. Both in terms of emotional questions and the larger sci-fi aspects. It’s great to watch for adults, but most kids might be very confused and a bit scared.

Basically, just watch this with them or get ready for some nightmares. Tales from the Loop feels a lot more like something from The Twilight Zone than anything from Amazing Stories. Just to give you an idea of the rather dark tone of voice in it.

Watch Tales from the Loop season 1 on Prime Video now!

Tales from the Loop was created by Nathaniel Halpern. Though, of course, this entire series is based on the graphic book created by artist Simon Stålenhag. He works with hyper-realistic visuals that really are perfect for adapting to both the small and big screen. Simon Stålenhag is also a co-executive producer on this TV series.

Previously, Nathaniel Halpern has written on shows like Resurrection (2014-2015), Outcast (2016) and Legion (2017-2019). All three are series in the fantasy, sci-fi, horror genres, so he knows how to work with genre productions. And Tales from the Loop is definitely proof of that.

Directors on Tales from the Loop include some real heavy-hitters. There’s Jodie Foster who directed the 2017 Arkangel episode of Black Mirror prior to directing for this new Prime Video sci-fi series. Also, we have Ti West who is an amazing horror movie director. He directed movies such as The House of the Devil (2009) and The Innkeepers (2011).

Recently, Ti West has been working more on TV series. Including the above-mentioned Outcast and an episode of The Exorcist series. Up next, he’ll return to horror and direct an episode of Them: Covenant (2020-). Another director with The Exorcist series experience is So Yong Kim. She also directed 3 episodes of the series Room 104 from the Duplass Brothers.

We absolutely love Tales from the Loop here at Heaven of Horror, but please do yourself a favor and try not to read up on this series at all. Just from looking at the actors and characters of this series, we managed to spoil ourselves big time. Don’t do that to yourself!

Season 1 of Tales from the Loop is out on Amazon’s Prime Video from April 3, 2020.

Details

Creator: Nathaniel Halpern
Writers: Simon Stålenhag, Nathaniel Halpern
Stars: Daniel Zolghadri, Rebecca Hall, Paul Schneider, Duncan Joiner, Ato Essandoh, Nicole Law, Jonathan Pryce, Jane Alexander