SciFiNow - 06.2020

MUST-SEE TV

Tall Tales

052 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K

and it’s a mystery, but here it’s not a mystery,

it’s just a reality of life. When [characters]

encounter those by-products from the

experiments it starts an incident in their

life that leads to the drama, but they’re not

asking ‘how does this happen?’ because they

know very well that it’s because of the Loop.”

In charge of the Loop is Jonathan Pryce’s

seemingly benign Russ, who Halpern

says is “the human face of the Loop to

get us into the world”. Very little of the

show is set inside the Loop, so, according

to Halpern, they needed a character who

could represent the facility within the show.

Oscar-nominated Pryce is probably the most

recognisable face in an ensemble cast that

also includes Rebecca Hall. “I was very

flattered that both Jonathan and Rebecca

wanted to be on the show,” Halpern says,

explaining that they were drawn to the

fact that the show paints “quiet character

studies” that are rarely seen in the sci-fi

genre. “I think they enjoyed that aspect of

it: the subtlety and the nuance that goes into

the performances and the story.”

Pryce and Hall are just two of many actors

in the show, which sits somewhere between

a serialised drama and an anthology show.

“I need to really figure out a soundbite for

this,” Halpern laughs, as he tries to explain

the show’s structure. “Essentially, it is a

serialised show that you could watch like an

anthology. Every episode is a satisfying story

unto itself, but all of the consequences and

drama of every episode does carry forward

in the world. So you really get a portrait of

the town and the people that live there, but it

does also borrow some of the strengths of an

anthology series where you feel like you just

experienced a good short story, versus the

cliffhangers that go from episode to episode

and draw you through.” The show features

some characters multiple times, and also

shifts its focus, so that characters who had a

small role in one episode are lead characters

in a subsequent episode. “There aren’t really

any extras,” Halpern adds.

Each episode is inspired by one or two

particular paintings by Stålenhag. Halpern

found it easy to extrapolate story from

Stålenhag’s images, especially as television is

a visual medium itself, and that he prefers to

work very visually. He describes the feelings

he got from the paintings as being like

“having a song in your head”. He says that

“the hardest part usually is creating a tone

and world, and Simon had that already”.

The mundanity of the sci-fi elements in

Stålanhag’s work fed into Halpern’s approach

to the sci-fi elements of the show. “Usually

I’ll try and find a science fiction idea that

would complement the human story that I

wanted to tell, versus the other way around,

where you bring humans into it to illustrate

an idea,” he explains. “So I started with the

characters and what they were going through

emotionally first, and then what is the

science fiction element that could enhance

that? What I didn’t want to get into was

where you fall into that trap of now it just

becomes a story about explaining how the

science fiction works. I wanted more of an

elegant situation where the incident occurs,

it’s explained clearly, and you don’t just have

characters talking about it the whole time.

It basically is using the science fiction to set

the table, rather than it being the meal itself.”

The oddly banal approach to the show’s sci-fi

lends it an element of magic realism, which

Halpern suggests could be because “the

TALES FROM TALES

FROM THE LOOP

Simon Stålenhag began his artistic life

by illustrating the local landscape around

his Swedish home, and began adding

sci-fi creations to the paintings after he

became inspired by concept artists like

Ralph McQuarrie. His paintings started off

unconnected – just a series of images, linked

by their shared blend of landscape and sci-fi,

given a nostalgic feel by the regular presence

of children in Eighties and Nineties fashion.

Eventually, Stålenhag created a backstory for

the world of his paintings, which he expanded

on in his three subsequent art books, and

which a roleplaying game took even further.

TALES FROM

THE LOOP

Set in the Eighties,

Stålenhag’s first art

book combines images

and pared-back prose

to tell the story of a government lab containing

a particle accelerator buried beneath the

landscape of Mälaröarna, and the strange

consequences it has above ground.

THINGS FROM

THE FLOOD

His second art book

takes place after the

Loop has been shut

down. The Nineties have begun, and life

is going back to normal for the people of

Mälaröarna, until the countryside is flooded

by water from the abandoned Loop – and the

water brings strange things with it...

THE ELECTRIC

STATE

Stålenhag’s third book

leaps over to the US,

and a post-apocalyptic

1997. It focuses on a girl trying find her
      missing brother, with a toy robot for company.
      The film rights to the book have been snapped
      up by The Russo Brothers, with It director Andy
      Muschietti attached to direct.

TALES FROM

THE LOOP: THE

ROLEPLAYING GAME

This table-top roleplaying

game is based on

Stålenhag’s world, and allowed players to

take on the identity of kids investigating the

Loop. Halpern tells us the series is based

exclusively on Stålenhag’s books, as he’s

had “no exposure” to the roleplaying game –

although he has “heard great things” about it.

Though the book was set in Sweden,

the TV show takes place in the US.

Tales From The Loop

by Simon Stålenhag, published

by Simon & Schuster. Hardback, £25..

050-053_SFN_170 Tales.indd 52 18/03/2020 08:15

MUST-SEE TV

Tall Tales

052 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K

and it’s a mystery, but here it’s not a mystery,

it’s just a reality of life. When [characters]

encounter those by-products from the

experiments it starts an incident in their

life that leads to the drama, but they’re not

asking ‘how does this happen?’ because they

know very well that it’s because of the Loop.”

In charge of the Loop is Jonathan Pryce’s

seemingly benign Russ, who Halpern

says is “the human face of the Loop to

get us into the world”. Very little of the

show is set inside the Loop, so, according

to Halpern, they needed a character who

could represent the facility within the show.

Oscar-nominated Pryce is probably the most

recognisable face in an ensemble cast that

also includes Rebecca Hall. “I was very

flattered that both Jonathan and Rebecca

wanted to be on the show,” Halpern says,

explaining that they were drawn to the

fact that the show paints “quiet character

studies” that are rarely seen in the sci-fi

genre. “I think they enjoyed that aspect of

it: the subtlety and the nuance that goes into

the performances and the story.”

Pryce and Hall are just two of many actors

in the show, which sits somewhere between

a serialised drama and an anthology show.

“I need to really figure out a soundbite for

this,” Halpern laughs, as he tries to explain

the show’s structure. “Essentially, it is a

serialised show that you could watch like an

anthology. Every episode is a satisfying story

unto itself, but all of the consequences and

drama of every episode does carry forward

in the world. So you really get a portrait of

the town and the people that live there, but it

does also borrow some of the strengths of an

anthology series where you feel like you just

experienced a good short story, versus the

cliffhangers that go from episode to episode

and draw you through.” The show features

some characters multiple times, and also

shifts its focus, so that characters who had a

small role in one episode are lead characters

in a subsequent episode. “There aren’t really

any extras,” Halpern adds.

Each episode is inspired by one or two

particular paintings by Stålenhag. Halpern

found it easy to extrapolate story from

Stålenhag’s images, especially as television is

a visual medium itself, and that he prefers to

work very visually. He describes the feelings

he got from the paintings as being like

“having a song in your head”. He says that

“the hardest part usually is creating a tone

and world, and Simon had that already”.

The mundanity of the sci-fi elements in

Stålanhag’s work fed into Halpern’s approach

to the sci-fi elements of the show. “Usually

I’ll try and find a science fiction idea that

would complement the human story that I

wanted to tell, versus the other way around,

where you bring humans into it to illustrate

an idea,” he explains. “So I started with the

characters and what they were going through

emotionally first, and then what is the

science fiction element that could enhance

that? What I didn’t want to get into was

where you fall into that trap of now it just

becomes a story about explaining how the

science fiction works. I wanted more of an

elegant situation where the incident occurs,

it’s explained clearly, and you don’t just have

characters talking about it the whole time.

It basically is using the science fiction to set

the table, rather than it being the meal itself.”

The oddly banal approach to the show’s sci-fi

lends it an element of magic realism, which

Halpern suggests could be because “the

TALES FROM TALES

FROM THE LOOP

Simon Stålenhag began his artistic life

by illustrating the local landscape around

his Swedish home, and began adding

sci-fi creations to the paintings after he

became inspired by concept artists like

Ralph McQuarrie. His paintings started off

unconnected – just a series of images, linked

by their shared blend of landscape and sci-fi,

given a nostalgic feel by the regular presence

of children in Eighties and Nineties fashion.

Eventually, Stålenhag created a backstory for

the world of his paintings, which he expanded

on in his three subsequent art books, and

which a roleplaying game took even further.

TALES FROM

THE LOOP

Set in the Eighties,

Stålenhag’s first art

book combines images

and pared-back prose

to tell the story of a government lab containing

a particle accelerator buried beneath the

landscape of Mälaröarna, and the strange

consequences it has above ground.

THINGS FROM

THE FLOOD

His second art book

takes place after the

Loop has been shut

down. The Nineties have begun, and life

is going back to normal for the people of

Mälaröarna, until the countryside is flooded

by water from the abandoned Loop – and the

water brings strange things with it...

THE ELECTRIC

STATE

Stålenhag’s third book

leaps over to the US,

and a post-apocalyptic

1997. It focuses on a girl trying find her
      missing brother, with a toy robot for company.
      The film rights to the book have been snapped
      up by The Russo Brothers, with It director Andy
      Muschietti attached to direct.

TALES FROM

THE LOOP: THE

ROLEPLAYING GAME

This table-top roleplaying

game is based on

Stålenhag’s world, and allowed players to

take on the identity of kids investigating the

Loop. Halpern tells us the series is based

exclusively on Stålenhag’s books, as he’s

had “no exposure” to the roleplaying game –

although he has “heard great things” about it.

Though the book was set in Sweden,

the TV show takes place in the US.

Tales From The Loop

by Simon Stålenhag, published

by Simon & Schuster. Hardback, £25..