I don't care that it's slow and depressing. Lots of truly great films are slow and/or depressing. The pacing and mood of a story doesn't matter so much, what matters is the destination and the trip along the way. WHAT do the filmmakers have to say and HOW do they say it?
The problem with "Tales from the Loop" is that they have absolutely nothing new to say AND they drag it out. The cinematography is great and the actors do a fine job but they have nothing to work with.
It is literally as if a production company's president said "Hey this Black Mirror show is killing it, we'd better churn out something like this!" and then his yes-man VP said "Sir, didn't your kid write some sci-fi short stories in creative writing class? Based off drawings of robots she saw on Reddit?" The show was then immediately green lit.
Every "twist" they utilize has been done before AND been done better AND takes them forever to get to.
Every episode has about ten minutes of poorly conceived story stretched out to an hour, with no real reason to do so other than to pad the screen time.
Characters behave completely irrationally, and questions are posed but never answered. I know unanswered questions can be great in and of themselves, but for this show they are a total crutch. This isn't Kubrickian, it's just people writing scripts who literally have nothing to say and no point to make.
Also, there are not many characters who an audience will find likable or even identify with. That's a serious problem considering how much time we spend with them... in scenes that linger on and on and on...
For all the strange goings-on in this town, nobody ever seeks help from each other. They rarely have logical reactions and never take actions or attempt solutions that any human being in their position would. The most glaring example would be The Loop organization itself. They apparently just leave robots, powerful devices and magical chambers just lying all over the place, no matter how dangerous, for anyone to find. The fuel rods that power this equipment are readily available and so not secure that children literally steal them.
Strange things keep happening, and not one person ever thinks to say "gee whiz, you know that Loop we're always mentioning where they do mysterious stuff underground? Why don't we go tell them about the problem? Or ask them for help?" The children and grandchildren of the man who RUNS the place don't even think to ask grandpa for information or help. This show isn't just tedious, it's infuriatingly stupid at many points.
This series is a whole lot of waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen, that you know is going to happen, then it finally happens, then you wait for something else to happen, then nothing happens. Roll credits.
Every episode is a cliche. For example: "Is the robot monster a monster, or is the real monster... MAN?"
Here's everything that happens in one entire hour long episode (MILD SPOILERS): A man thinks a guy broke into his home. Instead of paying for much needed repairs he buys a robot from a junkyard to protect his lawn. His neighbours are upset, apparently forgetting that these machines are all over the damn place. The police ask him to stop standing in his yard with a robot but he says no. He never catches the bad guy but almost punches his deaf daughter with the robot, so his wife gets mad and leaves. He sells the robot and fixes the house, so his wife comes back. The end.
I am incredibly disappointed by this series because a lot of good work was put into it. There aren't a ton of effects (given the source material I expected a hell of a lot more robots than just a couple scenes hiding behind trees in the woods), but the effects they did use are very well done. The actors aren't stupendous but a lot of that could be due to the huge deficiencies they were dealing with script-wise, and possibly poor direction as well.
This series is pretentious and a huge, huge opportunity wasted. It could have been a truly great anthology series if they simply had capable writers who had an actual story to tell.
The problem with "Tales from the Loop" is that they have absolutely nothing new to say AND they drag it out. The cinematography is great and the actors do a fine job but they have nothing to work with.
It is literally as if a production company's president said "Hey this Black Mirror show is killing it, we'd better churn out something like this!" and then his yes-man VP said "Sir, didn't your kid write some sci-fi short stories in creative writing class? Based off drawings of robots she saw on Reddit?" The show was then immediately green lit.
Every "twist" they utilize has been done before AND been done better AND takes them forever to get to.
- Two kids find an abandoned magic chamber that let's them switch bodies. One boy convinces the other to trade bodies for the day by promising he will for sure trade bodies back. You'll never guess what happens!
- Inexplicably not put off by the strange vortexes he's seen opening in his field, a lonely man continues visiting that field and is - you guessed it - sucked through a vortex to another dimension. The version of him in that dimension has a super hot boyfriend. You'll never guess what happens!
- A teen girl who grows tired of her boyfriend wishes magical moments could last forever serendipitously finds a time freezing machine on the beach. She freezes time with her exciting new boyfriend, who promises to stay in that moment with her forever guaranteeing constant happiness. You'll never guess what happens!
Every episode has about ten minutes of poorly conceived story stretched out to an hour, with no real reason to do so other than to pad the screen time.
Characters behave completely irrationally, and questions are posed but never answered. I know unanswered questions can be great in and of themselves, but for this show they are a total crutch. This isn't Kubrickian, it's just people writing scripts who literally have nothing to say and no point to make.
Also, there are not many characters who an audience will find likable or even identify with. That's a serious problem considering how much time we spend with them... in scenes that linger on and on and on...
For all the strange goings-on in this town, nobody ever seeks help from each other. They rarely have logical reactions and never take actions or attempt solutions that any human being in their position would. The most glaring example would be The Loop organization itself. They apparently just leave robots, powerful devices and magical chambers just lying all over the place, no matter how dangerous, for anyone to find. The fuel rods that power this equipment are readily available and so not secure that children literally steal them.
Strange things keep happening, and not one person ever thinks to say "gee whiz, you know that Loop we're always mentioning where they do mysterious stuff underground? Why don't we go tell them about the problem? Or ask them for help?" The children and grandchildren of the man who RUNS the place don't even think to ask grandpa for information or help. This show isn't just tedious, it's infuriatingly stupid at many points.
This series is a whole lot of waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen, that you know is going to happen, then it finally happens, then you wait for something else to happen, then nothing happens. Roll credits.
Every episode is a cliche. For example: "Is the robot monster a monster, or is the real monster... MAN?"
Here's everything that happens in one entire hour long episode (MILD SPOILERS): A man thinks a guy broke into his home. Instead of paying for much needed repairs he buys a robot from a junkyard to protect his lawn. His neighbours are upset, apparently forgetting that these machines are all over the damn place. The police ask him to stop standing in his yard with a robot but he says no. He never catches the bad guy but almost punches his deaf daughter with the robot, so his wife gets mad and leaves. He sells the robot and fixes the house, so his wife comes back. The end.
I am incredibly disappointed by this series because a lot of good work was put into it. There aren't a ton of effects (given the source material I expected a hell of a lot more robots than just a couple scenes hiding behind trees in the woods), but the effects they did use are very well done. The actors aren't stupendous but a lot of that could be due to the huge deficiencies they were dealing with script-wise, and possibly poor direction as well.
This series is pretentious and a huge, huge opportunity wasted. It could have been a truly great anthology series if they simply had capable writers who had an actual story to tell.