In front of batch after batch of sci-fi dramas with magnificent scenes, ups and downs, and suspense, "Tales from the Loop" is an absolute alien.
When other sci-fi dramas are eager to be in the pilot episode, they shake off the burden and create a strong plot tension. "Loop Story" chose the completely opposite direction. Its 8 unitary series share the same world view, but use beautiful images that are slow enough to make people sleepy, telling 8 ordinary and trivial human stories.
When other sci-fi dramas try to be fascinating, they use a way that is restrained enough to be even a little stingy, calmly expressing unprecedented whimsy. Most of its 8 episodes are cold, lonely, and de-emotional, but after watching it, you can perceive the emotion that is full of overflowing-no matter it is lover's love , Family care, and even the emotional connection between detached species.
To be precise, "Loop Story" is not a science fiction drama, but it is better than a science fiction drama. It is hidden under the setting of sci-fi, and discusses friendship, family, love, responsibility, and life. Throughout the season is a simple view of reincarnation, but instead of using some common sci-fi motifs, the grand narrative has spent a total of 8 episodes and 400 minutes, dripping through the rocks.
In this world, the impossible becomes possible, triggering a series of fantasy, wonderful, and finally falling into a little sad but satisfying story. You will find that in this world, although the laws of physics have been broken by an indescribable existence, there are still a group of people who persist in the loneliness across time and space, with the commendable virtues of love, protection and perfection.
This article may contain a certain amount of spoilers, please read it carefully.
The actual filming location of "Loop Story" is outside Winnipeg, Canada, but the background of the story is set in a small town named Mercer in Ohio, USA. What gives the story a sci-fi color is a mysterious laboratory in the town: the Mercer Center for Experimental Physics (MCEP), also known as the "loop" by the locals.
MCEP is the largest employer in the town. Every resident of the town either works here or provides services to the people who work here-in the words of MCEP founder Russ Willard Say: Everyone in the town is related to the "ring" in some way. And what "Loop Story" tells is not this mysterious laboratory, but the story of the residents of the town after being associated with it.
"Loop Story" adopts the unit drama format commonly used in British dramas. In the common unit drama format, the plots of the single episodes are usually independent of each other, or like "Black Mirror", it occasionally appears that the episode of this season and the episode of the previous season are in the same parallel world. In "Loop Story", the same actor always plays the same role. A character is the protagonist in this episode, and will become a supporting character in the next episode.
What's more ingenious is that there are many explicit and implicit story lines in the drama. Although the plots between the episodes are independent of each other, they actually belong to the same narrative context that overrides the above, forming a subtle connection. And this may be the meaning of the sentence that Russ said at the beginning of the episode: an abrupt robot appeared in one episode, as a prop, it seemed to have nothing to do with the direction of the plot, but at the end of the next episode, I found out that this whole episode was laying out the origins of the robot, but it left a little suspense, not complete at all, making the audience even more looking forward to what will or will not appear in the subsequent episodes, that everyone is overjoyed or sad, but At least a complete ending.
This kind of connection does not appear frequently in the film, but every time it is wonderful. For example, in the third episode, the protagonist and heroine walk in the woods, and the line "I heard that time is slower in the woods" sets off the ambiguity between the two, but the audience will only appreciate the eighth episode at the end of the play. The true meaning of this line.For another example, only people who watch the full play and observe carefully enough will find a hidden storyline in the body of a teacher in the only school in this town (I admit that I didn’t until the end of the play was announced. Found this one).
This kind of clues that span time and space echoes, stringing together 8 main stories that seem to be unrelated except for the sharing of roles. This kind of echoing will always appear once or twice in each episode. It is the kind of mental pleasure that is suddenly realized when the "sense of sight" that provokes the audience is triggered-especially for a small part of the audience, this is a noble and noble focus on them. Luxury rewards.
At the end of the play, we can’t understand what the "ring" is, but by observing the people in the small town, how their lives are changed by the existence of the "ring"-more importantly, even if this happens Change, how their ideas, feelings, relationships, beliefs, etc. are retained and adhered to-we try to understand the theme that the creator hopes to express.
says it is "love", which is a bit clichéd, but there is no more accurate and general word than "love". Love is the mother’s commitment to the son who disappeared in the woods to accompany his son for life, the brother’s desire to reunite with his deaf sister, the mutual relief of the exchange of bodies, the brotherhood across species, and the incompetent father doing his best to his daughter. The protection of love is the perfection of the object of love, and the understanding and acceptance of limited life...
From the story of one chapter to one, we continue to experience this group of children whose destiny is completely changed by the "ring" Town residents, how do they stick to different forms of love in the loneliness that spans time and space.
The scenes of the play are cold to a large extent, even if the season goes from winter to summer, even if the scene cuts from the uninhabited suburbs to the noisy streets and taverns, you still Can't feel alive. This is the unique style of "Loop Story".
This icy picture, as well as the background sound that balances the musicality and atmosphere and does not have excessive special effects, together serve a self-consistent narrative method with the theme: calmly telling the ordinary, trivial and The warm little stories convey some seemingly unreliable emotions restrained. "Loop Story" does not have a grand narrative, and it lacks exciting and refreshing pictures. Even the audience is too lazy to seduce the audience's interest in what the "ring" is. It only has the endless desire to come, but it puts the drama in tension. Tension and release are left to the heart of the audience.
Say a few more words about painting style. I don’t have much accumulation in the art field, but Douban netizen Pablo Meng's evaluation I very much agree: the style of the play has an Edward Hopper-like solitude. This master painter is considered a member of the "Trash Can School" and is good at depicting the lonely contemporary American cities and rural life landscapes. This makes the scene of Lorita, the character in "Loop Story" dragging the trash can several times, also seems to be a hidden tribute.
As a type of literature, science fiction always has some motifs that are the same as other literary works. For example, "The Matrix" is the "brain in the tank", that is, the body and consciousness are independent; "Western World" is the awakening of artificial intelligence and the innate fear of humans inventing things.
The theme that "Loop Story" hopes to discuss returns to human nature itself: When betrayed, can you uphold tolerance? When suffering breaks you down, can you stick to your responsibility to protect your family? When the turbulent love is returned to contempt, can you let it go? When life finally comes to an end and bid farewell to your beloved one last time, can you accept it with confidence? When fate made a joke with you, can you let it go?
The main creator Nathaniel Halpern mentioned in an interview that most of today’s science fiction dramas are full of anxiety, fear, and anger, a desolate sense of world weariness, and what is lacking is a sense of humanity. Optimism and hope of itself (not technology). At this point, "Loop Story" may indeed not be a "qualified" science fiction work, because science fiction is not the dominant element in the play-human nature is.
In these stories written by Halpern, technology becomes a background. Even in such a different but normalized background, the protagonists of the story still live a kind of peculiar, even inLife that is hard to reproduce in the real world. Their hobbies are still football, bird watching, and photography; they invented and repaired technology, but they had a Naiṣkāmya-style coldness towards technology; the "ring" changed their destiny, but did not change their humanity.
This is "Loop Story", a cold, simple, but sweet and optimistic ethics drama hidden under the skin of science fiction dramas. It has no tense rhythms and ups and downs of the plot, but it has a flat and straightforward narrative full of tension, beautiful pictures, trivial stories, restrained expressions, and true emotions. It does not have a great joy and sadness, but it is a work that will make you feel complete after reading it, and regain confidence in yourself, people around you, and human life that has been completely rewritten by technology.
