Stories from the science fiction genre often presents a gloomy picture of the future but "Tales from the Loop" creator Nathaniel Halpern wanted his characters to have a glimmer of hope in life.
The show might come across as ominous and melancholy to the viewers at the first glance but there is an inherent feeling of positivity that Halpern has carefully crafted into his stories.
The writer, who has extensively worked on television with shows such as "Legion", "The Killing" and "Outcast", has adapted "Tales from the Loop" from acclaimed Swedish artiste Simon Stalenhag's artwork.
"It just seemed like a unique opportunity to adapt from one visual medium to another. I was very taken by Simon's paintings, there's a unique quality they have. The marriage between the ordinary and the extraordinary felt very emotional to me. So the idea of turning paintings into a TV series felt like a wonderful opportunity," Nathaniel told PTI in an interview.
Through the series, the creator said, he wanted to present an alternative to the audiences, who are quite used to stories about "doom and gloom".
"I think the show certainly doesn't hide the fact that life can be hard. But it was important to me at the end that the characters found some glimmer of hope in life. We're very used to stories that venture into dystopia and doom and gloom. That there is no hope.
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"I think it was a reaction to that. I think we were due for some stories that could give us a little comfort at the end."
The show is set in the town of Mercer, which is built around a research facility, called the Loop. Each episode of the series focuses on a certain character while exploring the often unnatural events that take place in the town.
Something that makes "Tales from the Loop" stand apart from sci-fi shows today is its indie-movie feel, which was a conscious choice.
"It's just my sensibility that I think it's tough to impress audiences with spectacle. Though it is possible as we've seen such big operatic pieces in the recent past. But here I thought of the other way and zoomed in on the details we don't usually see. I wanted to rediscover those.
"It's something new and interesting. Hopefully, the audience can actually see the wonder and the small aspects of life versus thinking in the big terms."
He added that the sci-fi genre is just a cover to tell emotional human stories.
"Rather than having the characters to serve as a science fiction idea, what I tried to do was to have science fiction only there to amplify the emotion of the characters. So it's very human-based science fiction rather than idea-based.
"Also there's been so much that's done in science fiction, I looked around and saw that everyone has done that quite well. And I thought this was an aspect of science fiction that we don't see very often. And I wanted to bring that to the table. I also think that's the feeling I got from Simon's work when I looked at the paintings and found them to be very, very emotional and poignant. So I wanted to mine that aspect of it," Nathaniel said.
The show, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video on April 3, features Jonathan Pryce, Rebecca Hall, Paul Schneider, Daniel Zolghadri and Ato Essandoh, among others.
Nathaniel credits the cast for adding an emotional depth to his stories through their performance since the show is not dialogue-heavy.
"I was very lucky and fortunate to have the cast come and work on the show. The stories and the emotion just weren't going to work without them. And they brought such sensitivity and intelligence to the roles.
"It is an unusual series as it doesn't have much dialogue in the show. So I really needed actors who were compelling to watch. They were just behaving oftentimes by themselves, and yet still give us access to their thoughts and what they're feeling. It really was a blessing to have all of them on the show," the creator said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
