Concept art has long been popular among fans of both visual art and the media that develops from it. This ranges from stand-alone pieces that concept artists visualize from scratch, or the beautiful volumes of work, that creators behind the likes of Marvel and Pixar films, paint to help build their fantastical worlds.
On April 3, Amazon Originals takes viewers inside the magical world created by Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag with Tales from the Loop. Based on his extraordinary paintings, the series delves into the artist’s imaginary retro science fiction world to a town built on top of a machine designed to unlock the mysteries of the universe.
Tales from the Loop is intriguing from the first moment, with its haunting and straightforward opening title card and Twilight Zone-esque intro to the first episode. The production style and gradual unraveling of the story, not to mention the grey, snowy Midwest setting, are reminiscent of Nordic films and the aesthetic of Stålenhag’s paintings—a mixture of neo-futuristic science fiction elements in stereotypical Swedish countryside environments. In this strange quiet town, science fiction is a daily reality for the people who live above The Loop.
How to watch Tales from the Loop
Tales from the Loop is an Amazon Original production, distributed through Amazon Prime. However, that makes it free to all Amazon Prime subscribers beginning April 3.
If you aren’t an Amazon Prime member yet, they offer a free 30-day trial, and then subscription options include:
- A video-only plan for $8.99 a month
- Monthly Amazon Prime rate of $12.99, including all Prime benefits
- The discounted annual rate of $119, including all Prime benefits
Episodes can be streamed on the Amazon website or watched through any device that hosts the Amazon Video app, including Roku, Apple TV, Tivo, as well as smart TVs, gaming consoles, and mobile devices, either by streaming or downloading to watch offline. Visit www.amazon.com/howtostream to learn more about what tools are compatible.
About Tales from the Loop
The visually stunning series starts off feeling tonally like the town it’s set in—deceptively simple, austere, cold, but with many secrets under the surface. As the story unfolds, town residents are threaded into the mysteries and fantastical events connected to The Loop. If the first few episodes are anything to go off, this is a beautiful new science fiction series that will be a favorite for many fans of sci-fi and art films. Like the German series Dark, the connections and mysteries might be slow to unravel, but seem worth the journey.
Artist Simon Stålenhag created the world of The Loop in a series of retro and neo-futuristic digital concept paintings (check out his work here). Initially stand-alone pieces, he began building an internal back story of this town built around an underground facility that explores the mysteries of the universe into the work.
Eventually, he put them together in a narrative artbook, Tales from the Loop. From this work, writer/producer Nathaniel Halpern (Legion), along with Stålenhag, created Tales from the Loop for Amazon, and it marks the first television series adapted from digital paintings. The series cast includes Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Paul Schneider (Parks and Recreation), Daniel Zolghardi (Eighth Grade), Duncan Joiner (Waco), Nicole Law (Warrior), and Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes, Game of Thrones).
The eight-episode season will debut on Amazon Prime on Friday, April 3.
