Amazon’s Tales from the Loop Aims to Break Your Heart | TV/Streaming

Heading the program’s impressive array of guest directors is its executive producer Mark Romanek (“One Hour Photo), who helms the first episode—titled “Loop”—which is the most intriguing and tension-filled of the three I’ve seen. The opening scenes anchor their largely wordless storytelling in the expressions of Abby Ryder Fortson, best known as Paul Rudd’s adorable daughter in “Ant-Man,” who effortlessly goes toe-to-toe with co-star Rebecca Hall (playing Russ’ daughter-in-law Loretta) and quickly proves herself to be a fierce screen presence. Romanek cleverly pays homage to the famous shot in “The Wizard of Oz” where the farmhouse falls back to earth, as Forston’s enigmatic, Dorothy-esque heroine suddenly finds herself without her home or her mother, Alma (Elektra Kilbey), whose smiling face we see sinking into shadow, as if in a nightmare. Indeed, people come and go so quickly here.

To say more would veer into dreaded spoiler territory, though Hall is such a superb actress that I could read the big reveal on her face long before it’s articulated. There are various acting choices made here that are all the more rewarding when viewed in retrospect, even as certain plot points still leave me puzzled. That being said, it builds up a certain promise of adventure that never quite pays off in the other two hours screened for critics. Whereas Russ initially comes off as some sort of indestructible wizard, he eventually proves to be as vulnerable as anyone, helpless in the face of his own mortality. The fourth episode, “Echo Sphere,” reaffirms Pryce’s status as one the finest actors working today, with his wrenching portrayal of an ailing man desperate to not disappoint his grandson, Cole (Duncan Joiner), with his inevitable exit. It’s such a tonal departure from the previous episode that it feels like it belongs in a different series, as we keep waiting for a more escapist shoe to drop that never arrives.

I’m convinced this episode could’ve been condensed into an Oscar-winning short film from Pixar, which is only appropriate considering that its director is Andrew Stanton of “Finding Nemo” and “WALL-E” fame. A concluding montage encompassing the full arc of a life in fleeting, vividly realized vignettes is the sort of inspired touch I could imagine Pixar’s team of animators working overtime to perfect, as they did with the similarly tearjerking prologue of “Up.” It’s also a rare example of Halpern’s dialogue refusing to overstate the meaning of a key image, which brings the episode full circle while poetically echoing a line from Pryce—one that also happens to illuminate a crucial theme in Stanton’s oeuvre.