The eight-episode Amazon Studios series Tales from the Loop is a gentle slow-burner ideal for our alternative pandemic universe. Its a moving, determinedly solemn adaptation of Swedish author/artist Simon Stalenhags lavishly illustrated book, published in 2014 after his retro-futurist visions of a 1980s Sweden became an online sensation.

Comparisons have been made to grabbier shows that do all the work for you, such as Stranger Things, but theyll only mislead. The pilot introduces us to Russ Willard, portrayed by Jonathan Pryce. Watching his face in extended close-up, with those devilish eyebrows suggesting a visionary who knows more than hes about to tell us, we hear a little about the Mercer Center for Experimental Physics, Willards underground facility on the outskirts of Mercer, Ohio. (The Swedish setting of the source material peeks through in sly ways; at one point, a movie marquee announces a revival of Ingmar Bergmans Summer with Monika.)

So its Ohio, but in Tales from the Loop (series creator Nathaniel Halpern wrote all eight episodes), Ohio means black holes coexist with giant robots and hovercraft-style tractors, with surprising restraint. At heart, the show delves into childhood grief and resentment, all-too-ordinary fears of death, and unrequited adult love. The loneliness and the spaces between the characters set the tone and rhythm here.

The underground lab, a brutalist hunk of architecture, employs seemingly the entire town. The forlorn security guard Gaddis (Ato Essandoh) bids the occasional hello to passing workers. Halls character, Loretta, is married to George (Paul Schneider), outfitted with a impressive bionic arm. They live in quiet, split-level surroundings with their sons Jakob (Daniel Zolghadri) and, crucial in episode four, Cole, played by a terrific young actor named Duncan Joiner.

That fourth installment, Echo Sphere, scores with a simple, profound notion. Russ takes grandson Cole to explore a big, round, hollow metal structure. If you shout into it, the number of echoes you hear tell you how long you have to live. The rest of the episode charts Russs final chapter, and how it affects everyone in a life preoccupied by work. Jane Alexander adds one grace note after another as Klara, his wife, and you wont see a truer, more subtle performance anywhere right now.

The title Tales from the Loop refers to the beating black heart of a wondrous black orb known as The Eclipse,the innermost secret of the clandestine underground physics project. The three directors of the three previewed episodes treat these secrets in contrasting ways. Mark Romeneks pilot recalls the steady chill and precision of his earlier work, particularly Never Let Me Go. The theme of doubles and mirror images threads all three stories together. In the pilot, which gets a mite pokey, Halls dramatic instincts pull us through.

Andrew Stanton, co-writer and director of the miracle that wasWall-E, makes Echo Sphere a spare beauty with a light touch. The sixth installment in this anthology, Parallel, comes from director Charlie McDowell. The security guard weve met, briefly, takes center stage with the most Twilight Zone-y of the episodes, in which lonely Gaddis slips into an alt-universe version of his closeted gay life. There he meets a replica of himself, complete with long-term relationship with a hunky woodworker of uncertain fidelity.

Theres humor in these Tales, but its sparing and usually sidelined by the serious emotions. At times the storytelling just sort of floats, like the snow that magically falls upward in one segment. Those who need more, and coarser, can stream Hunters, I guess. This is the kind of show where silence matters. In minute 42 of the first episode, theres a startling close-up of Rebecca Halls character responding non-verbally to a harsh comment made by a young, motherless girl played by Abby Ryder Fortson. It lasts three or four seconds. And its a thunderbolt.

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'Tales from the Loop,' Amazon's sci-fi anthology, makes sense for our current alternative universe - theday.com