'Tales from the Loop' about human relationships: Paul Schneider

It makes Paul Schneider happy that his popular sitcom "Parks and Recreation" continues to find new audiences and he now hopes that people watch his Amazon series Tales from the Loop", which uses science-fiction to tell human stories.

Among the avid fans of Parks and Recreation, Schneider is still known for playing Mark Brendanawicz, the colleague of Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope, in the first two seasons of the show.

"Tales from the Loop", created by Nathaniel Halpern of The Killing fame, is based on the critically-acclaimed artwork of Swedish artist Simon Stalenhag, features Jonathan Pryce and Rebecca Hall.

Schnieder believes the sci-fi setting of the show, which started streaming on Amazon Prime Video from Friday, is just a tool to tell stories about humans and what binds them together.

"I feel science fiction is a great vehicle to get us into human stories. As an actor, I don't know a lot about what it's like to be in space or I'm not a physicist in my real life. I'm not pondering about quarks and singularities. But I do understand family and secrets, and loss and relationships.

"'Tales from the Loop' uses science fiction as a key to unlock theories about human relationships, which I think are the most mysterious science-fictional things that I know about, Schneider told PTI in an interview over phone from Los Angeles.

As vast majority of the world population find themselves confined to their homes in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, the 48-year-old is confident the show will bring people closer to each other.

"I love how Nathaniel got us into the heart of these stories. Especially in the times of coronavirus, when we all are staying home, I think people need to feel connected to other people and these are the stories about that connection. Nathaniel said to me a few times that he wanted these stories to be like an empathy delivery vehicle, which I thought was very interesting.

The show is set in the town of Mercer, which is built around a research facility, called the Loop. Each episode of the series focus on a certain character, while exploring the often unnatural events that takes place in the town.

Schneider said that the show avoids the usual tropes of filmmaking that has been prevalent in recent times, which is to spoon-feed audiences with information.

He added that the show often leaves things unexplained but the audiences won't be bothered by that.

"Great TV and great movie sort of gives you what you want, in a way that you weren't expecting. To me, good filmmaking is about restraint. Nathaniel created these stories in a way that they have a beginning, middle and end. But he also creates a room for the audience to decide what they feel about the ingredients.

"'Tales from the Loop' respects its audience, a lot more than the television I see these days. The television that I see these days, there's a lot of force-feeding of emotions, plots, and acting. This is far more restrained and because of that, it allows the connectedness between the audience and TV series itself."
"It was really good to make friends with the cast and people you get to work with on set every day. Because what we were hoping for was comedy and so it was a happy place obviously."