Netflix's "electrical situation" is not very good. According to most metrics, it is a complete disaster - a movie so expensive and so deprived of the purpose that it sincerely defies logic. This is especially true if you have read the book based on Swedish writer and artist Simon Stilenhag.

Stylenhag's books every center for different scientific ideas, but the format generally remains the same. They are great books filled with beautiful digital art of worlds as much as ours, but also different. These images are accompanied by one way or another of prose, telling a linear story or at least adding the context of the scenes shown. Where the "electric state" shows an American landscape destroyed by drone warfare and dependence on VR, "Loop Stories" and "Flood Works", the two previous books of Stylenhag, follow the Swedish city and the mysterious scientific research facility that holds it, as well as various robotic creations. The subject changes, but the tone and style remain the same in the books.

In a vacuum, The "electrical condition" is badBut it's even worse as an adaptation. Stylhag's work is melancholic, isolating and haunting beautiful, with tons of interesting ideas tied to his magical art. "Electrical Situation" is a film where Stanley Tucci performs the robot genocide, so his dead mother can give him canolies.

Fortunately, there is an alternative. As early as 2020, Premier Video adjusted Stilenhag's first book, "Stories from the Loop", in a series of 8 episodes. It is fantastic and depressed, so that in the interest of sparing as many people as possible, he regretted spending two hours on Netflix's "electrical state", instead I recommend checking this show.

The Prime Video series "The Stories of the Loop" received a little publicity after the announcement, despite earning excellent reviews from critics. It came out when the company seemed more interested in filling the shelves of the premiere video with original content than that was in marketing that content to the public. Maybe as a result (or maybe just because he worked better this way), the show got only one season. But now it is just as good as then, and it is a much better reflection of Stanenhag's work than Netflix's "electrical state".

The "Stories of the Loop" quite faithfully adapts the book, but moves the small Swedish city of Stanenhag's version to the American Midwest. A mysterious government scientific object called the loop employs a majority of adults in the city, but technology within the reasons that are happening to the strange things that happen to residents. A girl finds herself wrong. Two friends enter the strange floor exchanging their bodies. A teenage couple finds a way to stop the time in the city around them.

Each episode tells another story, following the model of Sci-Fi series for Anthology as "Dusk Zone" or "black mirror". At the same time, the characters are repeated all over the world, overlapping different episodes and creating continuity between different stories. Showerer Nathaniel Halpern drew inspiration from the short stories cycle of Sherwood Anderson in 1919 "Vinsburg, Ohio", which similarly focuses on the lonely emotional life of the small city's characters. The show includes actors such as Rebecca Hall, Athonatan Price, Janein Alexander and Paul Schneider, all turning into great performances. But it is the biggest tone and design design that really separates the "loop stories".

One of the two things happened during the production of the "electrical state". Either Roussos and their creative team fundamentally misunderstood the whole point of the book (which requires an incredible degree of ignorance), or they chose to turn it from a thematic rich, aesthetically stunning scientific story in a US $ 320 million film. Except for a few shots and designs, there is nothing in the film that brings one of the book tone.

"Loop Stories", on the other hand, is a fantastic translation of the unique genre of Stanenenhag. The mixing of advanced scientific machines with empty shepherds, focus on silence and negative space, mystery, it's all there. Music by composers Philip Voice and Paul Leonard-Morgan is particularly memorable, full of unusual piano and wired ballads that highlight beautiful cinematography. "The Stories of the Loop" is a show where you can go for a few minutes at the end without anyone talking, yet the audio-visual experience is always delicate and deeply emotional. It has been done - not surprisingly given the production team involving Matt Reeves and a pool of directors showing Ododi Foster and Pixar Alum Andrew Stanton.

In other words, it enters the same ideas that made the book so attractive in the first place. It is a shame that the "electrical state" did not even try.