Premise
Based on one of the greatest video games of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the incredibly complex, gleefully weird and highly violent universe waiting for them above.
Review
Fallout is a game franchise that I remember from way back during its Interplay days. I started with Fallout 2 but am familiar with all its various incarnations from Wasteland to Fallout 76. Some of them are fantastic, others less so. The franchise is one extremely hard to explain to outsiders and comes off as MadLibs at times, “It’s a post-apocalypse future based on the 1950s vision of the future and Mad Max.”
Adapting it seemed like a lost cause even if I was cautiously optimistic. I admit, I wasn’t in a good mood toward the franchise when I heard about it, though. Fallout 76 really soured me on the franchise, and I was of the mind this would be a train wreck. The Last of Us and Halo were a contrast for how the quality of even high budget adaptations can do.
So, how was it?
Pretty good! It’s not perfect, there’s some definite flaws but I think this is up there with The Last of Us for the best video game adaptation ever made. It’s managed to keep not only the world-building of Fallout intact but also the themes, political satire, ultraviolence, and black humor that make it such a potent combination.
The premise is it is 219 years after the nuclear apocalypse. The world has not rebuilt itself but has continued to fight over dwindling resources and it seems like it’s closer to nineteen years after the apocalypse rather than most the United States’ history. Still, that’s an issue in the games themselves. The world’s surface is an irradiated mess, most of humanity lives in lawless anarchy, weird monsters roam the land, and a handful of underground bunkers contain pockets of surviving humans of a “civilized” bent.
The series follows three individuals who provide distinct perspectives on the setting. The first, Cooper AKA The Ghoul is a former movie star turned undead bounty hunter. Played by Walter Goggins, he does a fantastic job of selling both the Pre-War and Post-War elements of his character. Second, Lucy MacLean, played by Ella Purnell, is a perky Vault Dweller who just wants to marry someone who isn’t her cousin so she has to seek outside of her vault. Needless to say, things go horribly wrong. Finally, Maximus, played by Aaron Clifton Moten, is a Brotherhood of Steel initiate who has lived a harsh life but in the relative stability of his militant technophile cult.
The actual plot is nonsensical and that’s to its credit. A series of strange events keep pushing our protagonists together on a series of quests that are really just an excuse to put them through a variety of insane circumstances. As Cooper says, “The Golden Rule is you will be sidetracked by bull****.” Which is the perfect sentence that reminds the players of what exactly is the RPG-esque nature of these encounters.
The number of Easter Eggs, references, and lampshades throughout the story are beyond entertaining. Non-Fallout fans will be able to appreciate the show, my wife knew nothing before she started watching it with me, but this is definitely a love letter to the fans. It is something that I hope will introduce a huge number of people to the games and help spread it across a multi-media format. We need Fallout books, comics, and movies goshdarnit.
In conclusion, Fallout: The Series is great. Some individuals may have objections related to the fact a major faction of New Vegas made up or will invent some kind of reason to hate on the show based on arbitrary criteria (you know who I mean) but these guys are just spewing sour grapes. My only regret is that Fallout is only eight episodes, and I would have gladly watched twenty-four.
About the Reviewer
C.T Phipps is a lifelong student of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. An avid tabletop gamer, he discovered this passion led him to write and turned him into a lifelong geek. He is a regular reviewer on Before We Go Blog and for Grimdark Magazine. He’s written the Agent G series, Cthulhu Armageddon, the Red Room Trilogy, I Was A Teenaged Weredeer, Lucifer’s Star, Psycho Killers in Love, Straight Outta Fangton, The Supervillainy Saga, and Wraith Knight.
Author Website: https://ctphipps.com/
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