Many hardcore gamers were worried about the Fallout adaptation. It didn’t help that the first season of Halo was an unmitigated disaster. (To be fair, the second season is a pulse-pounding and intense winner.) However, I am here to tell you that Fallout is big, bold, and badass. Simply put, Fallout makes anything The Boys have done look like child’s play.
Led by a totally rad and wicked performance from Walter Goggins, Fallout has everything you could want in a series. The new Prime Video series has some intense and hair-raising action, a well-rounded and intriguing mystery, and a dark sense of humor that is unparalleled in today’s standard television fare.
This Fallout straight rips.
Prime Video’s Fallout Season 1 Review and Plot Summary
The series examines the aftermath of a nuclear explosion and its apocalyptic aftermath. (Think of a 1950s Mad Men America that transitions into The Walking Dead.) Opening with the star of a Gunsmoke-like television series, Cooper Howard (Walter Goggins), entertaining a group that works for his wife Barb’s (Frances Turner) shadowy government-funded operation called Vault-Tec.
The other two main characters are Lucy (Yellowjackets’s Ella Purnell) and Maximus (Emancipation’s Aaron Moten), who live in the post-apocalyptic world. Lucy lives in an underground bunker with her father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), the overseer of Vault 33. Hank leads a group that’s working toward repopulating Earth, which is currently a wasteland.
If successful, Lucy’s children will be able to live above ground when the radiation drops to acceptable levels. Maximus currently lives there. He survived the blast as a child, hiding in a remarkably dependable refrigerator. As an adult, he’s now part of the Brotherhood of Steel. A squire. Maximus collects and preserves technology but refuses to share it with the outside world.
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Fallout Is A Big, Wicked, and Totally Rad Video Game Adaptation!
Fallout is an adaptation by writer/director Jonathan Nolan. He’s a filmmaker who can create a great science fiction series with HBO’s Westworld. Nolan does an expert job developing the characters, giving them three-dimensional qualities. His secret is that he makes the majority of the main characters endearing. This is mainly because they are innocent and naive.
They are adults who navigate the wasteland with childlike innocence. However, Purnell’s Lucy and Moten’s Maximus still view the world through different lenses. Lucy has been sheltered from trauma, and Maximus knows nothing but that pain. Either way, their childhood was stunted because of it. Nolan uses that to his advantage with some great, endearing moments of comedy.
You then have the great Walter Goggins, whom we see play a man beyond reproach in flashbacks and a hideous villain in the present. The role is perfect for him since he has proven to be able to play the empathetic heart of Gold and characters with empty moral compasses. Goggins has the incredible talent to make you feel empathy and understanding for the latter.
Is Prime Video’s Fallout Worth Watching?
If Fallout’s characters are the carrots, the creators put them through the wringer with some big sticks. The show is violent, maybe even excessively, and doesn’t pull any punches. The writing folds in dark humor that’s sharp, edgy, and daring, with the type of irreverence that works well with Prime Video’s rebellious television lineup.
I do question the character of Lucy adapting to so much violence while being sheltered for her entire existence. But you’re not watching Fallout for a lesson in accurate human behavior. This is an apocalyptic Western with real stakes that deliver the right balance of gleeful thrills and visceral chills.
Besides those minor complaints, Jonathan Nolan’s series is the best video game adaptation in recent memory. With a great supporting cast of guest stars (including a hilarious Chris Parnell) and stunning production value, the show is a rollercoaster ride of action-packed absurdity. Fallout is the streaming’s next big monster hit.
You can stream the new series Fallout only on Prime Video.
8/10
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