Fallout

The series nobody asked for yet everyone liked. I believe I speak for the majority of people here when I say we were pleasantly surprised by Fallout.  

Ella Purnell did a great job playing the ditsy yet intelligent main character Lucy Maclean. After seeing her for the first time in Yellowjackets I’m glad she’s getting more roles and look forward to seeing what she does next. 

The Plot

Much like the games our story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, this time in the year 2296. The world consumed by war and bombed beyond recognition is now radiated wasteland and ruins of old. 

The majority of the plot focuses on Lucy Maclean and her family from Vault 33. Disaster strikes the vault causing Lucy to leave the vault for the first time in her whole life. Shocked by this new world of savages and mutated creatures, society is nothing like her life in the vault. 

Throughout the show she meets a variety of characters, some friendly but mostly foes. For most the only way to survive the wastelands is an ‘Everyone for themselves’ mentality. 

My Thoughts

The show manages to capture the horror you witness within the games watching bombs drop on everything you’ve ever known. Although I’ve only played Fallout 4 both experiences feel very similar. It makes you wonder about a terrifying possible future for ourselves in real life…

A big criticism I have is that the pacing is quite bottom heavy. What I mean by this is the last episode contained pretty much every single reveal, twist or turn. Sure, you want the finale to have a punch to it, but a couple of episodes felt filler in comparison. 

The soundtrack managed to give a very eerie tone to what you were watching with its use of 40s/50s music. Although I feel they could have utilised this more, for the most part they only used music at the start or end of an episode. 

The humour used wasn’t overdone, it felt in place. They didn’t remove character depth for the sake of humour in the same way Marvel has in recent years. The humour mostly came from the situation itself rather than a character making out of place jokes in the face of immediate danger. 

The show has made me consider replaying Fallout 4 or even going back and playing previous games in the series. This is a common feeling for viewers as the stats for people playing the games has gone up significantly since it hit our screens. 

Overall, this is what you would want from a Fallout series, it wasn’t amazing, but it was a good easy watch. Standards are very low when it comes to adaptations of video games though Fallout is well above the average. Where The Witcher and Halo fell flat, Fallout managed to rise above the rest. 

I’m curious to see where they will take the story with season 2, hopefully they will continue with the same quality they started with, keeping us hooked.