As a frequent player of both Fallout 4 and Fallout '76, I really looked forward to see what Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy (of Westworld fame) were going to do with the Fallout franchise for the small screen. Fallout has arrived and is available for bingeing on Amazon Prime, and I have some thoughts about it after finishing the series.
The Fallout TV series does a lot of things right, and it’s obvious Amazon and the producers have gone to great lengths to adapt the source material into something that is really good. There are areas for improvement, but overall the effort is solid.
One of the places that Fallout shines is in discussion of big ideas. In showing how Vault-Tec Corporation highlights the peril of uncontrolled capitalism, Fallout does an admirable job in capturing one of the more absurd elements of the game universe. Walter has an almost throw-discussion with a Vault-Tec rep about how lots of service people lost their lives due to design flaws with the T-45 power armor during the Alaskan conflict, and the series eventually expands that into Vault-Tec and other corporatons initiating nuclear war to reduce competition and remain profitable.
The way the progression is presented is absurd and funny, but it is also completely plausible. The same 'absurd-but-possible' mantra is present with The Enclave and Brotherhood of Steel (BoS) faction depictions, and it works well.
There has been a great deal of painstaking work completed to get the details of the game universe faithfully reproduced in the series, and it shows. Everything including shelters, vault dweller uniforms, pip boys, and wasteland icons like Red Rocket stores, shopping malls, power armor, and other environmental details look fantastic and properly replicated. As a Fallout player, every easter egg is smile-inducing.
Having said all that, the show has some issues. The show misfires when it tries to inject comedy into every element of the show. Most of the BoS scenes make them appear bumbling/wacky organizationally incompetent (the Titus/Maximus scenes were painful to watch) at least until the final episode, and Lucy the Vault Dweller naivety is there for laughs that grow stale.
All the vault drama was unnecessary and doesn't add value. While the Vault 31/32/33 and Vault 4 drama did provide more Vault-Tec background. That same information context could have been shared in half the time. Even the ending reveal was lackluster which was disappointing.
Perhaps most problematic for a Fallout player, the series doesn't depict the Wasteland as a dangerous place in terms of events or appearance. Sure there is the occasional run-in with fiends, a gulper, and the Yao Guai bear that killed Titus, but there are more folks saying the wasteland is dangerous than there are actual dangers. And the cinematography that has rendered the environment as 'chic-destruction', which is disappointing.
The show is good, and will likely appeal to more folks with the choices Nolan/Joy made in bringing the show to live action. Toning down the comedy, better choice in storylines, and a slightly darker and dangerous tone could have the show been better.