As existentially
horrifying as the idea of nuclear war is, I will say that at least it has
inspired some creative fiction over the years. For a good example of this, look
no further than Fallout, the hugely popular video game series where the
radroaches are humongous, the mutants and ghouls are plentiful, and the Geiger
counters enthusiastically sing their clicky song of death. It’s an interesting
world to visit and one that was ripe for adaptation, and wouldn’t you know it,
but Amazon Prime has given us a pretty great one, even if it feels like it
takes a while to get going.
Fallout the television show is not
based on any particular game in the series but is instead its own thing, a big
positive considering how bogged down with minutia that straightforward
adaptations can get. It starts with a bang (several bangs in fact, each one of
the nuclear persuasion) before reigning things in a bit for a solid hour and a
half of world building as we follow three characters—two heroes and a scene
chewing villain played by the always fantastic Walton Goggins. Despite some
(fairly gruesome) bloodshed that kicks off Lucy’s (Ella Purnell) journey things
start out pretty slow, and it’s not until halfway through the second hour-long
episode that things begin to coalesce a bit into a cohesive narrative. But the
world of Fallout is just so interesting that it doesn’t matter much. As
the bombs fell in a world analogous to our 1950s the tunes are all old-timey,
the tech the dream of someone from that era imagining what the future would
look like in the distant year of two-thousand-whatever. The giant budget that
Amazon threw at this project is seen everywhere, from the ruinous sets to the CGI
on the freaky mutated beasties to the grungy makeup that makes everyone but the
two heroes look like grody little trash goblins.
Fallout was always a series that had
its tongue firmly in its cheek, drawing satirical humor from such places as the
naivete of the people who grew up in radiation-proof vaults or the borderline jingoism
of the Brotherhood of Steel, a fairly fascistic organization that has all the
subtlety of a bull driving a tank in a China shop. This humor is present in the
show, if a bit dialed down, keeping things fun to watch even when things are
bleak. A lot of humor is also derived from some over-the-top violence that
would not seem out of place in an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon, so if head
popping and silverware ballistics are not your thing you might want to look
elsewhere.
But for existing fans and newcomers alike Fallout
is a triumph, standing among some of the best video game to
Fallout season 1 is now available on
Amazon Prime.
This review was first published in the Keizertimes on April 19th, 2024. Visit at www.keizertimes.com.
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