As far as videogame adaptations go, this was great. And I’d say, it is my second favorite, as the first place belongs to Arcane (2021) in my opinion. But if we are talking about live-action adaptations, this one is my favorite.
Fallout series is adapted by Amazon from the Fallout videogames by Bethesda. I have no idea how the games are, so I’ll skip the videogame talk. Let’s talk about the series.
People are comparing it to The Last of Us (2023). But I think Fallout is better than The Last of Us. At least I liked it better.
This series has a distinct character and a sick sense of humor. The most grotesque and violent deaths are made into a funny scene here. But it fits into the nature of the radioactive Wasteland, as it is a cruel and unforgiving place. It is not a big event there if you get your head smooshed or your limbs dismembered; it’s just another day. The nature of The Wasteland contrasts beautifully with the morals of our main protagonist, Lucy (Ella Purnell). She is protected from all the savagery and cruelness of the real world. Lucy’s optimistic righteousness is met with mockery and ridicule of The Wastelanders; and it makes for some hilarious scenes. Despite being so funny and campy, this series takes its characters seriously when it’s needed. There are serious emotional heartfelt moments. These moments are genuine and aren’t forced to be funny.
This show stands on really good writing and character work. The characters who have a good heart will resort to violence and betrayal when they are desperate. A good example would be another main character Maximus (Aaron Moten). He is an ambitious young man who is determined to become a knight and to make the wasteland a better place. And if that ambition is threatened, he will put on a mean face and make some non-good guy moves. For most of the time he is paired with the squire Thaddeus. And I love his character; he is hilarious.
The third main character, The Ghoul is played by the amazing Walter Goggins (I loved him in The Hateful Eight). Whenever he shows up, a yodeling voice starts playing in the background. It cracked me up when I first heard it. He has been alive for more than 200 years. He knows everything he has to, to survive in The Wasteland and he doesn’t die when shot. It is really funny to see him merely getting annoyed when he is shot. So, he has become a bit jaded. But when he meets Lucy; her unbridled optimism and goodwill surprises him.
The three main leads along with the entire cast give a stellar performance.
The world design and the lore associated with it is immaculate. It feels like a living, breathing world. And the backstory behind the nuclear fallout is the creepiest and the most disgusting part of the world. There is death and destruction up in The Wasteland, but the creepiest parts for me were the corporate meetings and vault scenes. And the scary thing is, the portrayal of creepy corporate people isn’t that far off.
There are some really well-done special effects in this show. Dismemberments and Bloody violent deaths are handled spectacularly. Most of the environments and props are also real. The only thing that bothered me was the CGI. The nuke explosions were a bit lacking, de aging effects and CGI removal of The Ghoul’s nose looked bad and kind of washed out. It’s not really that big of a deal but it is distracting sometimes.
Even though this show is an adaptation, it is original in its own way. It doesn’t copy one of the games storylines. This is a brand-new story set in the same universe, which sets it free from comparisons with the game. No character or dialogue is brought from the game, so you don’t compare both versions. This was the reason I couldn’t enjoy The Last of Us. Even if everything else was great in that show, I couldn’t unsee that everyone was trying to be a character I knew they were not. Even the dialogues were the same. So, I always felt like the series was always emulating the game, which itself was structured like a movie. However. This is not a problem here because the main story is not connected to the games at all.
Overall, I found this show funny, uncomfortable, violent, gross, sometimes scary and creepy and all the way unique which I can always admire.
Thank you!
