The Fallout TV Show Is Awesome

My 30-year-old self could still vividly remember the excitement of playing Fallout 3 for the first time as a 13-year-old kid. The game’s world building, characters, stories...everything was pure perfection and “it just works”. It was the very game that gave me my identity as a hardcore gamer. Little did I know that 16 years later, I would feel that same excitement while binge watching all eight episodes of the Fallout TV show on my couch.

The Environment

Old westerns, retro-futurism, and road dramas. How could anyone make a show that combined the three very different styles into one cohesive masterpiece? Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have accomplished this impossible feat.

The show is reminiscent of many iconic scenes from other great films. For example, the opening scene of the Brotherhood of Steel, where many Aspirants are being trained in some military facilities, reminds me of the first part of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1986). Not surprisingly, in both Full Metal Jacket and the Fallout show, the oppressive environment of the training camps forced people to show their darkest sides.

The different environments give the show a nice pacing. I felt like I was in a tourist bus taking me to see the various national wonders of Southern California. Behold: the Pacific Ocean, the deserts, the forests, and the post-apocalyptic concrete jungle. The show took me to another place just as I was starting to become numb to the senses.

The Story

The best part about this show is that the writers not only respected its source material, but also managed to expand the existing lore and tell a very convincing story. I lost count of the number of the “a-ha” moments and the most impressive one was in the season finale. All of the previous Fallout games never explained how the Great War started, and it has remained a mystery for 26 years since Fallout 1. In the season finale, I came to the horrifying realization that the Vault-Tec Corporation may have been the villain behind the nuclear apocalypse.

I also had a lot of “Now that makes sense” moments while watching the show. Aspirant Dane had a serious foot injury in the first episode, but it was only in the last episode that they said it was their own doing, not Max’s. It was at that moment that I realized that Max was indeed a person with a good heart, and there might come a day when his beliefs would clash with those of the Brotherhood of Steel.

The Acting

I like to measure an actor’s acting ability by how much I get caught up in the action while they’re acting. Throughout the eight episodes, not once did I feel like I was just a popcorn-eating bystander as all the action unfolded. Instead, I felt like I was in the story while the main characters were my companions: I was trekking through the deserts and mountains with Lucy; I was flying in the same Vertibird with Max; I was shooting the paladins of the Brotherhood of Steel with The Ghoul. While many other shows, such as The Witcher, have the problem of one main actor carrying the entire show, the Fallout Show's trio of three main characters are all equally excellent.

The supporting cast does not pale in comparison to the main characters. Barb, Moldaver, Dane, and even the goofy Thaddeus are all so memorable.

The Devil Is in the Details

Details are what make a fantasy world believable and alive. Every Harry Potter fan knows about Butterbeer, Hogmeade's favorite drink; every Tolkienite knows about Cram, which feeds the Fellowship of the Ring; and every Fallout fan knows the secret ingredients in Iguana-on-a-Stick.

The eight episodes are pebbled with details that are faithful to the canon. Icons like the shiny T-60 Power Armor, the intricate vaults, and the colossal Prydwen are already more than amazing. To my surprise, the show went the extra mile to even faithfully design the Crams, Deviled Eggs, and Abraxo Cleaners, which only appear on screen for a few seconds. All of these details make for an amazing, yet convincing Fallout universe.

In addition, the show added details that were missing from previous Fallout entries. For example, the show finally gave fans the answer to why the Vault suits are blue and yellow; why the thumbs up gesture for the Vault Boy, just to name a few.

The Verdict

I literally blurted out “What the ****?” when the entire first season came to the final shot of a bird’s eye view of New Vegas. What happened to New Vegas? Is Mr. House still alive? Where is Caesar’s Legion? I have so many questions right now and I can’t wait for the season 2 to come.

The show’s studio, Amazon Prime Video, has finally found the style of shows it is most comfortably making. The show deserves a 10 out of 10 rating and I look forward to more successful shows coming from Prime Video.