rocket 69
Amazon's 'Fallout' TV Series Reviews: One Of The Best Video Game Adaptations Ever Made
The Fallout franchise is one of the most beloved in gaming history, mixing brutal and grotesque hyper-violence with the cheerful optimism and "world of tomorrow" aesthetic Walt Disney brought to EPCOT. The atom-punk retrofuturism the game uses brings nuclear waste, mutated monsters and ghouls, '50s songs about love, a naive post-war idealism and space-age tech to the lone gunman tropes of westerns.
The new "Fallout" TV show is not directly based on anything from the games — no characters or storylines or settings — but it does have a Vault dweller leaving to see LA hundreds of years after the end of the world, and the journey begins from there. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the head creatives behind "Westworld," are also behind this Amazon production — and from everything we read, it's the bee's knees and the cat's pajamas.
"Fallout" is out April 10, 2024, streaming all eight episodes. It stars Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Walton Goggins, Kyle MacLachlan, Chris Parnell, Zach Cherry, Michael Emerson and Matt Berry. Here's what critics have to say about this highly anticipated TV show.
What it's about
Quickly fast-forwarding 219 years, the year in now, 2296 in Los Angeles, and a nuclear apocalypse has decimated the planet. The new world represented is that of the Vault, an underground civilization of fallout bunkers where some lucky members of society have hidden to preserve humanity ("To keep the candle of civilization lit while the rest of the world has been cast into darkness," one character declares). Having never ventured outside to the above-ground Earth they assume radiation has poisoned beyond habitation, the gentle, naïve, and self-sustainable denizens of Vault 33 are preparing for a wedding. Proud father and Vault Overseer Hank (Kyle MacLachlan) is about to send off his daughter ("Yellowjackets" star Ella Purnell) to an arraigned marriage with a neighboring Vault culture they have never met as is the custom of the times. Meant to be a prosperous union for both societies, the jejune, gullible Vault dwellers soon realize they've been tricked — posing as the adjacent Vault are bands of savage raiders from the surface here to rape, pillage and plunder their resources.
This is for the fans of the games, and for everyone else too; it's a riot
That world is one of the things "Fallout" immediately nails from its earliest moments. The live-action Vaults have the same steel-caged Americana atmosphere that made them immediately effective in "Fallout 3's" opening moments, with long, artificially bright hallways lined with cheerful mailboxes and blast-proof doors. But it's on the surface where the show really starts to shine. "Fallout" was filmed on location and with gorgeous and grimy practical sets that make the Wasteland feel real and alive. Clothes are ripped and torn, walls are rough and patched, and everything from the guns to the technology feels cobbled together from the scrap of the world that used to be. All of this comes into sharp focus anytime the Brotherhood of Steel appears in its power-armored glory, looking terrifying in its completeness.
True to the video games, "Fallout" eschews needlessly false emotional beats in favor of creative, often very funny, world-building. Fans of video games can rest assured that the rest of the 8-episode season features plenty of nudges, nods, winks, callbacks, twists, turns, lore, laughs, reveals, revelations, and more to keep them comfy for the duration -- and, notably, does so with only minor hiccups to interrupt its near-relentless pace. That's not including the peripheral details of interest to diehard fans, which would require multiple viewings to spot every tucked-away touch that must've been a production team's absolute pleasure or a total nightmare. For those who have never played the Fallout series, especially those of the time-strapped ilk who can't just pour hundreds of hours into a game, they should give Prime Video's "Fallout" a go. It's like catching up on several pop cultural properties at once, in a fraction of the time, condensing everything from trash like The Asylum's DTV output to the most head-spinning qualities of Season 1 of "Westworld." It's an unruly hunk of TV made of blood and steel, and it's nothing if not interesting.
It looks perfect
Firstly, it looks terrific. Clearly little expense has been spared on sets and design and special effects. The dusty Wasteland is expansive and nightmarish. The vaults look both properly lived-in and as if they could withstand nuclear attack. The power armour suits used by the Brotherhood of Steel are convincingly solid. Goggins is virtually unrecognisable as the noseless, decaying Ghoul. Appalling injuries and wounds are revoltingly realistic. (There's a lot of violence).
One of the greatest challenges "Fallout" faced was turning the world of the games into a live-action universe. Thanks to a truck-load of Amazon money and talented production designers, though, Nolan, Joy and showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner have done an admirable job of it. This is a wonderfully tangible apocalypse, full of colorful oddballs and soundtracked by the 1950s' best bops. Every space bursts with personality, much of that arriving via the astonishing attention to detail in all the items, weapons, and recognizable iconography. Nuka Cola bottles litter shelves, characters heal themselves with stimpacks and Vault 33 is inch-for-inch damn near perfect, right down to the emergency override switches. You don't need to know the games to appreciate the craft behind it, but if you do there's a lot to love.
They hit home runs with the casting
All of the performances are great; Purnell is a strong, loveably naive lead, while Moten delivers a fascinatingly, sort-of loathsome turn. Excusing the wonderful pooch that plays CX404, aka Four, Goggins is the runaway MVP, an agent of chilly, smooth-talking chaos somewhere between John Marston and Clarence Boddicker. If the Brotherhood of Steel plot is the weakest — the hooah cultism isn’t explored enough — his centuries-spanning story could be a TV show on its own.
Personality is where "Fallout" has always excelled, first in the games and now here on Prime Video. Beyond its exceptional cast each frame brims with character thanks to an extremely faithful retro-futuristic design that lends "Fallout" its quirky yet grim nostalgic view on a perfect world that never was in a damaged world that's all too real... the fact [Ella Purnell] doesn't just pull this off but goes on to outshine pretty much everyone involved speaks more to Purnell's talent rather than any weaker link in the wider cast. Because everyone does admirable work here, navigating Fallout's unique tone as if they had always lived in this nuclear-drenched world.
TL;DR
"Fallout" is one of the most confident, impressive video game adaptations ever made.
There's a lot to recommend with "Fallout."
Nicholas Quah, New York Magazine/Vulture
A slightly sluggish journey across a giddily realized world.
"Fallout" is a big, wicked, and totally rad video game adaptation and streaming's next big monster hit.
The tone, the visuals, the meticulous attention to the detail of the game world is a far cry from some other adaptations-which-will-not-be-named that try to completely blaze their own path. This is extraordinarily faithful to the games.
[I want] to watch more seasons of "Fallout" and invest in high-end computer equipment so that I can play every installment of the video game. And if that's not a win for Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and the rest of their brilliant team, I don't know what is.
Pramit Chatterjee, Digital Mafia Talkies
