Fallout (TV): ‘Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullsh*t every goddamn time.'

I mentioned last week my excitement over the new Amazon Prime adaption of the Fallout games into a TV series (and shared my playlist!). Well, we have now finished all eight episodes – only eight, it’s nowhere near enough! – so here are some of my thoughts.

I am blown away by what an amazing adaption it is! It’s everything I could have hoped for. The vibes (and to me Fallout is vibes) were spot on. Excellent use of songs from the game soundtrack, which are always a huge part of my experience as a player, and I was squealing with delight all the props and sets! Everything was dead on from the ammo boxes, to devilled eggs, to those stupid jelly moulds you find everywhere for some reason, to aid items like Radaway looking exactly as they do in Fallout 4.

I read a Rolling Stone article that said the production crew built practical sets, and were given Betheda’s 3D models to work from, so it really was like walking into the game!¹

I would love a Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour for the Fallout sets so I could get a good look at everything! Or, OMG, a theme park a la Disneyland.. although I’d probably find that too scary!

I also love that instead of try to recycle a story already told in the games, it adds to it instead. The whole series is really like watching a play through of a new game, and the viewer gets no more information than a new player does so there is no need to have played before watching. It builds on the world and the story that came before it, and while it does add in some backstory on what exactly happened before the first bomb dropped that all totally fits into the world, and fleshes out rather than changes or takes away anything.

“The Wasteland’s got its own Golden Rule: ‘Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullsh*t every goddamn time.'”
The Ghoul, episode 3

Part of this is also that our three main characters feel like players within the game. Lucy gives us the classic introduction to the world through the eyes of a vault dweller (and the “find lost family member” quest line), and she tries (emphasis on the tries) to survive the wasteland through using her high charisma to solve problems, help people and avoid violence. I particularly loved the bridge scene as an example of this!

The Ghoul after 200 years in the wasteland is max level, and he’s playing survival mode (F4 didn’t have new game plus, but if it did he’d be playing it). Given his crazy accurate shooting he’s definitely got all the V.A.T.S. based perks and max perception! I also reckon he’s maxed charisma (he was an actor!) and took the Intimidation perk, but he’ll take the violent option too.

Maximus I found especially interesting, and I’ve seen a lot of fun discussion around him on Reddit! I absolutely agree that he has the Idiot Savant perk which for very low intelligence gives the player a huge boost to luck. He frequently does the stupid thing but somehow ends up with the best outcome! I also love the reading of him as the most player-like character of the three. The average player, at least the first time, may get motivated by petty revenge against NPCs but also have generally good intentions, while often taking the selfish choice – just like Maximus does. And, of course the player is going to take the power armour!

All three main actors were fantastic, I mean Walton Goggins is always A+ (if you have not seen him as Uncle Baby Billy in Righteous Gemstones, you should!), but the actors for Lucy (Ella Purnell – aka Jackie off of the also fantastic Yellowjackets) and Maximum (Aaron Moten) also had characters that could be one note and really managed to pull off something special. I read in an interview that Ella Purnell took inspiration from Ellie Kemper in Kimmy Schmidt, and I think that’s a great reference for the balance in tone that makes a character like Lucy work.²

The real joy in playing Fallout is exploring and finding the many wacky weirdos that populated the wasteland, and I think the TV series captured that too. I loved the organ harvesting business run out a Super-duper Mart with the Mr Handy surgeon, Ma June and Barv, and I really loved Vault 4! I am hoping future series brings some Children of Atom, but they might not have made it East.

I just loved it, but eight episodes was not enough! It has been renewed but it could be a while before season 2.