Fallout the series - some thoughts

[Joelist]

I just got done watching the eight episodes of season one of the Fallout series on Amazon. This is based on the games but the story and most characters are original.

Overall it wasn't bad. Yes it has gory moments and yes some of the dialogue gets really sexual. But it does successfully capture the tone of the games. It is pretty dark and has grim survival drama aspects but the weird sort of humorous undertone from the games survives here.

Most of the acting is good. Ella Purnell handles the lead part well (and is not even close to a girl boss or Mary Sue). Aaron Moten also does a good turn as a recruit of the Brotherhood of Steel (a Fallout game faction). And stealing his scenes is Walton Goggins as an immortal mutant bounty hunter (another game element translated pretty well).

As to the woke question the answer is no. It is not woke. It also avoids the curse of presentism that kills so many shows and movies nowadays. It also is not perfect. The pacing is inconsistent with the opening episode feeling like a Guy Ritchie film and some later episodes move slower than necessary, with more flashbacks to before the war than to me were needed.

One other thing I should note - I think a major reason this adaptation works is that it concentrates on getting the look, tone and feel of the setting and its background elements right. Then it tells an original story with original characters in that setting and obeying all the rules of that setting. This inherently gives writers a lot more room to operate in while not breaking lore compatibility. This is also why (bit of a sidetrack) Halo is such a bad adaptation - they used characters from the games (like Master Chief) and got them completely wrong in addition to not accurately capturing the feel and look of the game setting.

All in all it is a positive sign that maybe, just maybe, we are starting to get decently written and performed entertainment again.

 

[Shadow Mann]

This is a great review! I agree about them getting the game gore and visuals right. They have dispersed some very familiar Easter eggs in the show and they have replicated the look of the Fallout world faithfully. They also managed to capture the mentalities of the different vault dwellers who have been unwitting subjects of experiments in their respective vaults.

Having said the above, they did slip in many areas as well. They showed the fallout cars in the first episode (which are fusion powered and do not look like any vehicles ever made in our history). They litter the post-nuclear landscape in Fallout and they did not maintain this in the series as faithfully. There were 1950s cars from our real history, and some 1950s imagery that perhaps one of the not-so-familiar-with-Fallout production crews did not realize might be a problem. Still, it wasn't a dealbreaker.

You also mentioned the good acting. Yes, the actors were well chosen and the cast is well balanced and diverse without being an agenda. The game is this way as well. The character Maximus has some integrity issues that seem redeemable. Lucy is going on a hero path that will toughen her and make her less naive. There are 122 vaults in Fallout, and we know where all but four of them are. There is a hint that there might be a few more highly secret and highly specialized vaults as well. This means that there is plenty of room to take this series into several seasons and also introduce new characters and locales.

As far as game adaptations go, this one is the best BY FAR (in my opinion). We get a live-action portrayal of the game universe (vs animated or CGI). This is very important because it brings the Fallout world to "real-life" and things that happen in the show feel more visceral. And yes, NO WOKENESS! You can't exactly slip it in anywhere either. There is no room for any of the agendas we have in real-life in the 21st century. It would be completely out of place.

 

[Atlantis]

I'll check it out because I know nothing about this series nor the game.

 

[Joelist]

The nice thing is that intimate knowledge of the games is not needed to understand the show.

 

[Joelist]

I find it interesting that unlike the other recent attempts to adapt video games to "tv", play and sales of Fallout titles has spiked big time since the series. Shows that it went over well with a lot of people.

 

[Shadow Mann]

I find it interesting that unlike the other recent attempts to adapt video games to "tv", play and sales of Fallout titles has spiked big time since the series. Shows that it went over well with a lot of people.

Definitely! I myself fired up my Fallout 4 VR game for the first time in two years, and I have been playing it almost every day. I also have Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 76, Fallout 3 and the Fallout 4 flat game. I want to buy New Vegas because that appears to be the next main locale for Season 2.

 

[Gatefan1976]

New Vegas was possibly the best fallout game. I LOVE the building aspect of 4, but getting told to "save X place by the minutemen sorta sucked. In fact, in my last playthrough I ignored the whole minutemen storyline completely till the end. That was one of the joys of F-O 4, you could play it how you wanted to.

 

[Joelist]

I have to concur New Vegas is the best title. But all of the games share the underlying sort of twisted satirical sense of humor and I was glad to see it transported successfully into the series.

 

[Gatefan1976]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEyDNTLlRgU

 

[Gatefan1976]

Who would have thunk an old fuck like you would LOVE Danny Kaye!! LOL I now have a USB with every song from Fallout on it, I should send it to you

 

[Joelist]

Danny Kaye was a first class performer. I liked him in Walter Mitty, White Christmas and others.

 

[Joelist]

Back to Fallout, I found it interesting to track the evolution of Lucy's character during the series (another reason this is not woke and she is not a Mary sue or girlboss is she has an arc and definitely does not win all the time). Her naivete, politeness and general niceness all put her in a place where she gets her butt kicked repeatedly. She does lose a lot of the naivete but importantly she succeeds in hanging on to her morals.

Another interesting (and somewhat funny) aspect is her approach to problems and her admittedly loose attitude to sex. She tries to use classic managerial school style approaches such as conflict resolution and its ilk for every situation. This was kinda in the back of my mind until Norm discovered the secret of Vault 31 - Bud's Buds. Then it all became clear and was actually a good setup and payoff.

Yes Vaults 32 and 33 ARE experiments. They are Bud's experiments where 31 has the overseers all of whom are products of his junior executive training and they are to guide the other two vaults in a breeding program to create...Super Managers! Suddenly Lucy's behavior makes perfect sense - she is in a breeding program (although unaware) which is why they have the upfront sex interest. Her approach to things reflects her upbringing, being taught in a curriculum developed by Bud where everyone is learning management principles from childhood.

 

[Gatefan1976]

In umm "real" Fallout lore, nearly every vault is a social experiment. I think there are only around 10 (lore wise) that were actually built to be "what's on the packaging"

 

[Joelist]

In umm "real" Fallout lore, nearly every vault is a social experiment. I think there are only around 10 (lore wise) that were actually built to be "what's on the packaging"

Exactly. And the series IS real Fallout lore. It occurs later than any of the games and the game studio was in on the plot writing of the series and has stated it is canon - in essence think of it as "Fallout 4.5".

We the viewer (if we knew Fallout) knew 33 was some kind of experiment. But Lucy doesn't know that. She is convinced her Vault is the standard for Vaults - only when she learns about Vault 4 does she see for the first time Vaults as experiments. And when Norm discovers what Vault 31 is about and we find out what the Vault 33 experiment is it puts Lucy's approach to things into perspective. She is an unknowing member of a breeding program where everyone in 32 and 33 has been trained from birth and encultured according to Bud's Junior Executive program.

 

[Gatefan1976]

I have it all on a flash-drive, but have still not got around to watching it past halfway through ep 1. Considering I have been playing F-O since the first , it's odd that I have not made time, but life has been........... More Chaotic than usual over the last 7 months.

 

[Joelist]

Understandable. I basically binged it over a couple of evenings.

 

[Gatefan1976]

One of the best-made Fan films EVER:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6DF-8keTOA

 

[Joelist]

Pretty good fan film. It sort of captures the game but does miss the underlying satirical sense of humor a bit.

 

[Shadow Mann]

One of the best-made Fan films EVER:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6DF-8keTOA

That was EXCELLENT! Wow, makes me happy to see that independent producers can make stuff worthy of TV. I think it was more on the serious side, but it still captures the major elements of the game (especially Fallout 3 and 4) for the most part. They even nailed the colors and used filters to replicate the game look. Awesome! I think it needed some humor too, as @Joelist mentioned.

 

[Shadow Mann]

New Vegas was possibly the best fallout game. I LOVE the building aspect of 4, but getting told to "save X place by the minutemen sorta sucked. In fact, in my last playthrough I ignored the whole minutemen storyline completely till the end. That was one of the joys of F-O 4, you could play it how you wanted to.

Meh, I still love Fallout 4 better. No open desert, lots more to explore, settlement building. I think Fallout New Vegas is more fun, but once played through, is it as replayable as Fallout 4? I just got it, and have just started playing. I'm on my second playthrough of Fallout 4 and it feels like a different game because I made different decisions and the dialogue I get from the NPC characters has changed as a result. I aligned with the Brotherhood of Steel in my first playthrough, but actively made them my enemy in the second. The dynamics are way different! I swapped out Dogmeat for Nick as my companion.