Fallout Season One | Review

Faithful and Fantastic

Jesse 'Doncabesa' Norris 3 weeks agoLast Updated: April 10, 2024

67 3,884 4 minutes read

Fallout is coming to Amazon Prime, with big names Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan as executive producers. I loved their work on Westworld (except maybe Season 3). For fans of the original isometric RPGs, the first-person titles, and those with no clue what the IP is, this show is fantastic. I have never watched an adaptation this dedicated to being faithful to the source material. From the looks to the sounds, and the feeling Fallout’s first season nails it all. I’ll have recaps for all eight episodes at launch, so let’s get into why I loved this season in as spoiler-free a manner as possible.

War Never Changes

The show begins by showcasing the day-to-day life of Vault 33. The McLane family, with patriarch and Vault Overseer Hank (played by Kyle McLachlan), are a seemingly perfect family helping run a perfect society. This is Fallout, and anyone who knows the IP is aware of the backstory surrounding VaulTec, RobCo, and all the nefarious near-do-well mega corporations of this alternate history. The show takes place in 2296 around Los Angeles. It has been 219 years since a Nuclear Apocalypse ravaged the face of the planet.

The show features the intertwining lives of three main characters:

Lucy McLane (Ella Purnell) – A vault dweller, she’s naïve of the world above. A true believer in the mission of her vault and its Golden Rule “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”

Maximus (Aaron Molten) – Max is a low-ranking trainee of the Brotherhood of Steel. Saved by them during an attack on his home town he wants to hurt the people who hurt him while feeling heroic.

The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) – We’ll learn a lot of “Ghoulgins” character throughout the season. At the start though we know he’s a bad-ass, famous bounty hunter who has been alive for a very long time.

The show features a lot of memorable characters, many of whom don’t make it in this heavily R-rated show. There’s effin, there’s jeffin, there’s sex, there’s breasts, butts, exploding domes, crushed bodies, cannabilism… it’s Fallout. The show does an excellent job of using gore in a mostly comedic and occasionally shocking way. It never felt torture-porn-y like most horror films can. There’s a dry humor to everything that comes through during the sex scenes as well. Hearing a character, who has never ejaculated or even heard of sex ask “Want to make my c*ck explode?” with sincere earnestness was hilarious.

Power Suit and Aaron Moten (Maximus) in “Fallout”

Controlling the Wasteland

This season is about factions, much like the games on which it is based. You have your vault dwellers. Vaults 31, 32, and 33 are connected in a triangular pattern. The Brotherhood of Steel is as cult-like and zealous as ever with their power armor, flying machines, and fervent belief in the righteousness of their cause. Other factions from the game show up and when one in particular did the music sting I had been waiting for finally came, I got a hit of nostalgic goosebumps that lasted an hour.

Unlike Halo’s season one Fallout is all-in on mining information, looks, sounds, and plots from the source material. This is a living, breathing addition to Bethesda’s version of Fallout, with full respect and adoration for the original Isometric-RPG releases. It’s hard to get too into it without spoilers, but at no point did any shot of this show not feel like Fallout. Whether it was a flashback to before the bombs dropped, inside a vault, in the wasteland, or beyond the authenticity is off the charts.

So is the moral ambiguity. None of our main characters stay clean by the end, though Ghoulgins never tries to be. Early on I was curious just where the plot was going, a MacGuffin is mentioned. It’s an important item that can control the future of the wasteland. A lot of times you either never find out exactly what that is or are disappointed by the answer. Happily, in Fallout season one, you get a damned satisfying conclusion by the end.

A Bountiful Budget

The season is eight episodes long and while the main plot can take a bit of time to ramp up and fully make sense I never felt bored getting there. I watched the entire thing straight through in one long session with my wife and we both enjoyed it. She’s not a fan of the series but with a few pointers from me, she kept up with the plot and was all-in after initially being skeptical about whether the show was for her or not.

Fallout season one looks expensive as hell, too. Sneaking in before Jeff Bezos got upset at the TV department for using his Penis Rocket money up the set design is excellent. They smartly re-use areas in a way that makes sense for the plot, as I can imagine building entire cities and societies isn’t cheap. The outdoor locations looked beautiful though I was watching a 720p extremely low bitrate screener copy, so we’ll have to see how it holds up at 4K.

Ramin Djawadi is in charge of the music and like always he does a great job. While it doesn’t immediately jump into recognizable Fallout motifs it always has that feel. I’d say it’s more reminiscent of Bethesda’s titles than the originals, but it fits the mix of corporate and Western settings we constantly delve between. As the story hits its apex things ramp up in the sound department where if you put a gun in the middle of the screen I could have sworn I was playing a path-traced future Fallout 9. My only issue with the season is the obvious insertion of commercial breaks. It’s unavoidable but instead of scenes flowing and audio crossfading between it led to hard cuts to nothing before starting up again for the next scene.

Ella Purnell (Lucy), Kyle MacLachlan (Overseer Hank) Fallout Season One

Wrapping Things Up

Fallout season one is coming to Amazon Prime the day after this goes live, and whether you’re new to the series or any level of fan you should give it a chance. A stellar cast is backed up by hilarious and occasionally heartbreaking writing, gorgeous visuals, and stellar music.

Fallout Season One Reviews