The first season of “Fallout” premiered on Prime Video in early April, and the series has already been renewed for a second season. It’s little surprise why, as the show has been extremely well received by casual viewers and critics alike, earning a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and skyrocketing to #1 on Prime Video.
For a video game adaptation, this is somewhat surprising news. Historically, the genre has been riddled with notoriously bad productions, so much so that when “The Last of Us” premiered on HBO last year, it shocked many viewers because of how unapologetically good it was. Much to the joy of fans, it seems that “Fallout” has taken a page out of HBO’s playbook.
It is difficult to pinpoint just one detail that makes “Fallout” so good. In the show’s world, cruelty can veer sharply into campy at times, which makes the monumental acting jobs by the leads even more noteworthy. Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten and Walton Goggins’s acting breathes life into their characters and makes them feel tangibly real. Goggins’s charismatic performance as “The Ghoul” especially stole the show, as the actor portrayed the gunslinger with astounding depth and brutal realism.
The writing is also remarkably skilled, as the script often balances disturbing content with dark humor and a well-placed joke. The atmosphere of the show is oppressive at times, especially when the stakes are particularly high, but this feeling never lasts for long.
While the writers made the right decision to display a reverence for the source material, they also created a whole new world within the “Fallout” series that can stand on its own while peppering in Easter eggs for the video game fans.
This approach has worked as the TV series has led to a renewed interest in the games for both old and new fans. “Fallout 3,” “Fallout 4,” “Fallout 76” and “Fallout: New Vegas” have been receiving a steady increase in players since the series’ release April 10.
A large part of this might be due to the expert world-building that the show provides its viewers. In sharp contrast to the reclaimed by nature post-apocalyptic world that series like “The Last of Us” present, the universe in “Fallout” has a unique aesthetic.
There is nothing soft about this society, as the atomic bomb being dropped led to a desert-like climate on Earth that is reminiscent of scenes from the Wild West. As a result, many survivors have begun living in a way that resembles the marauders of old. The Wasteland is truly a dog-eat-dog world (or sometimes, a dog-eat-giant-radioactive-cockroach world), and the creative team behind the visuals spared no expense in conveying this to their viewers.
Many of the desert scenes were filmed on the coast of Namibia, near a literal ghost town, and this authenticity certainly pays off. It works uniquely well with the retro-futuristic vibe that the “Fallout” game series is known for, and it is clear that everyone from the prop creators to the music supervisors brought their A-game to the production, as every little detail builds up the universe and makes it easy to become immersed in it.
If you want to watch a perfectly executed show that stuck its landing, then “Fallout” is for you. Just heed the content warnings before starting it, and be prepared to look away a few times if it gets to be too much.
Rating: 10/10
