Like many people, I had my doubts about a Fallout TV show. Video game adaptations have a bad reputation, even though I still have faith in most of them. And I love Fallout as much as the next gamer. So could they pull it off? Could they make it work? Apparently, they can knock it out of the goddam park!

TV Show Rating: 9/10 – Great

I was a little worried after seeing the first teaser trailer for the Fallout show, but the second trailer was awesome and I was fully on board. I don’t think Amazon Prime should have released the whole show in one day, I think Fallout could have benefited from a weekly release, but those choices aren’t mine to make. I managed to finally watch all the episodes this week so it’s now review time!

Join me after the jump for my thoughts and review on the first season of Fallout. Expect FULL SPOILERS for the whole show! And feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments below.

6. Phenomenal show

I loved this show from beginning to end! It was nicely paced, with interesting characters, a fun story, a solid mystery, and a truly phenomenal blend of humor, violence and drama. They did about as perfect a job as one could ever expect them to do in bringing this game and this world and these characters to life. Honestly, I have zero complaints. I would give the show a perfect 10 out of 10, but I usually reserve that for media that really goes above and beyond and touches me on an emotional level. Fallout was great, but it wasn’t upper upper echelon. That’s my only gripe, and it’s not even a gripe.

For me, every episode was a banger. The first episode, for sure, was immaculate. I’m a little surprised they decided to switch to Maximus’s story before Lucy left the vault, but it still worked. We got clear views of the world and the three main characters, with clearly no expense spared on effects. And then each episode moved the story along nicely, dropping some hints here and there, while juggling many different characters and subplots. I was never bored, the series never lagged. We saw a wide variety of locations, monsters and characters, all of which had a great sense of humor, which is key to Fallout.

This was a well-made show that didn’t shy away an ounce from being a Fallout show.

5. The look and feel is immaculate

Like I said above, no expense appeared to be spared when making this show. Most, if not all, of the computer effects looked immaculate. I’m not even sure how much was CGI and how much was practical. Did they build real Power Armor?! It looks so real! The giant ships, the entire communities, the various vaults, the costumes and the makeup; all of it was picture perfect. There were tons of Easter Eggs, but they weren’t even Easter Eggs, they were just part of the world. Is it an Easter Egg to include Stimpaks and bobbleheads? That’s just how the world works and looks! And they nailed it so perfectly. They even built those nifty looking cars for the flashback scenes!

4. Great main character arcs

I really, really enjoyed the individual arcs of the main characters, especially Lucy and Maximus. Lucy learned to push aside her naivete and come to better understand the world. And Maximus learned to push aside his suspicion and anger to try to embrace a better world. I especially enjoyed the darkness in Maximus. I thought for sure that he had sabotaged his friend’s boot. That would have been a really dark choice, but it totally would have worked. They made a really neat team and I look forward to their story continuing. And The Ghoul was damn good as the long gunslinger, with his backstory being revealed in those last few episodes. He was the perfect third wheel lead.

3. Solid mystery

The mystery of Vault 33 kept me guessing all the way up to the reveal, as did the mystery of what was happening with the Ghoul’s family in the past. Obviously I’m well-versed in Vault-Tec and the vaults in general from the games I’ve played, but then they went and invented even more stuff I had no idea about. I’m fairly certain that this show was carefully constructed so as to not interfere in any other Fallout lore. It’s neat to know that all the other vaults from all the other games are also out there in the world of the show.

2. Shame we won’t have a new Fallout game for a while

I love the games. I played through Fallout 3, New Vegas and Fallout 4, and I’ve started Fallout 76 at least twice and never got very deep. It’s a shame we don’t have a new game to jump right into after watching the show. And there’s no sign when the next full Fallout game will be. I heard they’re doing some graphical upgrades to the existing games, but eh. I have no interest in going back and playing them over again. I’m a forward thinking sort of guy, and there’s no future for Fallout games in sight. Alas.

1. Bring on New Vegas!

Heh, for a brief second in the final shot of the show, I thought it was going to be Seattle. That looked like the Space Needle! But I guess I just don’t remember the skyline of New Vegas all that well. It was the best of the games, and having a second season take place in New Vegas is a great idea! It’s such an awesome location and so much can happen in Vegas in the Wasteland. I believe the show is set after the game, so perhaps we’ll find some canon ending info about New Vegas. Definitely looking forward to that, and looking forward to many more seasons! It’s a shame we’ll have to wait so long to watch.

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