Like most video game nerds, I’ve been anticipating the release of Amazon prime’s Fallout series for a while. Netflix is currently developing a movie based on Bioshock, one of my favourite games of all time. Like many, I’ve been worried they’d ruin my precious, but watching Fallout made me worry a little less.

Of course the Bioshock movie will be developed by other people, but Fallout made me realise that a TV show based on a stylised, quirky game can work. We’ve seen that video game adaptations can be good thanks to The Last of Us, but The Last of Us is a pretty “realistic” story. It doesn’t take much suspension of disbelief. Fallout, however, is far from a realistic game.

I’ve played a bit of Fallout (Fallout 3? New Vegas? I really don’t recall) in the past, but I never got very far. The mechanics of Bethesda games are too clunky for me (and I’ll still happily play Bioshock to this day so that’s saying something – but enough about Bioshock). I was going into the TV show mostly blind, with the exception of having some general background knowledge that one learns from the tutorial of the game. I therefore won’t be able to judge how well they did at translating the game to the small screen. What I can do is give my perspective as someone who is relatively unfamiliar with the source material.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series. I though Lucy Maclean was a really fun main character. The humour of Fallout is quite whimsical and quirky, but it never gets tiring. They manage to capture the vibe really well. The other point of view characters are also well written and give you a much broader image of what life in the wastes is like. The way the whole thing comes together at the end is truly expertly crafted. I do feel there were some slight issues with pacing, but nothing major.

I think it’s pretty hard to make a show based on a video game that both feels like the video game, but also feels like a genuine piece of media in and of itself. I think Fallout really succeeded at this. Visually, the show doesnt fall into the modern trap of making things grim and gray. At the same time, the sets and props all looked “real” enough (or perhaps there was enough cohesion in the design of the show) that the show doesnt look weird.

I’m glad that video games are getting more adaptations, especially with this level of quality.

Prior to watching this series, I had little intimate knowledge of the Fallout universe. My only experiences with the video games have been through playthroughs by (less than serious) Twitch streamers, which left me with a vague idea of the atmosphere of the setting: post-apocalyptic bleak, but with the occasional quirky humour. When I heard there was an adaptation, I was intrigued and planned to one day watch it, but a recommendation from Lotte sped up this process significantly.

To be consise, Fallout is a well-crafted series. The acting, writing and cinematography are strong, succesfully balancing emotional drama with cold gore and funny absurdities. What could have easily been an uninspired MacGuffin plot, was made interesting by three layered main characters and fascinating worldbuilding. At no point was I really sure what to expect, and in the last episode the main storylines neatly came together. Bonus point for the many little stories hidden in seemingly irrelevant background characters and worldbuilding titbits. I wish more films and series would put that kind of effort in their storytelling.

Just some things that I liked (and random thoughts):

• Fallout reminded me somewhat of a classic spaghetti Western film, such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
• Lucy’s character struggles. How to remain a decent person in a broken world?
• The way the post-apocalyptic setting is handled. Especially the lore behind the vaults and the use of Cold War themes.
• Vault 4.
• Every time when a person in power armour did something extremely human.
• The different factions and their motivations.

In summary, certainly a series that is worth a try.