Written & Edited by: Lee Fenton

The tonally alacritous adaptation of a hugely popular video game franchise, Fallout (a Prime Original) is a smashing success – critics and fans alike agree that the show manages to deliver a surreal, quirky, and hilariously authentic take on the source material. Bethesda Game Studios was the company responsible for kicking off the Fallout franchise success, peaking in the mid 2000’s with Fallout 3 & Fallout New Vegas. The show incorporates aspects from both those entries into the series and the more recent as well; namely Fallout 4, Fallout 76.

Ella Purnell and Walter Goggins seem to be the two leads of the show; both of them garnering the greatest amount of screen time, and occupying equally important positions within the narrative, however Aron Moten occupies the unusual spot of tritagonist — complicating the plot structure somewhat. 

Purnell is a relative newcomer to Hollywood, but with her debut as the lead actor in a premier series on Prime Video, Purnell has quickly catapulted to “household name” status. In Fallout she plays Lucy, a vault dweller who has recently left the safety of her confines for the unforgiving wasteland. Her portrayal of the character has been met with an intensely positive response. Publications all over are ranting about how the series captures not only the aesthetic, but most importantly the spirit of the franchise. And that spirit -- is embodied by Purnell's moxie filled protagonist, who is representative of the video game player-character, it's nice when there's a protagonist that can truly disappear into the role due to anonymity; in this case, it is intrinsic to the idea – afterall a video game adaptation desires an everyman (or everywoman, if you prefer) in the lead. The Wachowskis understood this principle, and ‘The Matrix’ wasn’t even a straight up adaptation, but did have a heavy “gamer” pastiche – along with a grab-bag of other style elements; cyberpunk, anime, manga, comics, and a lot of 90s rave culture.

Where Fallout excels is how it differs from other attempts at adapting the most unadaptable source material known to man – video game intellectual properties.

So, how does it differ? 

Well – it doesn’t take itself too seriously – for one – while simultaneously giving the fans exactly what they want: shocking humour, retro-technology with futuristic elements, an apocalyptic world with dark overtones that’s handled in a tongue-and-cheek manner, and all the gratuitous gore you could ask for! Yes, hyper realistic violence is a staple of the Fallout franchise – so it is featured heavily in this on-screen adaptation. It is dispensed with a certain amount of brevity and is played for laughs, so fans of the “splatstick” horror sub-genre should enjoy this aspect of the show. 

See my review on Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead for an explanation of what splatstick is. 

https://welldonemovies.com/reviews-and-articles/theevildead

Walter Goggins is also terrific in the show, seriously hats off to him for such a jaw-dropping performance, he really seemed like he was having one helluva’ time playing The Ghoul – an irradiated gunslinger (turned bounty hunter) who provides a much needed deuteragonist to Ella Purnell’s protagonist. And there are a host of other actors that they ensembled for season 1 who compliment the cast well and are all wonderfully talented; Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, Xelia Mendes-Jones, to name a few. Fallout is definitely a win in my opinion, and if I had more time I’d go into greater detail – but instead I will leave you with a few quotes from the show:

"Rule of the wasteland, thou shall get sidetracked by bullshit every god damn time"

-The Ghoul

"You come from a world of rules, of laws. This place is indifferent to all of that." -Wilzig

"Flesh is weak, but steel endures." -Brotherhood of Steel

Go watch Fallout on Amazon Prime Video – Now!

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Rating 9.5/10

A box of nutritious ‘sugar bombs’ cereal.

What else?