Fallout Season 1 review: It's the end of the world as we know it

We recently had a chance to preview the Fallout Season 1, and let me tell you: As a long-time fan of the franchise, I’ve never been so happy. Sure, I can understand the trepidation of many of the potential viewers. After all, most of the game-to-movie adaptations have been absolutely wretched. However, from even the earliest trailers and footage I saw of this series, I knew that wouldn’t be the case.

From the setting to the twists, Fallout on Prime Video delivers in a way I certainly didn’t expect it to. It captures America’s McCarthy-era paranoia and shows viewers what could have happened if that was never stopped. It ticks all the boxes a proper entry into this franchise should.

The storyline of Fallout on Prime Video would fit perfectly into one of the video games

Walton Goggins stole the show with his masterful performance (Image via Amazon MGM Studios)

Without spoiling too much of the show’s premise, it’s going to hit all the notes a fan of Fallout should expect. Everyone in this part of the waste is looking for one person because they have a potentially powerful piece of pre-war technology.

There are certain things every Fallout property needs, in my estimation. As I went through the first few episodes, I checked these off one by one - without it feeling forced or hokey. Any quality game or entry into this franchise needs most, but not all, of the following:

A father with a mysterious past that has gone missing
A doctor or scientist who holds the key to something “potentially” amazing
Several factions all looking for that particular MacGuffin
Someone to leave the Vault and become a Wanderer in the Waste
Incredible, but equal levels of violence and clever dialogue
Suspicious things involving the Vaults and their residents
A huge twist, close to the end
An important choice that the protagonist must take

These get met in ways that made me deliriously happy. There are things in the Fallout series that aren’t going to make sense at first. That’s the nature of a mystery, though - every question I had, more or less, was answered by the end and in a satisfactory way. Yes, even the Vault that had a Cyclops Overseer gets explained in a way that makes perfect sense.

How is the world of Fallout represented in the Prime Video series?

Welcome to Filly (Image via Amazon MGM Studios)

The most important part of the Fallout series for me was the writing. It all had to make sense. Sometimes wacky and hilarious, sometimes gruesome and thought-provoking, but it was always the writing that made sense in the context of this broken, miserable universe.

It was really interesting to watch Lucy go from essentially a naive farm girl to a Wasteland explorer. She grew, episode by episode, but she was still Lucy at the end of the day. Throw in Maximus and his need to belong somewhere, and the enigmatic bounty hunter simply named The Ghoul? It’s a recipe for success.

Frankly, Walton Goggins’s portrayal of The Ghoul/Cooper Howard was remarkable. His one-liners were catchy and memorable, as were any action set pieces he was in. He was very believable in his role as a man who has lived for over 200 years and has seen so much. We also got to look back in time through his eyes and see some of the events that led up to this catastrophe.

The Brotherhood of Steel acts exactly as you probably remember (Image via Amazon MGM Studios)

I don’t want to spoil things again, but I assure you that the writing will satisfy most Fallout fans. For every weird thing that doesn’t quite fit together at first, the puzzle pieces will come together by episode 8. As this is set in California, a few familiar factions will appear, even if it doesn’t seem that way at first.

It’s also the little things, the little touches in the writing, that filled me with joy watching Fallout on Prime Video. Not everyone is some kind of monstrous killer in this world, from the regular waste citizens just trying to get by to the sneaky, conniving snake oil salesmen. Though I wish there were a few more action sequences, the ones that were represented were wonderful.

Was the Fallout IP treated properly in the Prime Video series?

The grim hopelessness of this world is on full display (Image via Amazon MGM Studios)

This is an important question, especially considering the history of many studios treating popular IPs poorly. This isn’t one of those cases. The Brotherhood of Steel remains a bunch of insane, violent zealots. The New California Republic remains an enigma - they do horrible things, but they still have goals that are more or less positive.

Nature and everything in it are still deadly and violent. For the most part, people are only out for themselves and perfectly willing to do terrible things if it means their lives are slightly easier. This makes perfect sense in the setting of Fallout. And yes, the people who live in the Vaults are complete idiots. That might be the most repeated thought in my 12K+ notes on the eight episodes.

The Vault Dwellers might mostly have good intentions, but their sheltered upbringing has made them incredibly foolish and entirely too trusting. This dynamic is great for a show like this when you compare it to the cruelty of the waste. We get to see just how evil man can be—from the regular citizens all the way up to the wealthy elites.

The visual presentation of Fallout was breathtaking

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Despite being the end of the world as we know it, Fallout is rendered gorgeously on Prime Video. It deserves to be watched on a 4K television or computer monitor. It’s also chock-full of easter eggs from throughout the series. Important places, memorable characters, and even weapons: A good example is the Rock-It Launcher, which makes an appearance early in the show.

The monstrous creatures look incredible and creepy, and the people themselves are worn down and miserable. It was so accurate to the games when it came down to both visuals and the OST. The songs you hear in the show are songs you heard in the games, and that was perhaps the best touch of all. Ending episodes with songs like I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire and Crawl out through the Fallout were nice touches.

In conclusion

Fallout on Prime Video is a blast - trust us (Image via Amazon MGM Studios)

In my opinion, this series captured the anti-capitalist message of the original. There are no positives with companies like Vault-Tec - most people working for them were painted as monsters, even if that wasn’t the case from someone’s original appearance (Barbara and Bob are solid examples).

There are parts of the Fallout episodes that drag a little, and some of the flashbacks/cuts to other scenes can be a little frustrating. I don’t think this is a major negative, though. I’ll just be very invested in what’s going on, and suddenly, you’re in a completely different setting. However, that’s something you can do with a TV series that you can’t necessarily do as easily in a video game in this franchise.

I was emotionally invested in this series from beginning to end, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. There’s no way this doesn’t get a second season, and it definitely deserves one. Given the time and place this takes place in, there’s a lot more story to tell and more mysteries to unravel. I’ve never been happier with a video game coming to life than I was with Fallout.