Fallout

Like its inspiration, Fallout is a monumental achievement of sci-fi world-building, presenting an alternately horrifying and exhilarating vision of a United States held together by little more than duct tape and Wonder Glue, unflagging optimism and ultra-violent mercilessness. At once accessible and intricate, familiar and unique, it blends brutality, romance, intrigue and wide-eyed awe—and unites man, machine and mutant—to craft a mesmerizing fantasy of the end-times, and all the wild delirium that follows it.

Bizarre but intensely fun, Fallout is like nothing you’ve ever seen; for that reason alone, you won’t be able to turn away.

A bright and funny apocalypse filled with dark punchlines and bursts of ultra-violence, Fallout stands up there with The Last of Us among the best game adaptations ever made. Brilliantly constructed, its three distinct leads travel through cleverly linked storylines that build to a fantastic finale. Along the way, there’s a megaton of treats for long-term fans thanks to immaculate production design and attention to detail, but never at the expense of making this an ideal starting point for the uninitiated. It’s another special effort from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and easily earns a big thumbs up.

“Fallout” delivers as an action series, a character study and a deep dive into the nature of family and trust.

For the most part, though, the Ghoul and his cohorts engage in giddily indulgent shootouts that one-up Isaac Newton: For every action, there’s an opposite reaction that’s not just equal, but bafflingly more violent.

The eight-episode season exists in a vivid and captivating universe that will be familiar to gamers — though knowledge of the franchise isn't required to enjoy its darkly comic dystopian pleasures.

The show takes the right risk in affording Lucy specificity as a character, and therefore a defined personality that can measure up to the wacky mayhem of the other weirdos she meets. The show’s clearly committed to being the definitive Fallout adaptation, a love letter to fans, no question, while still opening the vault door to welcome in just about everyone else brave enough to step inside.

Apart from the usual streaming-series bloat and drag (the characters tend to walk in circles a bit in the middle stretch, and the endless flashbacks in the back half oversell their points), there’s a whole lot to like in Fallout’s bombed-out post-apocalypse.

Through its excellent emulation of the franchise’s vibes and a strong understanding of its underlying ideas, the Fallout TV series doesn’t only imitate the games, but meaningfully expands on them in a way that radiates confidence.

The show wisely understood that the most distinctive and interesting human story in this world is that of the Vault Dwellers. In “Fallout,” each vault has its own purpose.

You don’t need to have played the games, or lived through the Cold War, to appreciate Fallout as a television experience. When the final scene teased the location of what looks to be Season 2, the gamer in me cheered—I know exactly where they’re going. The television viewer in me rejoiced, as well. Another season? Okie dokey!

If you’ve been longing for the think-y futuristic noir of Westworld, which never got to conclude its story, Fallout will likely sate your appetite. Despite the source material, it’s basically Westworld 2.0.

It’s hard to think of another video game adaptation that better conveys the sheer, giddy hedonism of a top-notch shoot ‘em up.

This is a stunning adaptation that understands the best parts of the "Fallout" games and how to translate them to a new medium.

Unfortunately, though, that writing does sometimes fall short, particularly in the more emotional moments. As is the case in a number of Jonathan Nolan’s big-screen productions, certain lines come off as unnatural, lacking humanity, which threatens to derail the stakes at times...That said, this isn’t necessarily here to bring the most emotionally gut-wrenching series of the year. It’s here to have fun, and in that regard, it’s a resounding success. We’re glad this one made it out of the vault – it’s been well worth the wait.

Fallout expands on the big ideas of the games, making it an adaptation worth watching both for fans and those unfamiliar. It’s an equal parts funny and nightmarish show that, like its protagonist, isn’t content to live inside a projection of the past.

The storytelling doesn’t fully gel at first. But if you’re patient, “Fallout” reveals itself to be a show with some potent things to say about where we’re headed if we allow corporate interests to dictate the future.

Tonally, this series splits the difference between last year’s game-to-TV offerings “The Last of Us” and “Twisted Metal.” While it’s neither as somber as the former nor as madcap zany as the latter, “Fallout” mines an approach with room for both humor and pathos. With a raft of unfolding mysteries, protagonists we care about and a quest we want to see through to the end, “Fallout” is well situated to grow the loyal fan base that has kept the video game franchise going for 27 years.

“Fallout” never lags for one second and dangles from one cliffhanger to the next. The cast makes it all engaging — Goggins, in particular, rips into the show’s juiciest part and does wonders with it. This’ll be a major hit, and it deserves to be.

Opting for an new narrative that simply takes place in the "Fallout" world, the series is a mix of adventure and puzzle-box mystery, with more than enough action scenes to satisfy the RPG faithful. It's fun, and only occasionally overcomplicated.

Its final episodes feature several exciting twists and reveals that reshape our understanding of the story we've been watching for eight episodes — but there's little real resolution to any of the ongoing character arcs, and in some ways this all feels like lead-up to a more thorough and philosophically complex Season 2.

Fallout does a good job drawing viewers into its expansive world without needing a ton of exposition to explain what’s going on. It helps that the show is visually stunning and filled with fine performances by Goggins, Purnell and others.

There’s a lot of wandering around before the show gets to that. Viewers’ enjoyment of “Fallout” may depend on their tolerance for the fetch-quest story that makes up the bulk of the first season.

The willingness to break narrative predictability is admirable, but it kind of hurts the momentum, making the 8-episode season feel longer than it is. It also takes a long time for any performance but Goggins to make an impact. By the end, I liked what Purnell was doing. But this is really The Walton Goggins Show, through and through, to the point that it dips when he’s not on-screen.

Fallout fully embraces the story and world of the video game franchise, though its immense worldbuilding might alienate newcomers.

What Fallout lacks in narrative coherence it makes up for in sheer cyberpunk chutzpah. That may leave non-gamers a little baffled, but for those already invested in this atomic dust bowl, it should prove a satisfying, if not sensational, extension of the franchise – just about more bang than whimper.

As Season 1 concludes, there’s less a sense of anticipation for what comes next than general relief that this somewhat messy introduction, and the contortions to incorporate its eclectic roster of players, is over.

“Fallout” skews closer to “Westworld” and “The Boys,” parceling out puzzles to be played over eight episodes and dropping morbid jokes about everything from decapitated heads to exploding penises. There’s also an anti-capitalism message that takes shape over the season’s latter half (in yet another example of Amazon having its cake and eating it, too), all of which gives Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner’s hourlong drama topical talking points, but only surface-level substance.

That most of Prime Video’s Fallout consists of getting sidetracked by bullshit is simultaneously one of its main charms and one of its most frustrating flaws. At its liveliest, the sci-fi adventure captures the fun of simply getting to explore a strange new world, meeting colorful characters and going down mysterious rabbit holes. But the lack of urgency also means its eight hours take an awfully long time to get where it’s going.

But if it’s one thing to work as a TV show, it’s another to work as a good TV show, and this standard proves tougher for Fallout to attain. It has some fun components, and the great Walton Goggins (Justified, The Righteous Gemstones) delivers as usual in a dual-ish role. But a lot of it feels like it’s trying way too hard to grab your attention, all while so many of its ideas are recycled not from video games, but from other, more interesting post-apocalyptic movies and TV shows.

The main issue here is that none of these characters are complex or engaging enough to root for. They're two-dimensional, empty avatars that someone would choose at the start of a game — which, ironically, could be a backhanded compliment given this is a videogame adaptation — but while you can get over shallow characteristics and vague backstories when playing (if the gameplay is diverse and challenging enough), the same doesn't fly when you're watching a story unfold on the screen. Based on its first four episodes (which were provided for review), there's nothing in "Fallout" that feels original or impressive.