Fallout

Both Parnell and Moten have settled comfortably into their roles, and the latter feels distinctly more natural as buttoned-up Maximus this time around. Goggins and MachLachlan are utter delights and Theroux's natural weirdness fits right into the ambiance of the series. .... If you can stomach all the splattered guts and noseless monsters, you won't be disappointed by the enrapturing story the series is starting to unwind.

Maintains a steady course in its second season, building thrillingly on its wild, weird, and bada-- first outing.

The Fallout apocalypse is, well, fun—maybe even funner in Season 2 than it was the first time around. .... There are one-liners, there’s slapstick, there are visual jokes galore.

Season two draws more directly from its gaming source material – notably 2010’s admired Fallout: New Vegas – but remains pleasingly dense with jokes, splatter and slapstick.

The world of Fallout expands in Season 2, but all of it still feels focused on the overall story of a post-apocalyptic world created by greed and avarice trying to survive.

The sophomore outing of “Fallout” might have a few shaky rounds to start the evening out, but across the latter portion of its season, it’s poised to go on quite the run before it leaves the table for the night. In short, Season 2 is well worth the ante up.

While Season 2 isn’t as structurally tight as the first one was, the secrets and revelations unveiled here will keep viewers glued to their screens.

Some points in the last episode I watched left me with questions about whether certain cynical arguments were being put forth by the show itself or just the characters therein, so I'm not yet ready to make any declarative thematic statements about the season until I've watched it all. What I can say is they have me hooked, and even at its darkest, "Fallout" is still a fun time.

It remains to be seen where exactly this is all heading, and whether "Fallout" can stick the landing. Still, if the first six episodes of season 2 are anything to go by, the show has earned our goodwill with a thrilling, hilarious, and visually stunning story worth sticking with.

Where Fallout loses the thread is in its many subplots, which are only loosely related to Lucy’s pursuit of her bad dad, Hank. .... But things improve immensely whenever it’s just Goggins and Purnell as an R-rated version of The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda, wisecracking their way across the desert.

Fallout’s second season – at least the first six episodes of it – is both a strong return to its uniquely bizarre post-apocalypse world and an admirably authentic adaptation of what made New Vegas distinct among its series peers.

Combining elements of action and adventure alongside darker themes of power and control feels like a feat similar to balancing a bunch of spinning plates, but Fallout Season 2 has made it work without them dropping (at least in the first six episodes).

The wasteland’s freak flag flies in this more deliberately paced second outing, a road-trip packed with so much style and charm, you’ll be throwing down your bottlecaps for more.

All told, “Fallout” remains messy and violent in its second season, but the intrigue and new mysteries largely retain the interest of longtime fans and newcomers.

Fortunately, for all its flaws, Fallout remains a good time most of all. Despite its harrowing subject matter, the humor and heart present in the first season is still here and that is key to making this adaptation work.

When the show is cooking—when we’re with Purnell, MacLachlan, or either version of Goggins—it’s easy to be reminded of what was worth missing about this series in the year-plus since we last got new episodes. That push and pull of cynicism and idealism remains bracing, just as the similar war between the show’s comedic and horrific impulses keeps either side from dominating. When we don’t have those anchors, though, it’s easy to feel the show veering off the rails.

It’s not that the season has any weak links in the cast — it doesn’t — but Goggins’s performance is so strong, and the Ghoul’s story line so expanded, that few others really feel like they are meeting him at his level. .... Fallout feels increasingly indebted to that previous series [Westworld] in ways that makes me worry it could sooner, rather than later, become so convoluted and so dense that it loses sight of its original animating questions. .... How Fallout chooses to end its second season, with a third already confirmed, will do a lot to affirm or deny these parallels.

As great as Goggins and Theroux are in these long stretches of the show, especially the sixth episode, it feels like it makes for a show that lacks direction.

With all of these subplots warring for screen-time, plus the fact that our main characters are waylaid multiple times on the way to New Vegas, one word is cemented in my mind that defines Fallout season 2’s first three episodes: meandering. That’s not to say that there isn’t some entertaining stuff along the way.

Season 2 is arduous in a way that bucks against its black-comic vibes. Chaos, though, is where “Fallout” thrives, and what we get of it works pretty well — especially in the form of our mysterious new antagonist played by Justin Theroux.