TV Review: ‘Fallout’

The new series comes adapts the popular video game series with its own new story of a young woman confronting a chaotic reality after years underground.

Ella Purnell (Lucy) in 'Fallout'. Credit: JoJo Whilden/Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

Launching on Prime Video with all eight episodes on Thursday April 11th, ‘Fallout’ manages the tough ask of bringing a complex and sprawling video game to life in a way that will feel familiar to fans of the game and its darkly humorous style while also spinning its own tale set in that universe.

Continuing the trend for successful video game adaptations, the new show is a wild, freewheeling and well-acted ride through a landscape that feels familiar and yet has plenty of invention to spare.

Is ‘Fallout’ a Worthy Adaptation?

Walton Goggins (The Ghoul) in 'Fallout'. Credit: JoJo Whilden/Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

With their ambitious adaptation of ‘Westworld’, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy proved they have what it takes to bring a popular story to life in a new way. And even if that series ultimately ended up trying itself up in intellectual knots, it had a lot to say about technology, humanity and society whilst presenting some unique visions and concepts.

‘Fallout’, which never pretends to explore such high-minded ideals, is its own way smart, satirical and entertaining while also being far wilder and out there in execution. And that’s thanks primarily to show co-creators and overseers Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, who really let loose when it comes to the oddball characters and creatures populating this story.

If you’re an established fan of Tim Cain’s games, then you’ll find plenty to enjoy here. And if not, you won’t be turned off.

‘Fallout’: Script and Direction

(L to R) Executive Producer and Director Jonathan Nolan, Showrunner and Executive Producer Geneva Robertson-Dworet in 'Fallout'. Credit: JoJo Whilden/Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

Perhaps the smartest move that Robertson-Dworet and Wagner made is to set this TV iteration of ‘Fallout’ in its own story, borrowing concepts and some key characters from the game, but introducing us to an out-there scorched Earth primarily through the eyes of devout and plucky Vault Dweller Lucy (Ella Purnell). As with the game, we experience the craziness that lurks outside the protective doors initially in contained form when her Vault is attacked, and her father (Kyle McLachlan’s Hank) kidnapped.

It makes for a handy, organic way to provide the necessary exposition as Lucy makes her way through this terrifying, beautifully-designed world, meeting dangerous people and unusual creatures created in the centuries since America was set aflame in nuclear combat.

(L to R) Ella Purnell, Michael Emerson, Dale Dickey in 'Fallout'. Credit: JoJo Whilden/Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

Lucy’s story in particular works well as a narrative focal point, but there’s also some welcome depth to the antagonist of the piece, the Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins. Looking for all the world like a cousin to Marvel’s Red Skull, he’s also a combo of grizzled gunslinger and bitter warrior. And the show digs further into his backstory in ways that we won’t spoil here.

Which is not to say Nolan in particular doesn’t have a hand in the show –– he directs the first three episodes, dictating the tone and style of the show, and here feels like a director unrestrained after the statelier, brain-fodder feel of ‘Westworld’ (for all that show’s bursts of violence). He and the creative team have crafted a truly lived-in look to the ‘Fallout’ world, with distinctive characters and intriguing plot turns.

‘Fallout’: Performances

Ella Purnell (Lucy) in 'Fallout'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

Purnell is more than able to carry the show as Lucy, who has her preconceived notions of how the world should work quickly shattered when she ventures beyond the Vault following its breaching by raiders. It’s through her eyes that we see most of the story, and Purnell brings plenty of charisma to the part, along with a strength and steel that Lucy needs to survive.

Yet its Goggins who has the most to do here –– he’s the first character we meet in the time before the nuclear attack, his long-lived nature is explored and explained, and there are flashbacks to the man he was back then. It’s a fully-rounded role and one that the experienced character fills with gusto and his usual scuffed charm. There’s a sly humor to his present-day demeanor and some real pathos in his past.

Aaron Moten (Maximus) in 'Fallout'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

If there is a weak link among the show’s stories, it’s perhaps in Aaron Moten’s Maximus, the young, brutalized member of the Brotherhood of Steel, an armed force dedicated to unearthing the former world one item at a time and enforcing their own mechanized brand of rough justice on the current one. While the attitude of the Brotherhood and his own rebellious reaction to it offers some fun, it’s perhaps a little more straightforward than some of the other elements and doesn’t work as well.

Which is no fault of Moten, who contributes a likeable, conflicted performance in the role. Around them is an excellent cast of supporting characters, with Michael Emerson it’s best to experience for the first time on screen, so as not to diminish its entertainment factor. Suffice to say, it’s the sort of quirky performance in which he excels.

‘Fallout’: Final Thoughts

Walton Goggins (The Ghoul) in 'Fallout'. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

‘Fallout’ should serve as both a way into the story for those who’ve never played the game and a worthy extension of the world for those who have completed the various releases and have a Vault Boy Funko Pop giving them a thumbs-up from their desk.

We’ve seen any number of post-apocalyptic stories through the years, and if this borrows some common tropes and visuals, it has more than enough tweaks and humor to keep it feeling unique and often laugh out loud funny –– when it’s not being gruesome. But it’s always compelling and can stand proudly among the better adaptations of game content.

‘Fallout’ receives 8.5 out of 10 stars.

Prime Video's 'Fallout'. Credit: JoJo Whilden/Prime Video. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

What is the Plot of 'Fallout'?

The show depicts the aftermath of an apocalyptic nuclear exchange in an alternate history where advances in nuclear technology after WWII led to the emergence of a retrofuturistic society and a subsequent resource war. The survivors took refuge in fallout bunkers known as Vaults, built to preserve humanity in the event of nuclear annihilation. Two centuries later, a young woman (Ella Purnell), a descendant of the original "Vault Dwellers" from one of many Vaults, leaves behind the only life she has ever known to venture out into the dangerously hostile and savage Wasteland of a devastated Los Angeles.