Blowing up the media with its charm, “Fallout” impresses audiences with its detail, humor, music, and faithfulness to the original video game series while still managing to have an original story. The show is rated TV-MA for violence, language, and adult content. It can be found on Amazon Prime Video.
“Fallout” follows three main characters. Lucy McLean, played by Ella Pernell, is a young woman who has lived in an underground vault her whole life, only to be thrust into the horrors of “the surface” of America. Maximus, played by Aaron Monten, is a man from The Brotherhood of Steel, a pre-existing faction from the games, and has to figure out who he is while in search for freedom from the oppressive ruling faction. And the final protagonist is the Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins, is a man from the past searching for a purpose after all his years, doing anything he can to get his way. The three of their stories intertwine as relationships form and they navigate their survival.
The protagonists scout through the remains of America after a nuclear fallout 216 years before the main events of the story, and their search for the head of a scientist, which seems like everyone is looking for, encountering those of their past, robots, people trying to kill them, each other, and the many horrors of the world, all the while there is trouble brewing in Lucy’s home vault.
One thing that stood out specifically was the soundtrack to the show. All of the music was from the 1960’s, with songs like “Orange Colored Sky” by Nat King Cole, “I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire” by the Ink Spots, and “Crazy He Calls Me” by Billie Holiday. All of the period music is perfectly timed to the events in the show. It mainly shines in comedic timing; whenever a serious or scary situation happens, the comedic music pipes in with the perfect juxtaposition.
This show does things differently than other video game adaptations, as it does not follow the exact storyline from one of the games. Rather, it is a completely new tale in the pre-existing world, which allows more creative opportunities, as well as interesting easter eggs, and other references to the games.
Additionally, the sets are incredibly high quality, especially for a tv show. All of the sets do a perfect job of creating the right environment, making the vaults perfect, clean, and smooth, while the outside world is torn down, broken, and dirty, representing the way the world has changed without those in the vaults.
While this series is artfully done, it is not for the faint of heart because of the amount of violence and other mature themes. A lot of the violence is used for the point of comedy, as well as containing many action packed situations, and almost every character has the worst intention in mind.
With that being said, this show has changed the course of video game to tv adaptations for the future, with its independent story that just allows those watching to get immersed into the world of fallout.
