Creators: Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy

Studio: Amazon MGM Studios / Channel: Prime Video

Budget: $153 million

Plot: When her Dad (Kyle MacLachlan) gets kidnapped, the optimistic young Lucy (Ella Purnell) ventures out of the nuclear Fallout shelter she has been raised in her whole life to find him. On her journey, she encounters a mysterious scientist (Michael Emerson) and his dog wanted by a lawless mercenary (Walton Goggins), and a young soldier (Aaron Moten) who are all part of different factions that all want to save the world, but just can’t agree on how. Based on the critically acclaimed best-selling video game series.

Rating: 6.9/10

-All 8 episodes watched for review are now available-

Review: Fallout 3 burst onto the gaming scene in October 2008, amidst the golden age of gaming. Despite an aging graphics engine, its western-role-playing mechanics, coupled with a captivating premise and insightful commentary, quickly solidified its status as a modern classic. Now, a TV series, spearheaded by Westworld creator Jonathan Nolan and brought to life by Bethesda Game Studios in collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios, have perfectly captured the essence of its gaming counterpart like no other video game adaptation before, even while introducing completely new characters and settings. The downside? All the junk of the series comes with it.

Jonathan Nolan and Amazon MGM’s Fallout TV series successfully replicates the look sound and themes of its predecessors to produce the most faithful video game adaptation in television & movie history.

The series is a well-paced and visually compelling journey, meticulously faithful to the ambiance of the game, reflected in its music and production values. However, it occasionally suffers from narrative sluggishness. While players of the game may be accustomed to its open-world format, where the main quest sometimes takes a backseat to exploration, the TV adaptation employs narrative drift to a less creatively satisfying ends.

The narrative loses momentum when the threat surrounding the mysterious enclave scientist  Siggi Wilzig (Emerson), the one all 3 main characters are after, dissipates. Similar to the games, after a few narrative steps, there’s less downward pressure on these characters to rush their journey. Only the side quests aren’t as fun this time. While the creator of Westworld is a good fit for the gamey-ness of the material (he also created the series The Peripheral), fun is not his forte. Despite great guest roles for actors like Chris Parnell and Fred Armisen, and a few others, the show is never as fun or funny as it should be, because it is saddled with too much baggage. An overly detailed backstory is told much more than shown, and the flashback structure doesn’t payoff. The show likens itself to the plain writing and lightweight nature of Fallout 4 with the same busywork, rather than the chaotic rule breaking fun or creativity of Fallout 3 and New Vegas. With less narrative urgency I had the temptation turn to my phone as a second screen on occasion.

When the show switches to Maximus, a Brotherhood of Steel refugee I was bored just as I was encountering the faction in the in Fallout 3, only this time I couldn’t satisfyingly skip through it. Although I would be curious if Amazon released an abridged version cutting out most of Maximus’s storyline. His arc bears resemblance to Finn’s journey in The Force Awakens, albeit executed less effectively and without a satisfying resolution. It is almost as if it were developed with the expectation of being cut.

Additionally, Maximus’s relationship with Lucy feels underdeveloped, failing to explore the potential dynamics between two contrasting characters sharing a common goal. He a surface dweller naive about the internal human experience, and she a vault dweller naive about the external wasteland experience. Not once do they seriously test each other or rely on one another to complete their own goal or seriously come into conflict. Even the reason for them to fight with The Ghoul is weak. But then the game never needed much reason for conflict in order for conflict to occur, it just had to be fun. I felt greater emotional attachment to the central couple in the Twisted Metal TV series (another video game adaptation) than I did with these two here.

Similarly, Lucy’s lack of heroic qualities results in a less impactful narrative. Its possible the show creators were mindful of players that play with negative karma, hedging the game’s a morality system and didn’t want to make the character more interesting at the cost of alienating the audience, but it comes at the cost of good drama. A lot of stuff happens, but it doesn’t change the characters or narrative too much.

While the show’s independent characters align with the single-player nature of the series (minus Fallout 76), it falls short of delivering the gripping drama or gut busting comedy that lies in its potential. The subplot involving The Ghoul promises depth but lacks a significant payoff, offering little more than predictable revelations that do little to drive the narrative forward.

In conclusion, while the series boasts high production values and sets the stage for potentially more compelling seasons ahead, it ultimately feels like a prelude to a more captivating adaptation—like most annoying big budget TV does nowadays [Halo chief among them]. If you like the games, you’ll like this show. But you have to carry everything you don’t like about them with it.

Rating: 6.9/10

Starring: Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, Aaron Moten, Michael Emerson, and Kyle Maclachlan