TV Series Review: Fallout – Season 1 (2024)

Well, who could ever have predicted this? Not the fact that we have a live-action TV show based on the Fallout video game franchise, but the fact that it turned out pretty damn good. Although, these days, there’s a feeling that both studios and creators are finally beginning to understand what makes a good video game TV or movie adaption. In recent years we’ve been treated to gems like The Last of Us, Halo, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Castlevania, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mortal Kombat.

Fallout joins that list, thanks to its innate ability to appeal to both fans of the franchise, and a causal audience who wouldn’t know the difference between a Stimpak and a RadAway. All of this comes from the dedication by everyone involved to make it special, and across eight-hour(ish) episodes, it feels very special.

War. War never changes.

It’s an iconic line from the Fallout franchise, but you don’t need to know a single thing about the world of the wasteland or the vaults that reside underneath it, to enjoy the show. You don’t need to know what PipBoy is or what VaultTec does. You don’t know who The Brotherhood of Steel are, or what the actual f**k a Ghoul is. All of this, and more will come, via three distinct lead characters with their own stories to tell.

The show is more than happy to both drop an A-bomb of detail on you in an instant, but then spend the next several episodes telling and showing what it all means, and how it all works.

In a nutshell, Fallout is about war in an alternative history version of Earth. A war that saw most of the planet destroyed in an apocalyptic nuclear exchange. So… everyone died, right?

Of course not. In fact, when the bombs fell, many took refuge inside custom built bunkers known as Vaults. Run by the corporation, VaultTec, who sold existence inside Vaults as the future of humanity. Staying safe beneath the Earth, until it was time to emerge and rebuild society.

Exactly 219 years later, life has flourished on the remains of the surface though. Deadly and violent life, but life none the less. Those within the Vaults, the Vault Dwellers, know nothing of the Wasteland above. Living their lives in ordered and harmonious fashion. That is until one particular Vault, Vault 33, comes under attack from raiders who found a way in through an adjoining Vault. One such dweller, Lucy (played by Ella Purnell) is devastated by the carnage and the kidnapping of her father. Choosing to set out into the Wasteland to find him.

Lucy might be the main character, but she is not the only story the Fallout show follows. As elsewhere we witness the struggles of Maximus (played by Aaron Moten) as he tries to make something of himself within the faction known as The Brotherhood of Steel. Then we have Cooper Howard aka The Ghoul (played by Walter Goggins), who is a cold and calculating bounty hunter with his own agenda and deep links to the world before the bombs dropped.

All three characters, and many more secondary ones, help create a tangible world where none of the madness feels unbelievable. With events and plots point criss-crossing in clever and interesting ways. Considering the story could have been the worst part of the show, especially from a video game fan perspective, an incredible job has been done to make it such an interesting watch.

We have action, we have violence, we have sex, we have drugs, we have mystery, we have horror, and we have the characters and actors to make it all matter. Everyone will have their favourite, but the three leads all do an incredible job here, and all three develop in massive ways across the season’s eight episodes.

We get to watch Lucy learn what it takes to survive in the Wasteland, without compromising her values to much. We get to watch Maximus struggle with creed of The Brotherhood, and begin to find his own way, and we get to learn just who Cooper Howard is and why, as a Ghoul, he even bothers to carry on. Fallout might be the world, but it’s the characters that make the show.

Hence, why so many secondary characters are given a lot of time and development too. With the likes of Moisés Arias, Kyle MacLachlan, Xelia Mendes-Jones, Sarita Choudhury, Leslie Uggams, Johnny Pemberton, Zach Cherry, Annabel O’Hagan, Dave Register, Rodrigo Luzzi, and Frances Turner, adding so much more to this world and the quality of the show.

If great stories, great characters, and great actors wasn’t enough, Fallout also looks amazing too. There was no scrimping on the budget here, that’s for sure. We get glorious wide shots of the Wasteland, expansive Vault exploration, settlements, destroyed cities, Brotherhood of Steel encampments, and so much more. It feels so big, but it also leaves so much room for exploration in the future too. Just like a Fallout game.

Speaking which, the series is packed with plenty of references and easter eggs for fans to enjoy. This is more than just seeing something in the background or having someone say a certain bit of dialogue though. This is Fallout turned into a TV show, and almost every scene has something that fans will recognise. Of course, some of the decisions made won’t please everyone, mainly regarding lore, but the reality is some changes were always going to happen. If you care about that sort of thing, you may not love the show as much as everyone else, but you will be in a minority.

Fallout isn’t just a good TV show, it is an excellent TV show. Even outside of the ‘video game adaption’ tag it comes with. Everyone can enjoy this, and that might be what truly makes it so successful. That we would ever get something this accurate to the franchise, and it not be terrible fan service, is simply amazing.