Fallout Review: Post-Apocalyptic Series Catches You By Surprise!

– No Spoilers –

Fallout Review: 200 years after an apocalypse wipes out the Earth, Lucy MacLean, a young and idealistic vault dweller, gets her first taste of the outside world when her father is kidnapped and everyone in her vault is left massacred by Raiders. Alone in a dangerous and unknown world, will Lucy be able to find her father before it’s too late for them both?

The series has 8 episodes, each with a runtime of around 60 minutes, and is based on the video game franchise Fallout by Black Isle Studios.

Fallout Review

Lucy MacLean’s journey to the surface is nothing short of devastating – in a way, it’s sort of a coming-of-age journey where she learns the cold, hard truth of the life that she has lived up until then and the devastating consequences of greed and a hunt for power. The expansive world of the underground vaults, seemingly safe and charming, holds many secrets, as they usually do in these shows. The way the show opens up in different ways is an interesting watch, one that slowly grows on you, to be honest.

If you, like me, haven’t played the games, it’s going to be a great watch regardless, because things are introduced and explained thoroughly throughout the runtime of the series. The series’ universe is enticing and described exhaustively, and everything has layers that are delicious to peel back. Although the series feels a bit exhausting at first, it gets extremely interesting a few episodes in when the climax slowly starts to unravel. When these episodes roll around, the manipulations and the plotting & scheming will leave you with your mouth agape.

Something shocking is happening both outside and inside the vaults, and at first, the series makes us fall into a false sense of security before launching into a devastating attack. Things, of course, are not what they seem like, and soon enough Lucy and her brother Norm start to question the validity of things happening around them. As I mentioned previously, you find things a bit repetitive at first, but soon enough, the series makes sure to suck you in with its storytelling and plot progression, and it honestly creeps up on you a bit.

Suddenly, you’re sitting there wondering what in conspiracy theory is happening, and after the series ends, you wonder whether or not this is something that we are also a part of in our lives. The social commentary is well-done, and it works more so because it feels extremely relatable. We are at a point in our lives wherein rich people manipulating others in vaults is extremely possible – I mean, they are doing it now as well, so you know.

However, it’s the characters that truly make a mark on us; the way they grow from something to something completely different is surprisingly relatable and even thrilling at times. The way the series subverts our expectations surrounding these characters will both take you by surprise and be just a tiny bit cliché. I was left thoroughly engrossed in their journey and especially in how they were all connected to each other. These are human stories in the midst of greed and capitalism and are hopeful, reassuring, but also extremely heartbreaking.

Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins and Aaron Moten are the primary cast that we follow in the series, and all three of their characters have a backstory that we will be left heartbroken to discover. Goggins’s and Cooper Howard’s flashbacks give us a breakdown of a time before things went to hell in their timeline, and his story binds things together and fills in the blanks that audiences might have about how or why things became a wasteland. Purnell as Lucy MacLean is naive and hopeful, but it’s heartbreaking to see that innocence leave as the episodes go on.

Lastly, Aaron Moten is Maximus, a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel, a concept that is taken from the games. I thought his storyline was a little confusing and sometimes unnecessary, but his character’s connection with the others has many flavours that will be heartwarming at different moments.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Fallout leaves you hungry for more, as we are left with many questions but not enough answers. There’s definitely going to be another season since the major questions are left unanswered, but even then, Fallout Season 1 has many important things to say, and it does a good job of doing so. It makes us root for its characters while also creating a grim and thrilling political climate that leaves us on the edge. If you’re able to sit tight through the first few episodes, this one is sure to creep up on you sooner rather than later.

Fallout is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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