‘Fallout’ Prime Video Series Review - A Well-Acted Video Game Adaptation

Video game adaptations have seen their fair share of controversies and criticisms. Some look like extended gameplay, while others remain content with noisy fight sequences. The Last of Us turned out to be an exception. The HBO drama received critical acclaim and an enthusiastic thumbs-up from the audience. I thought it was all right. However, it didn't fully manage to escape its roots to become a compelling drama, as you often felt as if someone had assembled all the cutscenes from the video game and given them a live-action form.

Now, from creators Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, we have Fallout. How is it? Frankly, I wasn't expecting it to be this good. This is the only video game adaptation that has made me want to play the source material because I was immediately fascinated by the density of this world. The epic, apocalyptic scale with its western texture filled me with awe. The setting never looks like a screensaver. The broken metallic parts, the shops, the sand, the dilapidated structures - everything appears real, not computer-generated. This is an eye-pleasing, expansive world. I wish I could have seen the series in a movie theater.

The characters are thin and could have come across as uninteresting, but they are saved by finely-tuned performances. Lucy MacLean is naive, as she has spent most of her life in a bubble, or more accurately, a vault. These vaults are bunkers made for humans by humans to save themselves from the radiation existing on the surface of the earth. All the Vault Dwellers are so warm-hearted that the worst thing they can do is not say thank you to each other. In the hands of Ella Purnell, Lucy becomes a living embodiment of innocence. Those wide eyes regard others with kindness. Her smile exudes feelings of friendliness from somewhere deep within her. Purnell effectively sells Lucy's innate capacity for benevolence.

If the vaults have a cool, safe atmosphere, the surface is presented with hot, yellow colors, which makes them look inhospitable. So when Lucy, let's say, comes out of her shell, it appears as if her bubble has burst. This idea is underlined throughout her journey as she realizes people can be cruel. On this burning landscape, we meet the Ghoul (Walton Goggins), who looks as scary as his name sounds. During flashbacks, the Ghoul becomes a human named Cooper Howard. The role allows Goggins to show us his range as an actor. He draws a line between the Ghoul and Cooper, thus giving credibility to his transformation from one individual to another. At one point in the series, the Ghoul walks on a dusty path with a dog. As Cooper, an actor, he not only had a pet dog but also a poster of a movie called The Man And His Dog. Fallout has its share of echo moments. A character talks about a poison that tastes like a banana. When a man notices a slew of corpses, he says, "I guess they went bananas." We first see mushroom clouds during a birthday party at the beginning of the first episode. Later, a similar effect is created through a malfunctioning projector when Surface Dwellers attack members of Vault 33 after wedding rituals. A mushroom cloud is also seen on a whiteboard in one of the episodes.

Maximus (Aaron Moten) serves as an ally to Lucy. He also falls in love with her. This ambitious young man steals power instead of waiting for someone to hand it to him on a platter. A member of the Brotherhood of Steel, Maximus is often bullied by others or spends time cleaning toilets. In Filly, when a group of people try to steal his T-60 power armor, he attacks them with a toilet seat lid and a rod. A small scene like the one where Maximus hesitates before lying to Lucy about his name becomes wonderful because Moten lucidly reveals his character's inner calculations and thoughts. There is not a single bad performance in Fallout, which is why I wanted to see more of Sarita Choudhury as Lee Moldaver.

What prevents Fallout from being exceptional is the bland execution of some moments. When Maximus holds on to his knight and falls from a chopper, we see the two characters from a distance, which sucks all the exhilaration out of this moment. Even the scene where a doctor and his dog run from a machine that asks them to be calm is indifferently shot. When Maximus is defeated by the Ghoul, he uncontrollably flies around in a zigzag manner. This could have looked thrilling if the series had shown us the surroundings through Maximus's frenetic perspective. A chilling suggestion is made out of that moment when the Ghoul relishes the flesh while a father calls her daughter. But then, the series underlines this suggestion, and it suddenly becomes inefficacious.

The Vault Dwellers apparently produce their food through farming, which means they have artificial sunlight. I really wanted to know how they made their sun. A machine heals Lucy's finger before proceeding to harvest her organs. Why doesn't it give her a heavy dose of anesthesia to smoothly perform its operation? If Vault 31 is so crucial for hiding a secret, why isn't it more heavily guarded? Also, why are caps used as currency in Fallout? The series could have been more curious about itself, which would have provided it with more depth.

Nonetheless, Fallout is saved by its weird comic touches. A man, while having sex with a pregnant woman, mentions she is wet. There is a reason why she is wet, which I won't spoil here. When two characters kiss, the severed heads that they hold in their hands also end up kissing each other. The writing, the acting, and the revelations are all solid, which is why Fallout manages to provide you with an enjoyable experience. This is good stuff.

Final Score- [7/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times