Fallout

Season 1 – 60% – The first episode took my breath away. It ironically denigrates its main heroes, adds cautious doses of fear of the unknown, and gives a sense of something new. And then the plot moves into classic narrative procedures, the form locks itself in the endless addition of more and more gramophone hits, and the only thing left that I could really enjoy was Lucy. The remaining characters often annoy or even irritate you, secrets are explained in a transparent or predictable manner, the main heroine is constantly reminded that she will soon start behaving differently on the surface than under the hood, and honestly, Fallout for me works more like a love story or family drama, or even a western. The sci-fi aspect, social critique, anti-war pride, or uncovering shadows of the past I ultimately swallowed only as a necessary evil, to be expected as part of any post-apocalyptic sightseeing trip. But the show is still original, so I will be cautiously curious about the continuation. I just really wish the mood would stabilize. The combination of heavy-handed jokes, political satire, unrepentantly B-movie-quality monster flick, paranoid thriller, and action parade where fatal injuries can sometimes be healed with a potion and sometimes not, made it almost constantly hard to sit through. (23.05.2024)

Could this be the surprise series of the year? I really didn't have high hopes for it. After all, it's still a video game adaptation. And we all know how those usually turn out. But the creative team, led by the younger Nolan and the original game creator Todd Howard, took great care of it. The result is a meticulously crafted post-apocalyptic drama that pleasantly surprises on almost every front. Just the visuals alone impress in many moments, making it clear that Amazon pumped a substantial budget into it. Accompanied by an absolutely brilliant musical score by Ramin Djawadi, it offers a full-package experience. The acting is also brilliant. Walton Goggins, in particular, shines in what I consider the best role of his career. His Ghoul truly elevated the series to new heights in terms of quality. I also like how everyone involved understood the tone of the games. So, there's no shortage of brutality, dark humor, and perfect action here! I can't wait for the second season to hit our screens. Please, hurry... The wait is going to be painful. For me, the first season deserves an 8.5/10. (12.05.2024)

Well, I guess I'm not going to be positive like most others here, who apparently don't need much to be satisfied. I was expecting a pumped up sci-fi ride from Fallout, with kick ass visuals, a wasteland with uncompromising laws and a bunch of gore, a great mix of the story of the people "up there" and from the Vaults, and the whole thing backed up by unrelenting action and story development, but literally none of that was even remotely there. The visuals are just okay, but we don't get anything downright substantial or any wow element from the world, there's gore in maybe two scenes and even overall the series rides a lot of laughs instead of trying to be a true post-apocalyptic badass experience; it's a parody of itself, it makes jokes at the least appropriate moments, it makes fun of everything and it forgets what genre it's in. The lore of the people is also lame, for the entire eight episodes we don't even get a proper explanation of what happened back then and why, nor what the evolution of the Vault people has been over the last 200 years. Well, in sum, nothing and for me quite possibly the biggest disappointment of recent times, as this series deserved an epic treatment and instead got just uninteresting mediocrity that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Bleh. (19.04.2024)

I'm not a gamer, but this is a post-apocalyptic gem with the works. I love in this genre and I devoured the whole thing in one breath. A nuclear apocalypse breaks out on earth and the survivors live in fallout bunkers called Vaults, because on the surface there is radiation, bandits, ghouls and mutants. The main character played by Ella Purnell with her big eyes is cute and very likeable, even though she is no action machine. The action is mostly handled by the excellent Walton Goggins, who plays the Ghoul and is the best character in the series, even though he is an anti-hero. He has great lines, he's uncompromising in action and all the scenes with him are among the best (even the flashbacks). I also enjoyed Maximus, even though it annoyed me that he runs half the series without that awesome Warhammer armor. The action is nicely brutal and stylish, although in the second half of the series there's a lot less of it than I would have liked and we only get two animal mutants, which is a shame, but it's all made up for by a great story packed with twists and turns, atmosphere, mystery and suspense. The Vault scenes reminded me a lot of Silo. The series has great pacing, it never slips into the kind of plodding drama that The Last of Us slid into. This is just lighter and crazier as well as just twisted enough, I enjoyed exploring that world and some dialogue about the destruction of the end of the world gave me a decent chill. There was also a more action-packed finale, so I'm satisfied. I was also a little disappointed that we didn't get to learn much from the Brotherhood faction, but they seemed very interesting. I want Season 2 now! It grabbed me by the balls properly. It's only April and already you could put together a top 10 series list, there hasn't been a series this strong in 10 years. 9/10. (12.04.2024)

Weird, wicked and irradiated, i.e. the more Ghoul, the more fun. I considered the ridiculous Westworld to be collective cognitive dissonance and thus I didn’t expect much from Fallout. But hey, it not only doesn’t hurt anything, but it’s also pleasantly illuminating. The funny blend of creepy western, futuretro slapstick and narrative sci-fi has a cheerfully fitting tone grounded in the main aesthetic pillars of the games and creating its own origin story. Yeah, the first half is significantly better and the last three episodes, which suddenly start to form epic arcs, are a bit prone to throwing out clichés. But nothing fatal. The Ghoul and Norm are great characters, Lucy has potential and Maximus isn’t annoying. I’m very satisfied and I look forward to the next trek through the wasteland. (18.04.2024)