Spoiler Warning: Minor spoilers may be present for the Fallout TV series and games.
We’ve now seen two trailers for the upcoming Fallout television adaptation, so I thought I’d share my two cents on one of 2024’s most interesting TV shows! Let’s start by acknowledging something important: video games have been notoriously awkward to adapt and bring to the big and small screens alike, and there are many examples that underwhelmed or just outright failed. Recent years have seen better efforts, though: I’d point to Paramount+’s Halo series and last year’s Super Mario Bros. Movie as being great exemplars of what’s possible nowadays.
So there’s hope for the Fallout series, then!
I like to say that I’ve played “two-and-a-bit” Fallout games. I played Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, and I took a look at Fallout 76 before quickly realising it wasn’t my type of game. I haven’t played the original CRPGs nor Fallout: New Vegas – which folks seem to say is the best one! So that’s my background with Fallout, and I have to say that while I generally enjoyed my time with the games that I played… I’m not the franchise’s biggest fan by any means, and I can see some potential issues that may arise as the world of the games is transplanted into a made-for-streaming TV series.
The Fallout series has a very particular aesthetic, and it’s one that works well in the simulated worlds of video games. But there are some cartoonish trappings of the games’ post-apocalyptic setting that I’m not convinced will work in live-action, especially if the series goes down a serious, almost deadpan route with its characters and storytelling. Blending things like power armour, flying robots, and brightly-coloured Vault-Tec jumpsuits with a post-nuclear setting replete with dirt and grime… it works in the games, but I felt from looking at the two trailers that there were some visual clashes.
Modern TV programmes and films have sometimes struggled with high-resolution cameras and screens that show everything down to the last detail – and what I mean by that is that if the details aren’t perfect, or don’t look believable enough, they end up sticking out like a sore thumb. Some of the pieces of metal for things like robots and power armour didn’t quite look “metallic enough” in the trailer, looking too flat, too matte, and too much like the foam-rubber that they’re probably made from! I’ve noted similar issues in films like The Rise of Skywalker, so clearly this is something that some film and TV studios have yet to fully get to grips with.
Then there were the Vault-Tec jumpsuits that several characters were seen to be wearing. For me, these came across looking too bright, and when I went back to the games to compare, I feel like they didn’t have the same issue. The jumpsuits in the Fallout games always seemed to me to be made of denim or some similar fabric; the ones made for the television series seem to have an almost shiny appearance in some sequences. I understand that there’s meant to be a contrast between the “clean” vault and the “chaotic” wasteland – but maybe dialling this back a notch or two would’ve looked better. For me, the way the jumpsuits look felt almost cartoonish.
I’m by no means opposed to bright primary colours – I’m a Star Trek fan, and Star Trek’s uniforms are almost all in similarly bright tones. I think jumpsuits like the ones seen in the trailer could work… if the rest of the aesthetic was similarly toned up to match. But it felt like most of the wasteland was a fairly drab post-apocalyptic brown and khaki, making the bright blue jumpsuits stick out. Maybe that was the intention – but there are other ways to accomplish the same task without making characters look like they’re heading out to a fancy dress party.
But maybe I’m nitpicking and being too harsh! There were definitely highlights from the trailers; things that looked exciting or mysterious. I’m glad that – so far, at least – Fallout hasn’t fallen into the trap of exposing too much of its story. Some modern trailers overdo it, leaving very little for viewers to discover when they get to watch the full film or series. There’s a line to walk between generating interest and over-sharing, and I think Amazon and Bethesda did a good job in that regard.
I was quite surprised to see that all eight episodes of the series will be arriving at once. Fallout could absolutely be a blast to binge-watch… but I tend to prefer watching week-to-week rather than feeling I need to watch the whole series over a couple of days to avoid picking up too many spoilers. As Netflix has discovered to its cost, releasing an entire series all at once isn’t always the best approach, and we’ve seen many modern made-for-streaming series fall back on the “old-fashioned” approach of releasing episodes weekly. Amazon doesn’t typically broadcast its shows this way, so I’d be interested to find out why Fallout is being released all at once.
Actor Walton Goggins – who plays a character known only as “the Ghoul,” and who also narrated the second trailer – is someone I recognised from the trailers, though I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where from! Interestingly, as a Trekkie at least, Fallout’s writer (credited as the “creator” of the series) is Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who Paramount had announced was writing/producing one of the Star Trek Beyond sequel efforts a couple of years ago. That project may or may not still be going ahead – watch this space!
And speaking of Star Trek connections: Ella Purnell, who plays Lucy in Fallout and has been featured prominently in the show’s marketing material, was the voice of Gwyn in Star Trek: Prodigy. Gwyn was a great character in that series, and there may be echoes of that kind of “fish-out-of-water” character in Lucy the vault-dweller as she makes her way through the wasteland for the first time. At least we know that Ella Purnell can play that kind of role convincingly!
The original Fallout was set on the West Coast, and some elements from that game – such as the New California Republic faction – also appeared in Fallout: New Vegas. Because the games I’m more familiar with take place on the East Coast – in D.C. and Boston respectively – I have less of a familiarity with the “lore” of Fallout as it pertains to the California area. Having said that, there are a couple of factions and locations that seem to be lifted directly from the games: the aforementioned NCR being one, as well as the Brotherhood of Steel, and the settlement of Shady Sands, which was a base for one of the first game’s factions.
The series is set more than a century after the events of the first Fallout, a few years after the main events of Fallout 4 – and almost 200 years after Fallout 76! Its place in the timeline gives it scope to change things, or at least do things differently when compared to the games. I’m not a huge stickler for “canon” – especially in a fictional setting that I have, at best, experienced only a portion of. But at the same time, I hope the series doesn’t overwrite or retcon too many things from the games – especially as it’s set in the same part of the world as the first game. After all, if writers are just going to ignore everything that had been established to tell their own story… why not make a brand-new setting?
The two trailers both contained moments of mystery and excitement. Walton Goggins’ Ghoul appears to be an antagonist, and Lucy seems to be our point-of-view character as she emerges from the vault into this strange, new world. Beyond that, I caught glimpses of references and “Easter eggs” from the games, such as a dog that resembles Dogmeat – a canine companion present in all of the main games. There was also the famous “please stand by” screen in the vault, bottles of Nuka-Cola, power armour, and more.
Although I’ve found a few things to pick on from the trailers, most of that is aesthetic! A strong story can make me forget even the silliest visual quirks, and it’s also worth pointing out that a short trailer that had to be compressed for social media isn’t always going to be totally reflective of the finished product. There was enough in both of the trailers to keep me interested, and when Fallout arrives next month I’ll be sure to tune in!
Although Fallout has never been one of my all-time favourite gaming franchises, I’ve enjoyed it enough to sink dozens of hours into two of its titles, and I generally had a good time. There’s more to the unique world than can be portrayed in a couple of video games, though, and I think Fallout could make a good television adaptation. Whether this particular story and script will live up to that potential… I’m not sure. We won’t know until we’ve watched the series, I guess! But there are positive notes to take away from the two trailers, and reason enough to think that Fallout could be a fun watch this spring.
When Fallout has premiered, I hope you’ll circle back for a review and my impressions of the series. With all of the episodes arriving at once, it might take me a little while to get through the full series, but I’ll endeavour to write up a review before too long.
See you out in the wasteland!
Fallout will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on the 11th of April 2024. Fallout is the copyright of Amazon MGM Studios, Bethesda Softworks, and/or Kilter Films. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Trekking with Dennis 