Adaptations are all the rage because they can have built-in fanbases. That is a driving factor behind many features or TV shows getting made because IP is king, and very marketable IP is, well you could say it’s King Kong. However, adapting anything with a built-in fanbase is always going to come with challenges. The main one is “faithfulness”. A lot of people grumble about adaptations of books and games because inevitably things get left out or changed. No adaptation is going to please everyone even ones generally beloved. Take Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings Trilogy, most people acknowledge that it is a pretty faithful adaptation and both theatrical and extended cuts are well-loved. However, Tom Bombadil was removed and while most understood his removal since it doesn’t further the overall plot, there are still those who are attached to him and upset by his removal. You can’t please everyone with an adaptation and often in trying to be too faithful to the text you can lose the heart of the material. It’s why I’m generally pleased with the adaptations that draw from the source material but establish their own characters/lore. The reason? Because you can stay true to the heart of why people who know the IP love it, and give them Easter Eggs they will enjoy along the way, but you can also provide a new adventure, one that they can experience along with viewers unfamiliar with the world. That is what Fallout is doing, and doing well.
The show uses the lore of the games but puts you in a new timeline that hasn’t been established yet. By doing this the creators were able to explore places and characters that feel true to the world, without being tied to recreating the games and thus they were able to delve into a new story world to explore and a series that I, a non-gamer, and my friend who loved the games, were both able to devour and enjoy.
Our entry into the world is aptly the day everything changed, when the bombs dropped, leading to the world of Fallout. But then we are moved forward in time (further than the games have ever delved), to Vault 33, where Lucy (played by Ella Purnell) is making her pitch to take part in trade with the neighbouring vault in the hopes of getting a husband as there are no suitable (non-related) matches in her vault. If you’ve watched a modicum of TV/film or even seen the trailer for the series, you know that for the series and the character to have stakes, not all is as it appears at this wedding. Ella Purnell was giving me flashbacks to Ready or Not during a lot of the action sequences in this pilot, and mean that as a high compliment. She plays the character that is meant to most guide the uninitiated through the world of the show, because while she might have grown up in this world, she was raised in a very sheltered vault so she is discovering most things at the same time as the audience. Ella Purnell is perfect in this role, she played a similar type of character in Sweetbitter and she is very good at being the wide-eyed eyes in.
The rest of the series alternates between this timeline and a pre-Fallout timeline that follows Cooper Howard, who in the main timeline is The Ghoul (both played by Walton Goggins). Walton Goggins is always great, but he’s especially great when he gets to do character work and his role as Cooper Howard/The Ghoul allows him to show off his range. The prosthetics created by Vincent Van Dyk are fabulous (only the nose is removed digitally) for when he’s The Ghoul.
I have a special fondness for the way the series does establishing shots. From the few times I have played video/computer games, it was very reminiscent of how a new location was established there, and I liked that nod to the source material, even if it was establishing new locations that weren’t from the games themselves, but expanding that universe.
Finally, the series has great hooks. It is tough to not click next, since all the episodes are available as it was dropped all at once. I wish they had chosen to release the series in a hybrid model (two or three up dropped initially and then weekly) because I do think most people will watch it in a binge and then it may miss out on potential audience because you don’t stay in the conversation as long that way. However you choose to watch it, the first season Fallout is available on Prime now, it has already been renewed for a second season.
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