[Amazon Prime] FALLOUT

[Big s]

Finally got through to the last episode. Definitely the best show of the early part of the year and another great for Prime. I really can’t make a complaint about this one. It was a great mix of fun and dramatic and horrifying and action packed and hilarious. It was definitely a great season and really want more

[sh9000]

Fallout will return for season 2.

[TangledThorns]

Few episodes in and I like it, not love though. My wife is meh with her opinion, lol. Neither of us played the game so that may matter?

On a side note I'm cancelling PRIME this year. Outside a few series (namely THE BOYS and INVINCIBLE) their streaming library is kinda weak plus I'm finding better shopping deals locally and with other online retailers.

[Big s]

13 minutes ago, TangledThorns said:

Few episodes in and I like it, not love though. My wife is meh with her opinion, lol. Neither of us played the game so that may matter?

I don’t think playing the game matters. My lady and I both loved it and think it’s the best show of the year so far . My daughter did play the games, and she likes it as well 

[Raikkonen]

The ghoul is 90% of the show. Remove him, and it's very forgettable. 

[Duke Togo]

This show is a home run. Critically acclaimed and popular with viewers. It was a hit with me and some of my friends who have never played the games. Male and female. I look forward to season 2.

Edited April 20 by Duke Togo

[Big s]

3 hours ago, Raikkonen said:

The ghoul is 90% of the show. Remove him, and it's very forgettable. 

Don’t get me wrong, the ghoul is very important. But there’s a lot I liked other than him. I loved the Armor guy and awkward armor shenanigans and the stuff going on in the vaults is pretty entertaining as well. There’s a lot of little mysteries going on in the show. The ghoul and his story are definitely the glue that helps tie things together and a lot of things revolve around his character

[M'Kyuun]

5 hours ago, Big s said:

Don’t get me wrong, the ghoul is very important. But there’s a lot I liked other than him. I loved the Armor guy and awkward armor shenanigans and the stuff going on in the vaults is pretty entertaining as well. There’s a lot of little mysteries going on in the show. The ghoul and his story are definitely the glue that helps tie things together and a lot of things revolve around his character

Lucy and Maximus are important, of course. Just like in the game, Lucy, the vault dweller, provides the viewer's main frame of reference when it comes to the wasteland, and her character has the greatest growth in terms of her outlook, decisions, and actions as her story progresses. Max has a smaller arc, but after the conclusion, I get the sense his importance to the story is going to expand much more.

Spoiler

As a Knight, he'll have more authority and thus be able to strike out on his own with far less oversight. Moreover, if he accepts the deal with the leader of his current faction of BoS to form their own faction, he'll be number two in the hierarchy, and if he rids himself of the old leader, he could place himself at the head of his own faction. The potential is there for Max to go one way or the other in terms of how he wields his burgeoning power- he's not the most honest guy, and oft works to his own benefit. Would he betray Lucy?- maybe depending on what he might gain. That's what makes Max an interesting character.

The Ghoul is a fascinating character. He's lived a long time, seen a lot, knows a lot, and time and the wasteland have changed him. But at the core, he still holds on to some of his ideals from when he was purely human. He offers an adjacent yet seasoned view of the wasteland in stark contrast to Lucy's naive and optimistic outlook. He comes off as a bad guy, and some of his actions are ethically questionable, but he rarely does anything without a reason or purpose behind it, and he's not just killing for the sport of it. His is the most interesting viewpoint given the lens of time through which we see events unfold over a 200+ year timeline and all the machinations to which he was privy.  Walton Goggins is captivating in the role. Just overall, I like all the main cast and I'm looking forward to S2.

[Raikkonen]

18 hours ago, Big s said:

Don’t get me wrong, the ghoul is very important. But there’s a lot I liked other than him. I loved the Armor guy and awkward armor shenanigans and the stuff going on in the vaults is pretty entertaining as well. There’s a lot of little mysteries going on in the show. The ghoul and his story are definitely the glue that helps tie things together and a lot of things revolve around his character

In my view: The armour guy (Maximus) was utterly devoid of any consistency, one moment a clumsy buffoon, then a bit of psychopath, then mister aloof of the year, and all while he kept changing direction. He was too annoying with his multiple personality issues, and seemed the writers really know how to build him as every time something twitched in his head, the same pity guilt flashback played out... almost every episode. If anything, at one point, I was like really "Really? They're seriously trying to copy Fin from SW and can't even get that right?"

I'm not going into detail with the amount of plot holes and face palm moments with vault 31 to 33 (Plenty of YT videos breaking that down), but I stand firm that the ghoul grabbed back attention each time he appeared as the rest of the show was a reheated stew of cliché characters and obvious twists. 

 

Edited April 21 by Raikkonen

[Big s]

3 hours ago, Raikkonen said:

In my view: The armour guy (Maximus) was utterly devoid of any consistency, one moment a clumsy buffoon, then a bit of psychopath, then mister aloof of the year, and all while he kept changing direction. He was too annoying with his multiple personality issues, and seemed the writers really know how to build him as every time something twitched in his head, the same pity guilt flashback played out... almost every episode. If anything, at one point, I was like really "Really? They're seriously trying to copy Fin from SW and can't even get that right?"

I'm not going into detail with the amount of plot holes and face palm moments with vault 31 to 33 (Plenty of YT videos breaking that down), but I stand firm that the ghoul grabbed back attention each time he appeared as the rest of the show was a reheated stew of cliché characters and obvious twists. 

 

Maximus seemed extremely different from Finn to me. They really didn’t have the same look or purpose. Finn was a dude that got ptsd after his first real battle and just wanted to run away and hide, but then got dragged into things. Maximus didn’t want out, he wanted more authority and his first experience of action was with someone that had no respect for him or his own safety and he knew that he was being pushed into a situation he more than likely wasn’t coming back from. I think most people would’ve acted the same in that particular situation. As far as his buffoonery, I’d say that’s mostly due to extreme lack of training. He had absolutely no experience with that suit and it showed. I don’t feel like there were any multiple personalities at all. He just had a slight change of view when he realized that he might have a chance at an easy life, but went back on track soon after.

 I didn’t really notice any plot holes with 33 or 32 going on, it seemed like things were explained as the show went, but I also haven’t seen any YouTube videos explaining them. There were a lot of spoilery videos and I avoided anything like that til after the show was over. I’ll see if I can find any later

[jvmacross]

Had no prior experience with the franchise other than the cartoon mascot and the vintage music that goes along with it, which i find kind of creepy....

Just binged it this afternoon and thought it was great, start to finish....

I really liked the alternative time line that seems to be based on a technologically more advanced period during what appears to be the "Cold War" era of the 50's...

Really liked the battlesuits and the whole "Brotherhood" cult or whatever they were considered in the post-war society....

Very much looking forward to more seasons....was kind of expecting another Rings of Power fail, but was pleasantly surprised....I guess that's 2 shows to look forward to on Prime....

So for those familiar with the games...how much of the games is covered by the first season of Fallout?

[Scyla]

2 hours ago, jvmacross said:

[snip:] So for those familiar with the games...how much of the games is covered by the first season of Fallout?

There is not much story overlap between the series and the game because the series takes place much later than the first games (that are also set in the California area Fallout 1&2 but start at 2161).

The Bethesda games are set. Fallout 3&4 (2277 & 2287) take place in the North East of the US and Fallout 76 (2102) in the Appalachian area.

The show takes place in 2296 so quite a bit apart from the first game.

There are some location cameos like Shady Sands but I haven’t found a lot of overlap between the games besides general themes and the setting.

 

[Big s]

3 hours ago, jvmacross said:

I really liked the alternative time line that seems to be based on a technologically more advanced period during what appears to be the "Cold War" era of the 50's...

Yeah, that was a nice touch. I had a double take when the actor pulled into a parking space with his car and the door had an odd sliding mechanism rather than a swing joint.

[David Hingtgen]

8 hours ago, Big s said:

Yeah, that was a nice touch. I had a double take when the actor pulled into a parking space with his car and the door had an odd sliding mechanism rather than a swing joint.

I think it was one of these:

https://www.carscoops.com/2015/08/the-kaiser-darrin-is-thoroughly-unique/

[Big s]

5 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

I think it was one of these:

https://www.carscoops.com/2015/08/the-kaiser-darrin-is-thoroughly-unique/

Yeah, I had to look it up. I guess a lot of the cars were real and some were just concept vehicles. Most were extreme rarities, but that definitely was the Kaiser Darrin. I’ve never heard of it before and it’s definitely interesting to see and even more wild to watch how the doors open

[TangledThorns]

One more episode left and one of my biggest takeaways is the list of forgotten actors as guest stars in this series. Namely Erik Estrada, Michael Rappaport and Mykelti Williamson.

[Seto Kaiba]

Looking into starting this one tonight or later this week

How necessary is it to have played (or at least be familiar with) the game series?

(Asking because I have never played the games and have basically zero familiarity with the franchise beyond hearing some friends complain about Fallout 76.)

[Boobytrap]

3 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

How necessary is it to have played (or at least be familiar with) the game series?

It's not necessary at all. I've only played Fallout 4 which takes place on the other side of the country so I didn't have any background information with this particular location. There might be a few easter eggs or inside jokes you miss but overall it's pretty easy to follow along.

 

Have fun watching it. It's a 'blast'.

[David Hingtgen]

22 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Looking into starting this one tonight or later this week

How necessary is it to have played (or at least be familiar with) the game series?

(Asking because I have never played the games and have basically zero familiarity with the franchise beyond hearing some friends complain about Fallout 76.)

Zero, all you need to know is pretty much in Ep 1.   It's the post-apocalyptic nuclear genre, there you go.   Just, the bombs basically dropped in like 1950, instead of 2050 like "usual".   (which thus has a great effect on where tech/culture "stopped" for a while)  

[Boobytrap]

Just to clarify, the bombs did drop in 2077. It's just that the country's culture was frozen/stagnated in the 1950's. So while technology continued to progress everything else (from clothing styles, automobile and building aesthetics, tv, music, values good and bad, etc...) remained unchanged.

[Big s]

5 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Looking into starting this one tonight or later this week

How necessary is it to have played (or at least be familiar with) the game series?

(Asking because I have never played the games and have basically zero familiarity with the franchise beyond hearing some friends complain about Fallout 76.)

I’ve never played the games and didn’t feel lost at all with the show. Just about everything you might be a little lost on gets a bit of an explanation as the show rolls with a few things left for season 2

[TangledThorns]

4 hours ago, Boobytrap said:

Just to clarify, the bombs did drop in 2077. It's just that the country's culture was frozen/stagnated in the 1950's. So while technology continued to progress everything else (from clothing styles, automobile and building aesthetics, tv, music, values good and bad, etc...) remained unchanged.

So basically Viva Las Vegas forever? lol

https://www.vivalasvegas.net/

[Boobytrap]

 

1 hour ago, TangledThorns said:

So basically Viva Las Vegas forever? lol

Throw in some fusion core batteries, WMD's, and crt green screens and it's dead on 😄

[Seto Kaiba]

6 hours ago, Boobytrap said:

Just to clarify, the bombs did drop in 2077. It's just that the country's culture was frozen/stagnated in the 1950's. So while technology continued to progress everything else (from clothing styles, automobile and building aesthetics, tv, music, values good and bad, etc...) remained unchanged.

... really? 🫤

I hope Fallout has a better explanation than that, because that's some hot nonsense.  That actually sounds less believable than those old Star Trek episodes where some aliens find a book someone left behind, assume it's a description of the ideal society, and model their entire culture on it or build an entire world based on it.  Cultural development just took a powder for 120 years?

[jvmacross]

4 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

... really? 🫤

I hope Fallout has a better explanation than that, because that's some hot nonsense.  That actually sounds less believable than those old Star Trek episodes where some aliens find a book someone left behind, assume it's a description of the ideal society, and model their entire culture on it or build an entire world based on it.  Cultural development just took a powder for 120 years?

The whole story is based on an alternate timeline...what if our '50s...was that timeline's 1850's?...who knows...the story is good, but if that's the kind of unexplained detail that will bother you then the show is already not for you

[Boobytrap]

8 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

... really? 🫤

There is a reason behind it but it is left as a mystery for the gamer to partially piece together bit by bit. Those that don't do much exploring or reading of texts/computers  left behind won't get much of an explanation. Those that do will be able to come to their own reasonable assumption and go "ah, that's probably why" even though it is not explicitly explained.

I feel the show does touch on enough of that for the watcher to make some assumptions of why culture didn't progress. While we don't see much, if any, of it in modern society it's not like it's without precedent in human history. Not much cultural growth occurred during the dark ages.

I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say it was a form of control for bad people doing bad things.

[Scyla]

4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

... really? 🫤

I hope Fallout has a better explanation than that, because that's some hot nonsense.  That actually sounds less believable than those old Star Trek episodes where some aliens find a book someone left behind, assume it's a description of the ideal society, and model their entire culture on it or build an entire world based on it.  Cultural development just took a powder for 120 years?

I thought the idea is that after WW2 they diverted from our reality by focusing their effort on developing better nuclear fission reactors instead of going the integrated circuit route our reality took.

So it’s not like they were stagnant for a long time. All their electronics look a bit old fashioned (i.e. CRT based) but powered by mini nuclear reactors.

It was how the game designers envisioned in the late 90s (at a time were the whole flat LCD screen in your hand aesthetic wasn’t a thing) to signify that the Fallout universe is different from ours but still familiar and the franchise ran with it

[TangledThorns]

On a side note Fallout's VFX reminds me of The Boy's (especially the gory violence FX) so I wonder if we'll see similar qaulity in Henry Cavill's Warhammer 40K series? The Brotherhood of Steel's knights costumes are probably a good test for Space Marine's armor I wonder too.

[Big s]

43 minutes ago, TangledThorns said:

On a side note Fallout's VFX reminds me of The Boy's (especially the gory violence FX) so I wonder if we'll see similar qaulity in Henry Cavill's Warhammer 40K series? The Brotherhood of Steel's knights costumes are probably a good test for Space Marine's armor I wonder too.

I mentioned that as well. I think this at least gives hope for what sounded a bit far fetched as far a quality with armor in a tv series or straight to streaming movie. Visually I think the Warhammer project will look great, but we’re gonna have to wait and see about the story itself.

[Tking22]

17 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

... really? 🫤

I hope Fallout has a better explanation than that, because that's some hot nonsense.  That actually sounds less believable than those old Star Trek episodes where some aliens find a book someone left behind, assume it's a description of the ideal society, and model their entire culture on it or build an entire world based on it.  Cultural development just took a powder for 120 years?

For better or worse, it's a world where the "nuclear" family and society of the 50s and 60s never ended, things advanced technologically like our world, but nuclear powered. We don't see much of other countries in Fallout, the games are always based in the US, but the little bits we do get tend to reveal the rest of the world mostly tried to continue on as normal, but the Fallout universes Cold War became a whole different beast, and the US and China became too powerful too quickly to not dictate the cultural development of the rest of the world to a fairly large degree. 

Beyond that....

Spoiler

Vault-Tec and the Enclave are responsible for most of this. They wanted to keep people hooked on the hopes of the 50s and 60s, the nuclear dream, and so they kept the manufacturers and engineers in various companies they owned making things the same way, and made them look the same way. It was all about selling people on nothing being wrong, while also trying to bring about the nuclear apocalypse, for profit, and the promise of an eventual "super society" built from the ashes of the old world. 

 

[Seto Kaiba]

15 hours ago, jvmacross said:

The whole story is based on an alternate timeline...what if our '50s...was that timeline's 1850's?...who knows...the story is good, but if that's the kind of unexplained detail that will bother you then the show is already not for you

To be honest, yeah... I'm inclined to agree.

If the setting is underdeveloped to the point that the answer to "why are things like this?" is "just don't think about it" or "it has been left as an exercise for the viewer", that often means the rest of the writing is going to be similarly lacking.  Not always, but often enough to be a pretty reliable indicator of quality.

 

Spoiler

All in all, after watching the first episode I can say that it's definitely pretty... but that was never in doubt with a per-episode budget like this.

The scene at the beginning where the nearby city is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust is rather well executed, and does a great job of conveying the horror of the situation.

The rest of the writing and execution is... considerably less polished.  The fight with the raiders in Vault 33 in the episode's first half feels really amateurish.  There's no sense of direction or flow to the action.  It almost feels like they wanted to have a lot more actors in the scene, but couldn't get them.  With so few people it doesn't feel chaotic so much as it does just plain random, a collection of unrelated violent vignettes with B-movie blood splatter effects strung together in no particular order and without regard for a consistent tone.  Considering the bare concrete and steel industrial backdrop, it reminds me uncannily of the 2019 direct-to-video Doom movie in that regard.

Maximus's section of the story seems to flow a lot better, but even there it seems to depend a lot on random acts of violence.  We're introduced to him getting the sh*t kicked out of him for no real reason, then he gets smacked around by his teacher for making a mistake in class, then he gets dragged off because some other recruit got pranked by someone who put razorblades in their boot.

The Ghoul's section is too short to even really establish who they are, but it's punctuated by more scenes of violence that come out of nowhere and seemingly for no reason.

 

After watching the first episode, I definitely feel like Fallout expects me to already be familiar with the setting from the games and I definitely feel like I'm missing some critical context and/or knowledge.  

 

 

5 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

On a side note Fallout's VFX reminds me of The Boy's (especially the gory violence FX) so I wonder if we'll see similar qaulity in Henry Cavill's Warhammer 40K series? The Brotherhood of Steel's knights costumes are probably a good test for Space Marine's armor I wonder too.

Given that the whole streaming race is driven by visual quality above all else, it's a safe bet Amazon will spend big to make Cavill's Warhammer 40,000 series look every bit as nice as Fallout.

What Cavill's project will end up spending that money on is anyone's guess, since we don't know if he's adapting an existing story or developing an original one, or what the focus of the story will be.  It's a really big setting with a LOT of options, and quite a few of the most celebrated candidates for adaptation are devoid of things like powered armor.

[jvmacross]

@Seto Kaiba The times you end up liking a series when going in with zero expectations vs the times you end up getting disappointed truly skews towards the dissapointment range, so your skepticism is understandable....Luckily, at least for me...I ended up really liking this show, which lately does not happen often...and I think it was more than just the story...I really liked the characters and the actors selected for each role, imo it's really good casting....kind of how I ended up really liking One Piece....I think the actors really tipped it for me, because to be honest...the whole point of One Piece makes even less sense that Fallout for me...of course, YMMV....

 

[Big s]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

After watching the first episode, I definitely feel like Fallout expects me to already be familiar with the setting from the games and I definitely feel like I'm missing some critical context and/or knowledge.  

I wouldn’t worry about that at all. Pretty much everything gets some explanation with a few things that feel like they will be least for the next season.little things happen here and there and it’s like little revelations surrounded by extreme violence.

 I’m a fan of cheap films like stuff from troma and for me it’s almost like a troma film without a budget. It has it absurdity and action and it has odd explanations for why things are messed up

[Tking22]

My parents, both in their sixties, who are boring as hell and watch Price is Right, Andy Griffith, and Sons of Anarchy over and over binged the entire season and absolutely loved. Not only do they have no knowledge of the games, they have no gaming knowledge to speak of at all, they went in completely unaware of anything they were about to watch, and they both absolutely loved it and wanted more episodes when it ended.

It doesn't hurt that they love Walton Goggins, everybody does, but they loved everything about the show, all the characters, the world, the sound and aesthetic. This series is a total win for Amazon, fans of the games love it, and it's accessible enough for non-gamers, even boring old people, to get in to. 

[jvmacross]

@Seto Kaiba

Since you watched only 1 episode....here is what is explained by the end of the first season....shown in the first episode...

Why there are different vaults?....yes

Why the Nuclear War happened....yes

Why does everything look like 50's....no (honestly, it's just Fallout's style, doubt it will ever be addressed, but who knows)

Who are the "raiders"?  yes

Who is the raider leader?...yes

Why did they take the leader of Vault 33.....yes

Who is the leader of the raiders and her motives?...yes, at least somewhat...pretty sure we do not know everything yet about her

The Ghoul......where he came from and how he seems to have survived for hundreds of years, his motivatios.....yes, quite a bit, but definitely more to learn about him (I won't spoil more about this character, but there are more intriguing things that are revealed as the show progresses...he is by far my favorite character, with Lucy, ironically, being the least interesting, in fact I haven't even brought her up once...and to be honest, her whole character arc could come to a conclusion at the end of S1 if they wanted it to)

What happened to Valut 32...and Vault 31.....yes

Max and the Brotherhood of Steel.......not alot

Why Max gets beat up.....yes

 

Just watch it!