Soldiers in large mechanical robot suits, mutated cockroaches that hunger for human flesh, bunkers full of fifties kitsch and naive descendants of wealthy citizens. Fallout was so strange as a game series that even creator Todd Howard wondered whether mainstream audiences would accept a TV series. Yet Amazon’s streaming service Prime Video miraculously succeeded last year. Without the luxury of a cinematic story, such as The Last of Usor a legion of children’s fans, such as Minecraftthe series grabbed the viewer and dragged them into the absurd.
Series creators Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet delivered a masterpiece with the first season. On the one hand, they managed to translate the experience of the games – enormous, bizarre post-apocalyptic worlds that can be explored in width, but hardly rely on narrative film scenes – to the screen in such a way that every fan recognized themselves in the series; on the other hand, they managed to make this universe digestible for the average viewer at home with a sharp, character-driven story.
Young Lucy (Ella Purnell) grows up in an underground bunker, where life is good and the 1950s still persist. When looters capture her father, she is forced to leave the bunker. Outside she finds a nuclear wasteland full of suspicion and violence. Along the way, she meets the young squire Maximus (Aaron Moten), who belongs to a religious order that worships technology, and the cynical zombie The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), who knows more about how the world ended than he wants to admit.
The first season introduced this world gradually, with a reference or well-known game location here and there – but above all it proved that the strange Fallout cocktail of humor, horror, nostalgia and drama just works, even if you are not behind the controls yourself. With season two, the makers are entering more difficult territory: New (Las) Vegas. In the first four episodes of the six that NRC was shown, the series noticeably struggles to keep both fans and non-gaming viewers happy.
Vegas
Why, you don’t have to guess for long. Fallout: New Vegas (2010) is the most beloved of all Falloutgames, a special coming together of the unique perspective of the original creators and the more mainstream action game style of new owner Bethesda. A game that encourages deep reflections on power and morality, on preserving the past versus chasing the future, on the wisdom and nonsense of independence. In NewVegas the bureaucratic Democrats of the New California Republic (NCR) battle Caesar’s brutal but efficient Legion, while immortal billionaire Robert House tries to protect ‘his’ Vegas from change. It is of course up to the player to choose which worldview the future has.
Fallout season 2 clearly wants to do justice to this legendary game, but therefore fires a lot at unsuspecting viewers. NCR, Legion, Robert House, a huge range of well-known game characters and political intrigues – they pass by at a rapid pace, while the main characters go from one crisis to the next. At the same time, it is sometimes kept so simple that the gamer wonders whether his choices for Vegas had any impact. The series takes place fifteen years later, but Vegas remains a mess.
Johnny Pemberton (Thaddeus) and Aaron Moten (Maximus).
Image Lorenzo Sisti / Amazon Prime
Fortunately, the series regains its balance halfway through. As soon as the pace is slowed down a bit and Lucy, Maximus and the Ghoul are allowed to lead the story again, the sharpness returns. They are all searching: Lucy searches for her father, the Ghoul for his family, Maximus for his soul. They are all confronted with the main questions behind the game: what ideology does humanity need to survive in times of crisis? Should you cling to the past, or is it time to embrace the future? And how do you ensure that you do not lose your own values in the midst of so much chaos and violence?
Lean on humor
That does not mean that absurdist humor is hard to find – Fallout isn’t afraid of a puke joke or a hilarious reality check for an overly confident character. Sometimes the series leans too hard on this humor, especially in the first episodes. This is also gradually correcting itself. So in everything that preceded the destruction of human civilization. It remains deadly serious there.
The Ghoul – then Cooper Howard – was once the face of the mysterious multinational Vault-Tec, married to a top woman at the company. In the first season he seemed like the concerned outsider, but now his role appears to be slightly more complex. Justin Theroux plays a fascinating Robert House, a manipulative and cold businessman who is difficult for everyone to appreciate. His scenes are a highlight.
The series ultimately seems to get back on track, but whether it is as successful as in the first season will depend on the last two episodes, which NRC haven’t seen yet. In any case, there is no shortage of ambition. The series stubbornly sticks to its unique tone, to its almost impossible desire to serve two target groups. Continues to plod along Fallout ultimately just stuck in your head like the tune out NewVegas that gamers still curse: I’ve got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle…
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