Fallout (Amazon)

Yeah, he's in it for two minutes. And he spends most of it dying in the most way.

I’m gonna start off with what I liked before I rant about the, let’s call them inconsistencies, with New Vegas’s timeline

Walton Goggins is easily the MVP but everyone knew that was gonna be the case going in. Give him all the awards. I really liked how they recreated the Fallout world, the production design on the vaults in particular is fucking spectacular. I did like some of the nods to the video games but thought a lot of it was a bit cheesy too. Like when we’re introduced to Lucy and she’s submitting her marriage application to the council she’s listing off her skills and traits like it’s the character creation at the start of the game. When The Ghoul said “The Wasteland’s got its own Golden Rule. Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time” I was like lmaooo this man really said we’re going on a side quest

Ok now on to the shitstorm that that fucking chalkboard started. In New Vegas it’s mentioned a lot that the NCR is already on the decline but

There’s still a lot more I want to say about the Brotherhood of Steel’s presence here - and it’s implications for Fallout 4’s ending, that was The Prydwen flying around all over the place if I’m not mistaken - and the boardroom scene but I have already typed so much and I am fucking tired. All I’ll say is that boardroom scene is the stupidest fucking scene of the year in film or television but maybe I’ll save it for another post. I just want to go play New Vegas now

I feel bad for Jenna Ortega, because Ella Purnell bears a resemblance to her and has the potential to be a rival in terms of casting opportunities . I think Purnell has serious sex appeal, while Ortega doesn't really give those vibes, though she's attractive as well. Anyway, should be interesting to see if they can both co-exist successfully, or if as is often the case in Hollywood, only one can stay on top.

I am not a gamer and I very rarely watch, like, or finish TV seasons unless miniseries. So it helped that this was 8-episode but honestly that helped only a little, cuz the fact is: THIS SHOW IS AWESOME!

I LOVED IT.

The world-building is SO great. it's astounding. I shouldn't be comparing a TV show to a movie, but the world building here was so complete and fascinating, and the plot lines and different places' context was so apparent and easy to follow that it totally pulled me in (which in contrast Dune Part II which I watched just before starting this completely failed to do IMHO).

I nodded my head in an "of course!" way when I caught the name of Johnathan Nolan, but I know he wasn't 100% involved as a director. But any case, I loved it and found the show mostly highly consistent in the thrill and reveals-intrigue factor. The only thing where it dips a tad bit is relying too much on flashback structure for nearly all of The Ghoul's arc. Other than that, this show was great and the thoroughness of the world-building where there are so many worlds within worlds it seems like (cuz every different stretch of this world seems to be unique and has its own character, including the various vaults shown), that it completely won me over. It is very hard for me to invest ordinarily in shows where familiar faces are not already present for the heavy lifting. This only had Goggin (and Leslie Uggams) plus a few precious cameos every few episodes but all the new young faces impressed me heavily and fully immersed me in their stories, down even to the naive Chet when he's going to vault 32. That's a remarkable feat. I think all the way to the ending, it was mighty satisfying and made us interested and eager to see the next chapter of this story - may it come soon.

I liked the themes as well. They are mostly recycled familiar themes from apocalyptic genre, but the universe is so damn unique and it has such a charm factor due to the alternate retro timeline thing, I just adored the whole thing. And it really gave me horrors and hereby jeebies at the right places. so a huge WIN all around in my book.

I look forward to catching more thoughts on this from y'all.

Many congratulations to the team behind this.