Fallout

Walton Goggins is killing it. Cooper Howard is definitely my favorite character so far to see his pre-bombs dropping persona vs the smartass ghoul he has become. I really like the exploration of the division that was spreading amongst everyone in the flashbacks.

As far as adaptation, I am pretty happy. I think they are threading the needle relatively well with lore so that someone who hasn't played the games can pick things up quickly and enjoy(?) the fucked up world of the wasteland.

Favorite quote so far "Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit, every damn time."

I said this in another post but it seems more appropriate here. I'm liking how the show is exploring things about the world that the games can't. Like how the brotherhood ranks work in relation to each other, reproduction and sex in and out of the vaults, what people think of the vaults, and mostly how dangerous raiders can be and how brutal the watlsteland actually is.

My wife and I saw the first two episodes last night as well, and we both really enjoyed it. Me as a long-time fan, and her going in totally blind.

It pretty much felt like playing the game, which is about as high of praise as I can possibly give.

Watching ep. 1 right now. It's pretty brilliant.

Loved the blue and yellow cowboy suits, shame that was 200 years ago... there's a flashback story there...

Glad to see it's not just the vault dweller story, but the knights too.

And how about that Maximus? I hear Marvel needs a new Kang, maybe de-age him a bit?

Also dug using Predicta TVs but I'm biased. :)

Episode 1 notes, written without retrospection:

I've never been thrilled about digging too deeply into the details of the pre-war. To me, questions like "who started it?" should remain murky since the real answer is that it doesn't matter.

That said, I did like the pre-war scene of Goggins as a cowboy. The design of the pre-war homes and atmosphere felt right. I mildly recoiled at the "thumb measures blast distance" thing, because that's quite actually something a commenter on Reddit made up about the Vault Boy pose and it's become accepted fact. I did notice right at the beginning of the episode that one of the parents was asian, and that only caught my attention because the anti-Chinese (and implicit wider anti-asian) sentiment in the pre-war US has been something long established, so it was weird to see that guy at a party hosted by somebody willing to call Goggins a commie at the drop of a hat.

Lucy's introduction was really well done. I liked her mannerisms and nervous ticks during the application process.

Lucy's montage shows her using a Sterling submachinegun. Probably just a production choice to fit the aesthetic. Interesting choice though.

Oh neat, 1984 Paul Atredies.

The fake corn field with the projectors on the walls feels like something that would have been right at home in the sensibilities of Fallout 2.

The reproductive limit and culture of the vault is hitting that right note of dark, funny, but also logical outcome.

Very briefly there is a shot of a priest for the wedding wearing a modified vault suit. Neat.

Lucy's actress is killing it with the facial expressions.

Vault 33 dwellers still think of themselves as Americans.

Vault 32 dwellers have a lot of tattoos and scars at the wedding. Obviously deliberate production choice. Wait a minute are these raiders impersonating vault dwellers?

Dead corn field is chilling.

Yup. Raiders. Proud of myself for calling it.

The gore is on point already with that blender-to-face hit.

I swear that knife she picks up from the raider is designed specifically to resemble the Fallout 1 rusty knife.

Jet confirmed in the show.

BOS is flying US flag along with their own.

BOS recruits wearing OG107s or something really close.

BOS blimps are just a thing everyone now. Aight.

Casual BOS barracks masturbation.

A vault is supposed to have roughly 1000 people. That group of survivors is in the 20s or 30s. "Dwindled numbers"? That vault is done.

So the quest is find a lost relative, huh? Mr. Todd, you are a crafty one, slipping into that writer's room.

Vault 33's door is just sitting right on the surface? Weird. Traditionally vault doors are at least partially hidden.

Ghoul Goggins is cool.

Call the phone number for the vault sales people. You will not regret. Pinkie promise.

Absolutely fantastic. My partner and I loved it. I'm seeing a lot of whiny butthurt about how it "bastardized the canon" though and people are now "done with the series". I say, "bye felicia!"

One EP in so far and I like it a lot so far. The atmosphere is on point so far

I’ve been a Fallout super fan since the first game dropped in 1997. I’m done with the first two episodes and happy as a clam. This adaptation is fantastic.

I like it a lot, and it got my wife into Fallout.

I’m not happy about the power armor, ghoul makeup, or the decision to have very obvious real world car frames rusting away. It nailed everything else in my book though.

All things considered it’s a blast to watch, and did I mention it got my wife into Fallout? She’s been asking questions about the lore, and she couldn’t care less about any other game outside of Dream Light Valley before this. If it gives us another thing to bond over and gets her into a series that helped me through some of the worst parts of my life, I’m all about it.

Played a few hours of Fallout 4, couldn't get into it. Binged the series over the last few days, I really enjoyed it!

I loved every minute of it! Thought it was incredibly well cast! Lucy & her brother, The Goul, Ma June and Wilzig were among my favourites! I loved the world, the T60 armour, the wildlife, Filly, Snip-Snip, the pre-war period and how they managed to get at least three main characters through their own interlocking story arcs and come to a satisfactory conclusion so that if there was never a season 2 it still felt pretty complete. Looking forward to seeing more in this world!

I'm a fan, just finished it and I've only played New Vegas and FO4.

I honestly just want to watch a good show with an engaging story and themed in a way that matches. Does it fit every bit of lore every created since 1997? I have no fucking idea because I don't study it like a college course. It's fine for those who do but I believe the majority are not trying to find faults in every sentence the actors speak.

I liked it, entertaining, exciting, good character motivation, I can't think of any stupid decisions only to move the plot forward, set design is fantastic, world build is fun. Overall I recommend it.

I'm really enjoying it, I only have 2 episodes left.

As someone who hasn't played the games and am 5 episodes in, I'm not finding myself particularly attached to the series if that makes sense. I'm also not sure if I shouldn't just pick the games up on steam and run through them in the coming months - partially because I'm not convinced they're in my style of play (I mostly like older arcade shmups and fps, like Doom eternal etc). That being said, I can see the direction they're going. The character development is pretty obvious with only a few a-ha moments. I keep wondering when for those who aren't as engaged in the game will have a more complete picture, but also understand that most shows didn't give up the ghost all at once anyways just to rope you in. Curious what others who are only in passing familiarity with the game think as well.

My thoughts: Sadly it's running on Amazon, so I have to wait until I can buy the disks.

Looks like I'll be bringing in the unpopular opinion. I did love the production quality and the CGI, and it looks like they really did the lore justice with lots of references, easter eggs and music, but honestly I find the rest of it meh. The cast is mediocre ( with the exception of Goggins' Cooper and the occasional secondary character ), the characters are pretty flat and uninspired, and the action scenes are just...strange ( watching the fight between the T60 and the yaoguai was like reliving 60s era star trek fight scenes ). The whole thing feels very videogame-y(?) I guess. But whereas the videogames can get away with it because they're interactive, here you're stuck watching the same unlikeable characters hours on end, and to be frank I'm having a hard time getting past the first half of the season.

I just finished watching it and for the most part they got a lot of the tone down and it is well done overall. I liked how they showed Vault-Tec and what they stood for, the general world building, vault stuff. But I have these niggling inklings that bother me with the location of where the show takes place.

It is enjoyable to me it is a solid 7 - 8 out of 10, but had some things that felt off to me and rubbed me the wrong way because I am trying to fit into the narrative I have for my intepretation of the Fallout game timeline. Not saying it is a bad show, just things that subjectively felt off to me.

Going to spoiler tag these things as it has Fallout 1, Fallout 2, New Vegas and the show possible spoilers

spoiler

Again, maybe it is my nostalagia goggles here, so please take what I write with a grain of salt

NCR, The Enclave and The Brotherhood of Steel

NCR

In Fallout 2, Shady Sands is the capital of NCR and that place was well defended - walls, armed guards roaming the streets and fairly civilised if I can recall correctly - I look at the runes of Shady Sands in the show and feels like a mix of the Fallout 1 and Fallout 2. By New Vegas they seemed to have "settled" California considering the fact that cattle barons are running rough shod, political corruption is in full swing and NCR is on the search for more resources and have probably integrated the various towns and city's of the waste into itself places like New Reno, Vault City, San Franscisco, etc...

They were at war with the Brotherhood at one point and were able to beat them back and integrate some of the tech they requistioned, they had supply lines and it was an established Republic.

The fact that Shady Sands was nuked and they just left it to waste makes sense somewhat - some decrepencies notwithstanding, but how badly developed California appears, doesn't sit completely right with me, I mean the Fiends from New Vegas have spread there and this is from the same NCR that nearly eradicated the Khans - who where the big drug raiders of California.

NCR in the show seem no better than Bandits at worse or could be considered moderately equipped conscripts at best from how they are organised in relation to the potential for power they were pursuing. They had divisions of very well equipped and trained soldiers armed with good gear especially considering the tech they were able to recover from the Brotherhood when they finally decided to make a push for Hoover Dam in New Vegas

The Enclave

The Enclave was pretty much hunted down and villianised on the East Coast after the events of Fallout 2, The Brotherhood had interest seeing them fall and the NCR continued with that desire to put them under heel. One can maybe make an argument that the NCR have repurposed the Enclave, but they are still known as "The Enclave" and have above ground bases, it does bother me somewhat.

The Brotherhood

The Brotherhood tech feels off to me, maybe I am just nostalgic for the old East Coast Brotherhood that were very hands-off and did their work through trusted proxies. They were a tech-obessed warrior cult based of the branch of the military that tried their best to minimise outsiders knowing of their existence and the existence of technology. It feels off with them Vertibird dropping in broad day light, reliance of mechanical weaponry for knights, feeling indifferent to tech in general and showcasing their tech for all to see.

I mean they kind of address it in showing how the Brotherhood has lost their way, still feels weird for them to be so grandiose which runs a bit in opposition to traditional Brotherhood recruiting of accepting outsiders, which probably must mean they were really down on their luck at some point as I doubt all those recruits were able to perform an exemplary service to be admitted.

The tenants of the Brotherhood are mostly there but feels like it is falling into some mix of Enclave with some East Coast Brotherhood influence

Miscellaneous

The magical yellow substance ( which I know I can be completely wrong on) makes me think of the FEV experiments or a successful substrain of it that does exactly what it was designed for - just feels weird that Fallout 1, Fallout 2 and Fallout 3 show how destructive the benefits of the project were and now it has been perfected to work with any physiology with the added "benefit" of addiction ( or being beholded to require constant dosing over prolonged exposure)

I understand that a lot can happen in time and humans are just as easy to stuff up things and as its own thing it does feel "Fallout" and does a lot to be faithful to the games, so in that I do give credit where credit is due

Maybe Season 2 and beyond will answer the questions I have or fill in the holes, or not I need to just enjoy the show for what it is 🤷

I care a lot about the lore and continuity so I hate it.