Fallout S01E01: The End Review
Medium: Television
Release date: 4/10/2024
Review date: 4/23/2024
Score: 7/10
The “Fallout” TV show is simultaneously both the easiest filmed video game adaptation recommendation I can make as well as one of the most difficult.
Now I don't want to impugn the talents of the team behind the show, so let's talk specifics about it first really quick before I get into my troubled recommendation: “Fallout” (the show) seems to have the aesthetics, sound, and music of “Fallout” (the games) down to a tee, with the sets, particularly Vault 33, looking like they came right out of “Fallout 4.” It was definitely pretty noticeable when the show would switch from actual sets and props to rubbery CGI, but that’s a problem with pretty much all streaming today and isn’t a specific problem with “Fallout,” so I won’t hold it against the show too much. Acting was solid across the board: I think Ella Purnell did a solid job as the over-her-head Vault Dweller Lucy, and I was delighted to see Walton Goggins really getting into his role as the radioactive Ghoul. I didn’t think Aaron Moten did a bad job as the Brotherhood of Steel squire Maximus, but I didn’t find his character as immediately watchable as I did the other two, though I get the feeling his storyline will be the more serious of the three. Overall, I think the first episode did a pretty good job capturing the tone and appeal of the “Fallout” universe, and outside of some trepidation around Lucy’s story currently feeling a little bit like a retread of the main story from “Fallout 3,” I’m pretty curious to see where the show goes.
So an easy recommendation then, right?
Look, just in case you didn’t know, most adaptations of video games are bad, like really bad, like “filmed primarily to fill out the bottom of discount DVD barrels” bad. Until pretty much the last couple years, I’d say you could skip any filmed video game adaptation without having to read a single review or even piece of information about the project and have no worries about missing anything remotely interesting. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but if that book cover says “adapted from a video game,” you can go ahead and judge that book; in fact, you should actively judge that book. It was only recently that adapted video game properties had any financial legs to them, and really only within the last five years that they had any positive critical reception at all.
So then again, “Fallout” should be an easy recommendation, right?
In the past five years, we’ve had the highest profile financial and critical video game adaptation successes ever, and I want to compare two of those successes specifically, 2023’s “The Last of Us” show and 2022’s “The Cuphead Show” to the “Fallout” show to help explain my hesitation around it.
First off, “The Last of Us” TV show: an award winning prestige piece of television from HBO based on an award winning prestige video game. Seems like the perfect match, right? Yeah, too perfect. “The Last of Us” is a good example of how many of the “best” gaming narratives are only viewed that way in comparison to the slop that is most other video game stories; sure, compared to “Ride to Hell: Retribution,” “The Last of Us” is basically Shakespeare, but once you remove it from that small pond and start comparing it to all other stories, regardless of their medium, “The Last of Us” is pretty derivative of works like Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” or P. D. James’ “Children of Men,” or even Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead.” And from a gameplay perspective, if you've played one 2010s AAA big budget 3rd Person Shooter with survival mechanics, you’ve basically played “The Last of Us’” - you’re not really missing anything gameplay wise. The reason “The Last of Us” stood out so much in video games was the synthesis of fairly current (at the time) game mechanics with a story that felt like it was written by someone who’d read actual books (namely, “The Road,” “Children of Men,” and “The Walking Dead’), all in a medium that didn’t have much competition in that regard. In some ways, that makes it the ideal video game adaptation to recommend, because I don’t think you’re missing anything by just experiencing the story without any of the game mechanics, but I’m much closer to just not recommending either the game or the show rather than advocate for “The Last of Us’” filmed adaptation.
Then, there’s “The Cuphead Show”: based on the tough-as-nails side-scrolling bullet-hell shooter of the same name, “The Cuphead Show” probably has one of the better cases for being adapted out of a video game into something else. Graphically designed to imitate the 1930’s hand drawn animation style of the likes of Fleischer Studios, “Cuphead” is hard. Like, really hard. Like, one of the most famous stories about “Cuphead” was a games journalist doing a preview event for the game and they couldn’t even make it past the tutorial level hard. There are quite a few folks who cannot progress past a certain point in the game because the gameplay is straight up just too difficult. Which is a shame, because “Cuphead” is a beautiful game - its animation is truly breathtaking at parts and actively deserves to be celebrated. So a show that just packages all that animation up without the hair pulling-ly frustrating gameplay is a no brainer, right? Well, no, because “The Cuphead Show,” much like “The Last of Us” show, is again almost too good of an adaptation. It works basically perfectly because the really truly remarkable part of “Cuphead” is its art and animation; yes, the ruthless difficulty is part of the game’s reputation and character now, but the challenging gameplay always came across as the least important aspect of “Cuphead’s” accomplishments. Honestly, you can experience basically all the most remarkable and memorable parts of “Cuphead” by just watching someone else play the game and go through all the different levels and their animations. “The Cuphead Show’s” strength as an adaptation actually just demonstrates how non-fundamental “Cuphead’s” gameplay is to the overall “Cuphead” experience - sure, more people can probably finish “The Cuphead Show” than “Cuphead” the game because of that lack of progression difficulty, but to me that speaks more to the weaknesses of “Cuphead” the game rather than highlighting the strengths of “The Cuphead Show.” A “Cuphead” show that just removes the gameplay feels more like admitting a video game wasn’t the best fit for that property rather than a triumph of adaptation.
Which finally brings us back to “Fallout” (the show). “Fallout” (the game series) gets held up as “one of the good ones” when it comes to video games because it manages to walk that fine tight rope of being narratively interesting and unique, and mechanically interesting and unique, a balancing act the vast majority of games can’t seem to pull off. Its story is more than just a futuristic nuclear post apocalypse set to 1950s American aesthetics and culture, while its gameplay is more than just standard party based role playing games or survival first person shooters. “Fallout” isn’t the poor man’s version of anything - truth be told, it's a little surprising it's taken this long for non video game “Fallout” media. The series was always interesting and thought provoking, from the very first game in 1997. And that’s where my difficulty with recommending the “Fallout” show comes in: for both “The Last of Us” and “The Cuphead Show,” I don’t think you’re missing anything vital to those games’ core experiences by watching a filmed adaptation of them, while with “Fallout,” I do feel like you are missing out on core parts of the experience by just watching the story as a TV show versus playing the actual games. A huge part of “Fallout’s” beauty, but also narrative depth, comes from picking through the ruined and abandoned American homes and buildings scattered across the game’ maps, scavenging for whatever supplies you can as you either fight or flee from the various man-made monsters that now roam the American wastes. The “Fallout” show will ultimately be a pretty tight ride as it narratively tries to keep its viewers invested, but in a way that loses a lot of what makes the “Fallout” games special. I think wandering the lonely ruins of Cold War era America and putting together what happened and what went wrong yourself as the player is a much better way to experience the world and story of “Fallout” than the show; I think having to talk to the game’s various settlements and characters to figure out why whatever region your character is in became the way it is after the nuclear apocalypse is a much better way to experience the world and story of “Fallout” than the show; I think forcing the player to have to manage their own character’s supplies and make decisions about what scavenged items to buy or sell based on the game’s limited stock is a much better way to experience the world and story of “Fallout” than the show. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you like the world of the “Fallout” TV show, instead of waiting for the next season to be released, you should just play the games.
Well, the reality of the situation is that people have been. The “Fallout” games have been near the top of Steam’s top concurrent player count by games since the “Fallout” show’s release, with “Fallout 4” topping out the European Weekly Top 10 for Digital and Physical Games sales the week of April 15, 2024, nine years after the game’s release. And the “Fallout” TV show has already been renewed for a second season too, so best of both worlds, right? There’s a part of me that worries like I’m being gatekeeper-y, a “You’re not getting the real ‘Fallout’ experience if you don’t play the games” kind of thing - I hope that’s not the case. If you get into “Fallout” through the show and never do anything more than just watch the show, more power to you, I guess. But I really do want to recommend playing the games if the show and its universe intrigues you, because they’re not hard games, especially if you take your time and search places thoroughly, and I really do think they capture the spirit of the series better than the television show can - “Fallout’’ is one of the good ones after all.