Fallout is far too nice: Season 2 has to be more vicious, otherwise the Amazon series is doomed to failure

There is nothing more disturbing than seeing a hero do evil. Or feeling sorry for a nasty character. At least that’s what series like Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones prove. Self-hatred is what makes Walter White so ruthless, trauma makes Cersei Lannister so cruel. Fallout has to do that in season 2 too.

This is not an attack on the first season of the Amazon series. I love her. I consider it a true sci-fi masterpiece and the best video game adaptation there is besides The Last of Us. But the story about bunker resident Lucy (Ella Purnell), warrior Maximus (Aaron Moten) and the bounty hunter ghoul (Walton Goggins) is sometimes too well-behaved for me. What do I mean by that?

Why is Amazon’s Fallout series too nice?

Fallout follows Lucy as she searches for her father outside the bunker. They are joined by Maximus, who goes on a mission with the Brotherhood of Steel, and the Ghoul, who wants to capture an escaped scientist. In a subplot, Lucy’s brother Norm (Moises Arias) uncovers a conspiracy. We also learn the ghoul’s backstory as Western star Cooper Howard. It’s a lot of plot, but it never really hurts.

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I want a character to experience a moral dilemma. A protagonist who has to act cruelly to achieve good. Or a character gives in to their dark urges in the end and is forever considered a villain. Fallout often hints at moments like this without delivering on their promise.

For example, Lucy and Maximus are actually enemies. Both are looking for the same thing for different parties. Wouldn’t it have been exciting to see them sometimes as comrades, sometimes as bitter opponents, caring for each other and themselves betray in the next moment? This potential is simply wasted in the dialogue because Lucy guesses the common goal and naively offers to look for the object of desire together.

And what about Norm, who is considering killing the looters trapped in the bunker? The camera hovers suggestively over the breakfast he brings the inmates every day. But he doesn’t poison it. Wouldn’t his character be even more exciting if he became weak for a moment and took revenge for the massacre of his friends? Smuggling a razor blade into dessert? And then feel ashamed through tears?

Not to mention Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury), who Fallout has long sold us as a major villain. When Lucy finally confronts her in the finale, the cruel bandit has transformed into an idealistic freedom fighter. Isn’t it possible to do both? What’s the problem anyway?

Fallout squanders potential, but the reasons are understandable

The problem is that the Amazon series sometimes subordinates the complexity of the characters to the story. The storylines need to be simplified? Then Lucy and Maximus are now working together. In the finale, good and evil should be turned on their head? Then Moldavian becomes the Che Guevara of the wasteland, bunker massacre or not.

And what about Lucy’s father Hank (Kyle MacLachlan)? He twists between his love for his daughter and his obligations to Vault-Tec, but in the end he simply flees. If he had possibly tried to kill Lucy, I would have my fingers gripped the armchair as I looked. A twist like that would have really grabbed me.

What at first glance sounds like accusations are ultimately observations of tolerable flaws. Because the Amazon series’ reasons for such decisions are understandable. This is a first season. Just building the world takes a lot of time. The morality of the Fallout universe must first be explained in broad strokes. And the bizarre humor of the game template doesn’t make it any easier: the more you want to make the fans laugh, the more difficult it becomes to deal with the moral ambivalence. Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad never had this problem.

Fallout on Amazon: Season 2 of the sci-fi series has to be different

At the beginning of Fallout Season 2, things look different. The world is politically defined, the characters are established, the humor has reached a level that makes you laugh at the absurd cruelty of the nuclear dystopia.

So if Fallout doesn’t want to be boring, the producers have to make their heroes more villainous from season 2 onwards. Lucy has to descend into the mud; cutting off the heads of corpses was just the beginning. For example, how does she think about it? Cannibalism when options run out?

At the end of season 2, she and Maximus are on opposite sides again. Despite himself, Moten’s character has become the hero of the Brotherhood of Steel. Embittered by Lucy’s departure, he could rule the wasteland with a hard hand and brutally hunt them down, at the end of which death awaits – or a kiss.

And what about Walton Goggins’ brilliantly played ghoul bounty hunter/ex-John Wayne? As the only main character, he is truly evil. So vicious that there can actually be no question of ambivalence, cute dog or not. The flashbacks to his Hollywood time are also flashbacks to another character.

Accordingly, the ghoul could grow more fond of us in the atomic present. Or show weakness. Maybe he will meet his wife or daughter again, but instead of love, they will only have love glowing contempt left for him.

Fans will still be talking about Fallout for decades to come

Why is it so important that the Fallout Helens become more ambivalent? Can’t the Fallout series just stay as it is? Basically, I could spend another season just getting my fill of the humor and features of the Amazon series. But series need change.

Nothing is as gripping as the twists and turns that a character goes through in the gauntlet of the story. And nothing ties me to series like that can snatch away my affection for characters at any time. Or even the characters themselves. Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad are long gone. But Jane’s death and the Red Wedding will be talked about by fans for decades to come. And hopefully from Fallout, the 1000 season masterpiece.

Fallout: How good is Amazon’s biggest sci-fi series of the year really?

Fallout has landed on Amazon with eight episodes at once and is delighting many fans of the video game original. But how good is the sci-fi series really? Can it attract all other series lovers in addition to the gaming community?

We’ll delve into the world of the beloved game franchise and then explain how the adaptation works. We talk about the characters, the intoxicatingly lively atomic dystopia and various Easter eggs. Is Fallout the best sci-fi series of the year?

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