Amazon’s Fallout series is finally released. MeinMMO author Christoph Waldboth comes to a spoiler-free conclusion. One of the greatest strengths is an aspect that is regularly identified as a weak point in the games.
Anyone who has not yet ventured into the post-apocalyptic world of the new Fallout series should be warned: in this article I will refrain from spoiling the story.
This is anything but easy, because the story in particular is one of the series’ greatest strengths. She was the one who kept me engaged for eight hours and kept me interested in the fate of the characters.
This means that the series is a lot ahead of the popular video game template. The main stories from the Bethesda games were never really exciting and suffered especially from the much better written side quests.
There are no such side quests in the series. That’s a big plus. Below I would like to explain what makes the series so good for me and where I still see some problems.
You can find all information about the series on MeinMMO.
The official trailer for the Fallout series on Amazon in German
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The story is well written and directed
The plot of the series won me over from episode one. Even though a lot of things are already known from the games, and motifs like the prologue in the Vault are repeated, I was still interested to find out what happens next.
What’s extremely important is that the series shows me different perspectives and can tell different stories at once. This is mainly due to the three main characters. All three of them have different backgrounds. This ensures that sometimes opposing perspectives collide when it comes to moral questions.
Lucy (Ella Purnell), a Vault dweller who has never seen the outside world, is righteous and seems somewhat naive given the brutal and egotistical surface. Maximus (Aaron Moten), who as a squire in the Brotherhood of Steel still has a long way to go to get his own power armor, doubts his ideals.
And the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) is a kind of cowboy or bounty hunter who dates back to the time before the bombs dropped. He is calm, unscrupulous and only acts at his own discretion.
The series tells its story through these three characters. There are a handful of supporting characters like Lucy’s brother, but the focus is clearly on the adventures of the three protagonists. Their narrative threads keep coming together and ultimately come to what I think is a satisfying conclusion.
Until then, I was genuinely interested in seeing what happens to the characters and where they end up. That’s exactly what I can’t say about any of the main plots of any of the games. As a silent protagonist with little character, I mostly didn’t care about the fate of the wasteland.
I preferred to be distracted by the numerous, better-written side quests. This problem doesn’t exist with an eight-hour series. In this respect, the series is miles ahead of the original.
The story of Amazon’s series also convinced me so much because it is perfectly staged. Quiet moments and action scenes alternate well. There are some spikes of violence and a lot of dark humor – exactly what video games are known for.
And yes, I had to swallow again and again. The actual drama of the atomic bomb is anything but crazy fantasy.
Unfortunately, there are also weaknesses
So is the series perfect? No, not at all. Although I like the three protagonists, I still see some weaknesses in the way they are written. Lucy and Maximus in particular seem flat and stenciled most of the time.
Her character development happens far too quickly and seems unbelievable, especially in the case of Lucy. Only the ghoul gets enough background narration. Using him, the series also takes a look into the past and we see what happened before the nuclear disaster.
As a viewer you only have another “problem” if you have played the games: you don’t really get to know the outside world for the first time, like Lucy does. I already know how it looks and works. This means that part of their fascination is lost. But the series can do little about that.
Here you can find an overview of other people’s reviews.
The overall impression is correct
The fact that some of the characters are weakly written didn’t bother me that much given their history. The atmosphere, production design and equipment were simply too good for that. You can tell that Amazon and Bethesda have invested a lot of money here. The series never seems cheap.
Despite some weaknesses, the showrunners recognized what makes Fallout so great: It’s a strange mix of black humor, violence, satire, social criticism and good stories.
I would recommend the series to fans of the games. But it is also well suited for those who are not familiar with it. All eight episodes can be seen on Amazon Prime. There will probably be no series adaptation for another well-known Bethesda brand.