So The Fallout T.V. Show Is Good, Actually? It Better, Because Amazon Renewed It For A 2nd Season!

So, the first season of the Fallout television series is here and to everyone's surprise, it has been almost universallywell-received. As someone who has been watching the show on and off again, I tend to agree, though my praise is not nearly as effusive as most. It definitely deserves huge props for capturing the spirit of the first two games, which mixed 50s and 60s Americana with an overtly dark post-apocalyptic setting. The acting is definitely top-notch and the writing strikes a nice balance between having fun references that only make sense to those familiar with the games as well as providing narrative scaffolds for those completely unfamiliar with the show's source material.

The in-jokes that only fans get are incredibly clever. As you can see in the Tweet below, someone on the writing staff knew they should make a joke about encumbrance, and the solution they devise is downright hilarious.

However, I do find myself agreeing with many of the quibbles brought up in GameSpot's positive but also critical review of the show. The Fallout T.V. series seems to continually fumble the ball on building the actual world of Fallout and it sure is banking a whole lot of its first season's on payoffs on an almost endless series of open-ended questions that previous marquee TV shows have completely screwed up. Nonetheless, only time will tell if this will be issues that persist as Amazon has examined the initial numbers for the first season, and even before it ended, announced that there will be a second season. That's a pretty impressive mark of confidence.

Have any of you seen the show? What are your impressions and are you surprised to see it achieve such popular and critical success? Also, special shoutout to @aurahack for maybe my favorite "hot take" about the Fallout TV series and the state of the Fallout fandom (i.e., she's not wrong):

I haven't watched it but I have seen someone describe it as a little juvenile. I don't really know what I'd want from a Fallout show. I've never held the stories (granted, I've not played 1+2) in high regard so they could've done anything with it.

If this was a Twilight Zone 'vault/town of the week' show, I'd be all over it.

I thought it was pretty good, albeit a little silly. I certainly didn't jive with all the humor. They definitely nailed the look of the world, though. The costumes and sets look excellent. I'd probably pick Lucy as my favorite character of the 3 mains. Walton Goggins--nuff said. The Brotherhood stuff was ok but I still think Maximus seems too green, like Lucy, sometimes. The action is mostly fun, if a bit cartoony. The slow mo stuff works well enough to invoke the VATS system.

I think its a solid start for what could be a fun adventure. Lotta questions to answer by the end of the season.

Bethesda also really need some kind of win right now so good for them, even if its not a game.

*I would like to say more but my keyboard is busted and I am typing on my phone and it sucks.

Maybe if they get to Season 3 and people still say that it's good, I'll see if I can squeeze all of it into one month of Prime. I'm really not a fan of this modern trend where a season is 6-8 episodes when on network TV it used to be more like 24 episodes. And after every season nobody knows if it's getting renewed for another one so it's very hard to commit to a show these days if you don't want to have it cancelled on you. Nowadays even a positive reception doesn't guarantee a renewal.

From what I've heard from sources that I trust, the show starts out great and then loses steam after a few episodes, limping to a finale without having said anything interesting at any point. So I'm not in a hurry to get into it.

Im just excited to see them reaching New Vegas where a single Alpha Cazador then murders the entire cast in about 15 seconds

I finished it and was also annoyed it was only eight episodes, felt like they barely scratched the surface. I thought it was pretty entertaining. The comedy aspects didn't always land but for the most part it hit the goofiness of Fallout.

I'm liking it so far but... wholly heck I *do not* understand the angle of Maximus' character. Tonally he's like in a completely different world. He's petulant, juvenile, wimpy, stoic all at the same time and then the Brotherhood of Steel is also serious but a lampoon? Its like watching 12 year olds goof around one moment and then the next they're killing eachother in cold blood. I dont get it at all.

Like the scene mid way through where Maximus' squire asks him to brand him and they're joshing around with all the fraternity of a teen's sleep over pillow fight... and then they're trying to kill eachother but he's so goofily inept I just dont know what the take away is? Is he a joke? Then next episode he's dead serious, deadly stoic and seasoned as they navigate an encounter with two strangers on a bridge that might as well been from an early episode of the Last of Us. Tonal whiplash of extreme order.

Echoing what people have said, the Brotherhood of Steel stuff is the weakest part of an otherwise surprisingly very good show. If I weren't already super familiar with the BoS, I would be confused why they're doing any of the things they do in the show. Having more than 8 episodes would have potentially given more time to flesh them out in an interesting way.

That all said, I got very hype for more Fallout show at the end of the season. Hopefully, they don't disappoint with raised expectations.

Before I start I will note that I am a HUGE fan of Fallout lore so I was already inclined to like the show if it was remotely competent (also more likely to be hyper critical if they dropped the ball). Lucky for me it was not only competent but actually pretty good.

It's funny because I do find myself feeling pretty much the same as you @zombiepie. I really like the show but I don't think I am quite as enamoured with it as some others seem to be. I think it nails Fallout's tone, the set design is immaculate (this is what happens when you use a lot of practical sets in leu of making everything CG), and I am a huge fan of the cast. I am super glad they are getting a second season and I look forward to seeing where the go with the story.

Also Maximus sucks. He is just the worst. I hated everything he did and I hope he ends up being a villain though I know he will probably end up with Lucy.

Like many others the show has inspired me to go back and play some games. Unlike most however I have decided to jump back to Fallout 3 instead of New Vegas. The game is still absolutely fantastic and I am having a great time with it.

Finally I will say that those who don't like Fallout 4 are just plain wrong. The game rules. Is it as good as New Vegas? No, but few things are. The world and gameplay are still great and it is super fun to exist in. Building settlements actually gives a purpose to all the junk you find in the world and also lets you feel like you have a tangible impact on the wasteland. And this is all just vanilla FO4. There are a ton of really great mods for the game as well.

The survival mode is also amazing and imo is the best Fallout thing that currently exists (I have not played 76). I love that they did not just make the enemies more spongy like most difficulty settings do in games (including Bethesda ones). Everything is more vulnerable, players and enemies alike. I can definitely understand people being kind of annoyed by no fast travel and not being able to save anywhere but for me those things really add to the experience. Needing a bed to save really forces the player to thoroughly learn the world so that they know where they need to go to save progress. It also make settlement building even more important. And no fast travel give meaning to the other methods of "fast travel" that exist in the game. I find it super fun to have to call in a Vertibird in order to more easily cover large distances.

It reminds me a bit of Dragon's Dogma, another game that severely limits fast travel options on purpose. It makes each time you set out from the safety of a settlement an adventure, and one that you might not survive. Can it be a bit frustrating to lose progress because you were crouched down firing on some super mutants only to hear some rather loud footsteps come up from behind you, turn around, and find yourself face to face with a freaking deathclaw? Sure (and yes this is something that actually happened to me). But it is also super fun.

Anyway my TLDR; is that the show is really good (and only slightly flawed) and Fallout 3 and 4 are both good games.

I'm in the hospital, and this is the only show that made me happy.

So... that final episode sure did piss a lot of people off.

I really enjoyed it. I think episode 6 falters a little bit, but otherwise it's great!

...with one issue, and it's kind of a major one. The last shot of the show basically shows New Vegas from a distance and it seems to be implied that New Vegas is in ruins. I'm not really a fan of the idea that they're going to sidestep declaring a canon by basically paving over everything in existence. This would mean that nothing that happened in Fallout New Vegas matters at all, and that's a big bummer. They've already done this to Shady Sands and now it seems like they're going to do it to New Vegas and that's just not fun.

This doesn't mean I'm not excited to see more Fallout TV, I am, I just think there are a million ways to jump off of Fallout New Vegas and simply declaring everything dead and gone and destroyed, as the ending of the TV show seems to allude to, is by far the most boring.

The Fallout TV show is set after the events of New Vegas. According to my quick Google search, it takes place in 2296, while New Vegas takes place in 2281.

They didn't say for sure what has happened to New Vegas, they just showed it, but there's been a lot of discussion about it and it seems like they very well could have destroyed it. I'm way more interested in a story where they declare something about New Vegas canon, rather than just find some way to ignore it altogether.

@justin258: youre 100% right. I had in my mind 2277 as the show date, but thats when shady sands got nuked, not the show timing