Amazon’s Fallout is excellent

War. War never changes.

When Fallout’s spiritual predecessor Wasteland launched in 1988, it was the height of the Cold War.

The threat of nuclear annihilation was only mildly tempered by the United States and Soviet Union signing a treaty in December 1987 to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

It permeated pop culture at the time, including films like WarGames (1983), Rocky IV (1985), and the Mad Max series (1979–1985).

Similarly, Wasteland was not the only game tapping into the subject matter.

Atari’s ever-popular Missile Command and its clone ABM, both released in 1980, put players in the seat of a military commander furiously trying to shoot down nukes with anti-ballistic missiles.

It is poignant that themes explored in a game franchise born at the Cold War’s peak have become as relevant as ever in 2024.

In the Fallout games, China — not Russia — invades Alaska, ostensibly to seize control of some of the last remaining petroleum and Uranium resources on Earth.

(The US also annexes Canada, and the European Commonwealth becomes Balkanized as they bicker over the planet’s last remaining resources.)

Although firmly rooted in the Cold War-era fears that spawned the original Wasteland game, the first Fallout only launched in 1997.

By then, the Berlin Wall had come down, the Soviet Union had dissolved, and no one really worried about The Bomb being dropped anymore.

After a decade of tensions easing, it was easier to laugh about it all.

However, it wasn’t until the second game in the franchise, released in 1998, that Fallout’s signature irreverent tone developed.

Amazon’s TV adaptation captures the black humour of the games perfectly, which is one of the reasons it has resonated with fans.

It realises the humour is meant for the audience, not the characters, and doesn’t resort to silly comic relief to break the tension.

Another aspect of the games the show honours is their over-the-top violence.

Since the original Fallout, players have been able to give their characters some variant of an ability called “Bloody Mess”.

Its description reads: “By some strange twist of fate, people around you die violently. You always see the worst way a person can die.”

Parents should take heed here. Fallout is age-restricted 18 in South Africa, and between the violence and sex (albeit with almost no nudity), it has absolutely earned its rating.

Fallout also wouldn’t be Fallout without the old-timey 40s and 50s music featured throughout the games.

Not only do old favourites make a return, the show is scored by Ramin Djawaldi (of Game of Thrones fame).

Lastly, and most importantly, the writing and performances are on point.

Every character feels well realised with believable motivations, and are backed by excellent performances.

From random uncredited “Fiends” who tell a whole story on their face during a brief close-up, to the main characters.

One of the key characters (Hank McLean) is played by Kyle MacLachlan, a name science fiction fans will likely recognise as the actor who played Paul Atreides in the original 1984 adaptation of Dune.

His breakout television role came in the 1990 show Twin Peaks, for which he received a Primetime Emmy nomination and won the Golden Globe.

How I Met Your Mother fans may also recognise him as The Captain (a.k.a George Van Smoot).

Another major actor in the show is Walton Goggins. He has played many cowboys during his storied career, but none like The Ghoul character he portrays in Fallout.

He’s been in films like Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his work on the show Justified.

Ella Purnell puts in an excellent performance as Lucy MacLean, who pulls off being an optimist in a post-apocalypse world.

She nails the golly-gee-aw-shucks naivety (“Okey dokey!”) in a character schooled on all the essentials of surviving in a world where many shameful topics are no longer taboo.

Aaron Moten also does a stellar job with Maximus, portraying a kind of tempered idealism from a young man who has seen the worst the wasteland has to offer and wants to build a better world.

Elephant in the nukes

Mild spoilers ahead.

Some Super Mutant-fans of Fallout would be disgruntled if some of the controversies surrounding the show’s handling of the lore and canon aren’t mentioned.

One issue is that the show steadfastly refused to say that China invaded the US, instead only referring to them as “the Reds”.

At one point, the characters also pass by a set element with clear CCCP Soviet markings.

Another story point has raised concerns that Bethesda Game Studios is trying to invalidate lore introduced by Obsidian Entertainment’s instalment in the franchise, Fallout: New Vegas.

Studio design director Emil Pagliarulo has stated on Twitter that New Vegas remains canonical.

Since we don’t want to wade into spoiler territory here, suffice it to say that the controversy has spawned a glut of articles explaining away the issue.

This isn’t the only apparent lore conflict between the show and the games (not to mention the games themselves suffering internal lore issues), but it is certainly the one that currently comes up the most.

One of the Fallout show’s strengths is that it is willing to risk building on the existing lore and adding to it, rather than creating a parallel canon.

Although the first season has a self-contained story with a satisfying ending, like the games, Fallout has begun the threads of several mysteries the characters will (hopefully) get to explore in subsequent seasons.

According to Hollywood Reporter, this is all but assured, as Amazon has received a $25 million (R475 million) tax credit from the California Film Commission to relocate production from New York State to California.