Fallout Series: The Amazon Series Has Raised the Bar Beyond All Expectations
More than three years after Bethesda Softworks and Prime Video first teamed up, the streaming platform’s highly anticipated Fallout adaptation, starring Ella Purnell l, Walton Goggins, and Aaron Moten, has finally received its first teaser trailer that offers a glimpse of the nuclear wasteland come to life. Adapted by acclaimed television veterans Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the series has been billed as a new chapter in the franchise that can go toe-to-toe with post-apocalyptic retrofuturistic video game stories. Fallout details were kept mostly under wraps until its appearance at the convention with a panel today featuring Purnell, Goggins, and Moten alongside Nolan and co-showrunner Graham Wagner. In addition to discussing the series at length with the audience on the iconic Thunder Stage, they presented the footage that was filled with images familiar to Fallout fans, such as the experimental shelters, the dogmatic, technology-laden Brotherhood of Steel, lingering flashbacks to the ’40s and 50, and The Ghoul (Goggins), one of the people mutated into a monstrous form by the radiation in the wasteland. The series takes place more than 200 years after the Great War, which led humanity to take refuge in underground shelters to avoid being annihilated by nuclear bombs.
The greed that has driven movie producers in recent decades has created a depressing world in which the announcement of a TV series based on a beloved franchise is greeted with skepticism, not enthusiasm. There are now countless examples of how the industry has served up mediocre works to the public just to strip away a brand, but no one has been more burned by these business methods of making entertainment than gamers. Starting from the first Super Mario Bros film in 1993, which set the qualitative bar for videogame adaptations a few millimeters above the ground, up to the terrible transpositions of Resident Evil (the review of Netflix’s Resident Evil is always here to renew the bitterness), Hollywood has always tried to ruin the most beloved sagas with modest productions and barely sketched screenplays.
Yet, after decades of bad films and unfulfilled promises, the trend seems to have finally changed for works based on video games: less than a year after the airing of the last episode we are still excited for the arrival of the second season of The Last of Us (the review of The Last of Us invites you to look for the Lights), Sega’s mascot darted twice into the theaters and the hearts of millions of spectators (find the review of Sonic 2 here), and Nintendo the mess of thirty years ago has been made up for with a blockbuster animated film (here is our review of Super Mario Bros). Amazon Prime Video has also entered the long wave of this consolidated respect for an overly maligned medium, a company that has chosen to bring the vast narrative universe of Fallout to the small screen, a subject that is not at all easy to replicate on a set, but with stratospheric potential in terms of setting and tone of the story.
Fallout Series: An Unexpected Bomb?
Announced in the hot July three years ago, the show was not welcomed by the clamor of fans nor by the media tom-tom of the press. We were still in the dark period of video game adaptations, and a few high-sounding names certainly weren’t enough to erase the impression that this was yet another clumsy attempt to leverage a great franchise to extract a few dollars from the fans. Despite the cosmic and inevitable pessimism that hovered around all these types of announcements, one could already understand how Amazon’s ambitions went beyond easy money: Bethesda’s direct contribution to the project was advertised right from the start, with Todd Howard himself at the helm as executive producer.
At his side are two names who have left an indelible mark on science fiction, because Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan have made philosophizing about the true meaning of existence unforgettable with Westworld, a series capable of questioning the concept of humanity with dualism biology -thought. A burst of commitment that foreshadowed a production that was not at all poor, in short, but hopes continued to be faint and the silence around the project contributed to the oblivion that lasted for years. A few scattered images had turned the spotlight on the title a few months ago, but nothing had prepared us for that small nuclear explosion that was the Fallout trailer: where before there was dust and distrust, now there is the wait for a conscious series of its strengths, from the fatal post-apocalyptic setting to the humorous tones that range from sad irony to the most ruthless cynicism. A handful of seconds was enough to demonstrate how the authors have perfectly captured the fundamental elements of the video game saga, putting to rest the concerns of a possible distortion caused by the change of the medium.
The Wanderer
Like any self-respecting Fallout, the Prime Video show will also put at the center of the story the story of a Vault inhabitant (Lucy, played by Ella Purnell) who for the first time leaves her Fallout shelter to walk on what is left of the planet Earth. Huge, deserted settings reveal the devastation of an apocalypse that has forever marked all the races present in the world, including extinctions and irreversible genetic mutations, while humanity is scattered in small, inhabited centers that mimic now-lost social greatness. The sense of discovery of this new world is central to the video game experience of Fallout and will undoubtedly have a great impact also in the serial transposition, with the protagonist called to interface with what remains of life on the surface after having spent her entire existence in an isolated bunker. While nothing has yet been revealed regarding the main plot of the show – a very controversial and often disappointing aspect even for the numbered chapters of the saga – we expect particular attention from the screenwriters for the “secondary” narratives of the story.
From the settings capable of telling the last moments before the atomic explosions to the new social and economic institutions of the ruined world, a look at the fates of the other Vaults of America would be extremely welcome. It is often in the shelters that the most exciting plots of Fallout games come to life; far from the surface, tragic, hilarious, and even chilling stories are hidden, which contribute to creating that sense of cohesion that holds together a setting that is only apparently banal or already seen. Moving on instead to the certainties spread by the trailer, it is impossible not to be comforted by the tones chosen for the story, precisely because they are taken entirely from the videogame series. Tim Cain’s creature brings a painful adventure to the stage, depicting what remains of man when every convention has disappeared, but never skimps on humor or violence to entertain the players. The Amazon show, from what we have seen, will focus heavily on bloodshed and choreographed shootouts, as well as on the grotesqueness of a story that will try to horrify and entertain at the same time.
A Beautiful Apocalypse
To the tune of an obligatorily 1950s soundtrack, we were impressed by the visual impact showcased by the immense sets, which testify to the very rich budget that has characterized numerous productions made in Amazon for years, while the extensive use of CGI fluctuates between perfect and tacky (the Brotherhood of Steel’s moving armor doesn’t align with the surrounding high level of loyalty). Immersion in this world of fantasy cannot ignore a convincing glance, just as the contribution of the secondary characters will be fundamental to move and flavor the plot: from the inevitable and very faithful companion dog to a ghoul who wanders America by collecting bounties, passing through frightened colonists and narrow-minded Paladins of the Brotherhood, the television show seems to have all it takes to excite both veterans of the series and newbies who will enter this strange post-apocalyptic universe for the first time.
To confirm the excellent sensations that now hover around the project, there is also a first-rate cast, which boasts names such as Walton Goggins (Lincoln, Django Unchained), Michael Emerson (Lost, Person of Interest), and Kyle MacLachlan, the unforgettable Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks. Two and a half minutes were enough to subvert the meager expectations of the day before and transform Fallout into yet another show to wait with bated breath, perfectly in line with the newfound conviction with which production companies are adapting the most beloved video games for cinema and television: numerous question marks remain regarding the project, including the main plot and its inherent inability to replicate the free choices that characterize the saga, but the ambition and care for the original material shown in the trailer can only leave satisfied while waiting for a not too distant exit.
