The Fallout show's been a pleasant surprise

Todd produced something that’s actually good‽

I’ve watched the first two episodes and I’ve really liked it so far. While FO4 as a game was OK at best (at least vanilla; Sim Settlements 2 is great fun), I’ve liked the art direction on it. I know the “chunky” look has been a bit… divisive, I think it looks suitably retrofuturistic and less drab than the earlier games, so it’s fun that the show has really leaned into the style. The score by Ramin Djawadi is also really good, at times really reminds me of Ben Frost’s and Marc Streitenfeld fucking amazing score for Raised by Wolves.

The dark humor and a somewhat quirky and sarcastic take on things is also very Fallout; it doesn’t take itself too seriously, but is also surprisingly dark in many ways, and not just because it’s postapocalyptic and bloody.

spoilers for first 3 epsThings like what Maximus did to whatstheirname, with the razor in the boot, and then what happened between him and Titus after the yao guai attack. It’s like everybody’s at least a little bit of an asshole and that there’s not too many if any unambiguously “good” characters in the main cast. Edit: did that axolotl-looking huge mutant with fingers coming out of its mouth drop loot when it died‽

All in all, it’s been a really nice surprise that the show seems to have turned out well; my cynical old ass was definitely prepared for something worse, heh. How have you folks liked it?

(Oh and for the love of the gods and all that is fuzzy, please remember to use spoiler tags if you talk about plot points 😁 It’s the second button on the right on the comment format bar.)

Templa,

The pacing of Maximus part is so boring. I am honestly hoping it gets better.

bekopharm,
@bekopharm@social.tchncs.de avatar

@hydroptic Maximus did nothing wrong 😆

..or everything. It really depends on the point of view I guess 🤔

hydroptic,

Weeelll, not everything, but not nothing either 😁

realitista,

Only on first episode but also very pleasantly surprised. I expect very little from Amazon and often think of cancelling it but I’m only paying about $4.00 a month so don’t end up bothering. This month I’m getting my money’s worth.

darkphotonstudio,

It’s weird to me how no one is talking about how it has a strong and blatant anti-capitalist message. Without getting into spoilers, the ending really drives it home. I’m surprised right-wing dickheads aren’t screeching about it.

hydroptic,

Right-wing dickheads definitely are screeching about the show being “woke”, though

bekopharm,
@bekopharm@social.tchncs.de avatar

@hydroptic @darkphotonstudio time for a refill of the tears mug 🤷

hydroptic,

Ew, don’t reich-wing tears taste bitter?

bekopharm,
@bekopharm@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

dunno, it’s for the flowers 🤷

hydroptic,

Growing some bittercups?

kindenough,
kindenough avatar

Some good references too, like that poster on the wall in episode 5, 'a man and his dog ',

Todd produced something that’s actually good‽
Probably a mandatory credit thing, he is too busy fixing Starfield

Midnitte,

They also reference it during Cooper’s party and he mentions that they used his actual dog for the “in universe” version of the movie.

Faydaikin,
@Faydaikin@beehaw.org avatar

Todd isn’t busy fixing anything. Let’s be honest.

There’s enough diehard Bethesda fans that will buy anything he shits out. Even F76 has a playerbase now.

Matte,

why is everyone praising it? they spent it all on costumes and sets, and forgot to hire an almost decent writer. the script is terrible, it’s full of nonsensical stuff and it feels copypasted from others shows. I really disliked it, and I played all the Fallouts since the 1990’s.

Kir,
@Kir@feddit.it avatar

“We decided to hire a shit writer in order to recreate the atmosphere of a true Bethesda game”

Abrinoxus,

this

PonyOfWar,

IMO the story is not really worse than the games’ writing. Fallout as a universe never really made sense. So for me, it being fun and campy is enough and just what I’d expect of a Fallout show.

hydroptic,

why is everyone praising it?

I know this may come as a shock, but people can have different opinions on things.

delitomatoes,

This is a non answer, did you like the costumes, the acting? Was the script bad the dialogue stilted or plot contrived?

hydroptic,

Should be pretty obvious that I’ve liked it, but here’s yet another shocker: nobody’s under any obligation to justify why they like something, even if you don’t.

delitomatoes,

That’s not the point, I never said if I like it or not. Your answer didn’t help the other guy Why do you like it? He said why he doesn’t. Explaining your point of view may help people enjoy the show.

Your answer is " Just because"

hydroptic,

Somebody asking “why is everyone praising it?” isn’t looking for “help”

JayTreeman,

I’m going to jump in here. I’ve watched 3 episodes.

Some of the dialogue does feel bad, but in my experience it’s from the vault dwellers. I think it’s intentional.

Goggins playing a smooth af character delivers everything with a smooth confidence. He’s a joy to watch.

The other actors do well. The sets and costumes are great. The plot feels very paint by numbers, but that’s the era we live in.

Isoprenoid,

Give it time.

finthechat,
finthechat avatar

Good: Nice special effects, nice wardrobes, nice sets, the ludicrous violence fits right in with the universe, and particularly the performances from the actors are very good. At least visually, it looks way better and the effects look way more convincing than 3 Body Problem, to use another recent show as a comparison.

Bad: apparently the show disregards New Vegas lore (personally idk I never played it), I think the editing is super bad, the story is average.

iturnedintoanewt,

There’s NV hinted at the next season… If they make it.

Faydaikin,
@Faydaikin@beehaw.org avatar

Disregarding established lore is a Bethesda specialty. Shouldn’t come as a surprise if the show does it as well.

warm, (edited )

While it's pretty average as far as action drama shows go, it's very easy watching! Was pleasantly surprised. I think it fails to establish a lot of things, so non-fallout fans might be a little confused sometimes. I think they could have gone a bit slower and properly introduced the wasteland, its people and its factions. Hopefully they increase the prop budget too, there's not a lot of weight to things and you see them actually bend the foam power armor in one shot.

altima_neo,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

So it’s actually good? It was looking like low budget camp from the set photos.

wintermute_oregon,

It’s decent. I enjoyed it. I think the more you’ve played the game, the more you’ll enjoy it.

kbal,
@kbal@fedia.io avatar

From the looks of the first episode, one thing it's definitely not is low budget. It's well-crafted and probably very expensive. The sex is perfunctory and the violence is lovingly detailed at great length. There are no real surprises, good or bad, in how they've handled things.

Personally I probably would've preferred low-budget and camp, but I imagine it will succeed in achieving the goals that its producers had in mind. I will probably watch some more.

gregorum, (edited )

Personally, I’ve found it pretty great. I’ve watched the whole thing and am going in again for another binge. The ending is great. Knowing that it’s already been greenlit for season 2 gives me a lot of hope.

It would have been really easy to fuck this show up, but they really managed to pull it off!

Kolanaki, (edited )
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

My main criticism is that they have done literally nothing to establish or explain the rules/quirks of the world. If I wasn’t already a fan of the games, this show would be confusing as fuck. They expect you to just know about the NCR, the Brotherhood, what a ghoul is, what caps are, etc. Like, I hate exposition, but this is going too far in the opposite direction with it.

The other is the place and time. I watched all 8 episodes and it seemed like it took place in multiple parts of the country between at least Massachusetts and California considering they say they are in the Commonwealth at the beginning, but clearly are in Los Angeles pretty much the rest of the time, and it’s unclear how long McClane and Maximus’ journey had been due to the weird time compression. It’s almost like a TV show done like a linear game where you just move from set piece to set piece, while losing all the stuff you do in between.

Other than that I loved it. If it didn’t have actors I recognize and have the studio logos in the opening credits, I could easily believe this was made by hardcore fans of the games as a independent project.

gregorum,

They do a tiny bit to explain ghouls, but not a lot. It’s mostly implied that they’re the result of nuclear radiation. It’s not that complicated, really.

But some other stuff really could use more backstory, that’s true.

maino82,

I never played the games but was able to pick up enough through context clues about what each group is all about and generally what’s going on. I do have lots of questions about the specifics of each group, but I’m hoping that in future episodes (I am only a few episodes in) and seasons they flesh things out a bit more to fill in some of the more mysterious aspects of the show.

kratoz29, (edited )

Ok, I gotta ask, I know almost nothing about the lore of Fallout, is this show for me? Does it have enough content for newcomers that makes it worth it?

I did enjoy the Twisted Metal TV show, if that brings any context about what stuff I like, although at least I did play some of their old games and enjoyed them, but I remember next to nothing about the game’s “plot”, if there was any to begin with.

EDIT: Thank you so much for your replies guys, it seems definitely like a fun show and I’m craving for one lol (I just finished Titans S03… and… it was not good), I’m gonna give it a try!

Dudewitbow,

the reason why the fallout story is very flexible on a any place no context story is because each individual vault has its own story, and stories are hyper regionalistic. so while all regions may share the same start (nuclear fallout of course) and prewar tech, what happens after is up to the writers imagination, as long as a writer doesnt pick an already existing vault number that already has a rule.

minor lore spoilers ahead: each vault was not built the same, all were a major experiment and had different conditions to see how humanity would adapt to different conditions presented to them.

this is why fallout is super flexible on where a story can start, game, or show wise. for example of something that won’t be in a game or show, Vault 68 was an experiment where what would happen if you put 1 woman, and 999 men in a bunker. Vault 69 was what would happen if you had 1 man, and 999 women in a bunker.

gregorum,

It gives a lot of background for those unfamiliar to the lore. I’m pretty sure newcomers will also like it. It’s a lot of fun, like the games!

Midnitte,

The way they introduce it is great too, using the flashbacks.

a1studmuffin,
@a1studmuffin@aussie.zone avatar

If you enjoyed Twisted Metal, you will enjoy Fallout. Both are excellent TV adaptations of their respective games, and have a thick layer of dark humour underpinning the action. Twisted Metal was particularly surprising, I want to shake the hand of whoever was looking at that crusty old PS2 game and saw dollar signs for TV!

wintermute_oregon,

Twisted metal was great. Never really played the game but the tv show was fun

averyminya,

Titans was rough.

Doom Patrol is where it’s at!

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

I remember next to nothing about the game’s “plot”, if there was any to begin with.

I only remember the first 2 TM games and the plot was some rich fuck made a death match competition and the winner gets a single wish granted as their prize; but the wish every character makes in their ending (by beating the game as that character) is always corrupted Monkey’s Paw style.

kratoz29,

Wait, this sounds better than the Twisted Metal TV show plot LMAO.

Faydaikin,
@Faydaikin@beehaw.org avatar

The ending of the TM season 1 was literally the annoncement of the tournament. XD

MagicShel,

It sounds really good, but I’m protesting commercials on a service that promised to be commercial free. I will watch it vicariously through online discussions.

hydroptic,

🏴‍☠️

KairuByte,
@KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

⛵️

nxdefiant,

I’m going to rename my NAS “online discussions” in your honor.

sharkfinsoup,

To me, fallout is more about the setting and aesthetics than the story and the TV show captures those two points very well! It’s definitely very campy at times but I’ve found it to be a really enjoyable watch so far (just finished episode 5).

I really like how much of fallout is crammed into the show, from the brand names for foods to the vaults and monsters to the music. They really do make the setting the core aspect of the show, which was all they really had to do to make a good fallout show IMO.

The plot and many of the character’s decisions are probably the weakest points so far but it’s all stuff that easily overlooked.

Overall, very pleasantly surprised by how good the show is.

warm,

Yeah the characters motives just randomly change to fit the plot and there's never any logic behind their decisions.

Hazmatastic,

I understood their logic most of the time (some iffy moments for sure), but my main issue with it was it all felt too fast. Like someone telling a great story but in such a rush to the finale that they end up glossing over details that make it so enjoyable. Decisions the characters made felt like they should have cooked several times longer than they did. I expected some arcs to last a half a season, maybe even a full one. But by the end of the episode it’s not an issue anymore and we’ve moved on.

That said, Walton Goggins is killing his role, and I see it as a solid resume addition for a lot of the others. There are scenes and lines that are meh, but also ones that show me these actors can pull off some great performances

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