FALLOUT: A New Divide

Much like war, somethings never change.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

The Fallout TV show was recently released and I’ve decided to give my thoughts on it now that I’ve seen every episode. This review is fresh off my other post also, on the various issues plaguing many adaptations in the modern day. The main one is trying to aim for the modern audience and thus missing the mark completely. I will preface this review by stating that the show is passable. It’s not award-winning by any means but the creators behind it understood the assignment. A lot of what’s seen in the show can be connected back to the games and it’s rare to be able to sit back these days and be able to just geek out about something. Now I am also very much aware that just like the Halo show before, this show has divided fans of the games. A good chunk are fine with it but just as many are disappointed with the choices made in regards to one of the main factions: the New California Republic. And I completely understand those frustrations especially considering how well-developed the faction is across three games.

The show begins moments before the bombs are dropped and the Great War ends just as quickly as it began. We are first introduced to Cooper Howard before his ghoulification. His role explores both the present state of the wasteland and the pre-war he once belonged to. The show does a solid job in those opening few minutes capturing the retrofuturism that makes Fallout such a recognisable property. It also never gets old seeing the moment the bombs drop and everything ends. I think the most interesting part of the TV show is how analogous it is to the games. Cooper’s character is very reminiscent of the sole survivor and he even later on gets his own dog companion that has been tagging along with anyone carrying the head of her former master. Cooper also served at Anchorage, a location notable to any Fallout fan who played Fallout 3 as it is the location where the Chinese attempted a ground invasion that was later pushed back. Cooper’s military experience also leads him to have a better understanding of the T-60 power armour allowing him to exploit its weaknesses when facing Maximus and other Brotherhood members.

While hostile and combative to pretty much anyone he meets, he carries the show and represents what kind of toll the wasteland can take on you after a long-lived life as a ghoul. It’s fitting that he in many ways became no different from the character he plays in various films and it’s through him that we see a real ideological clash between his cynical view of the world and Lucy’s more naive but optimistic outlook. He’s also at first the face of Vault Boy before he crosses Vault-Tec and begins spying on his wife, where he learns some pretty nasty truths regarding the Vaults and their ultimate purpose.

We are also introduced to the Vault Dweller, Lucy MacClean. A resident of Vault 33 she’s our analogy to the Lone Wanderer of Fallout 3. Much like him/her she is led to believe by her father that she’s been a dweller her whole life but there are parts of that story that don’t add up. The show does a fantastic job of selling the strange, cult-like behaviours of those in the Vaults and we fast learn that Vault 33 is connected directly to two other vaults, 31 and 32. Every year, the three Vaults do various forms of trade from supplies to dwellers themselves. In the show, we see an exchange between 32 and 33 that includes Lucy herself being part of an arranged marriage. However, it turns out that this was also a trap and that those within Vault 32 weren’t actually dwellers. They were raiders posing as such to capture the Overseer of Vault 33, Hank MacClean, Lucy’s father. Thus for a brief moment, Vault 33 nearly suffered a similar fate to those in Vault 3 in the Mojave wasteland. In that case, the Dwellers of Vault 3 in their infinite naivete let in Fiends who proceeded to massacre them.

With her father kidnapped and the Vault’s leadership not interested in going after him. Lucy takes it upon herself to leave the vault to rescue her father. Along the way, she meets a varying cast of characters who disparage her lack of self-awareness and generally see her as someone to be easily exploited. Her naive understanding of the outside world is shown throughout and it slowly unravels as she is exposed to many horrors by the Ghoul, Cooper.

In contrast to her, we have Maximus, someone who is very much out for himself. A Brotherhood squire he only gets the role after the first candidate stuck their foot in a razor-lined boot. He’s accused of doing it but denies being responsible. He is then assigned to Knight Titus and two begin searching for the target, an Enclave defector named Siggi Wilzig. Unlike the two above, Maximus is far more carefree and opportunistic in his actions. When he is berated by Titus and used as bait for the Yao Guai he does nothing to rescue the man simply so that he can acquire the power armour. While he does show signs of growth, he and the Brotherhood feel quite removed from how they are often conveyed in the games. Across Fallout the Brotherhood has been fairly competent but in this show, they have their zealotry but nothing else really.

I’ve mostly avoided major spoilers but I will briefly touch upon a sticking point for many people. That is the destruction of Shady Sands. While it doesn’t bother me too much as someone frustrated with the Halo show. I get why it put many fans off but the show does make plenty of references to New Vegas with cameos from some of its major players like House and an executive from Big MT. A lot of fans are seeing malice and I highly doubt there is any. Visually the show fits perfectly within the universe, we even get to see the hacking minigame which was a nice surprise. And unlike Halo where the armour quite literally gets taken away, the Fallout show doesn’t hesitate to show the T-60 in all its glory. The show feels like it could be a game in many ways. And with the end hinting at Hank visiting New Vegas. There are many implications for what the canonical ending of New Vegas is. My prediction is that Ulysses called it right that the Tunnellers from the Divide would overrun the Mojave. This is seen in the DUST mod for Fallout New Vegas. While unlikely, it would be unique to see a game’s mod be canonised even a little as looking at the state of Vegas. Anything could have happened to cause it to be in its current state. And while in most runs, House is clubbed to death. There’s an entire possibility that Courier Six could have worked alongside him up to a point.

As such as a valiant effort to capture the quirks and spirit of the games, I would recommend the show as I feel it’s a step in the right direction for video game adaptation. It has a fun, interesting cast of characters and is filled with enough easter eggs and references to get the theory crafter in me to wake up from his long slumber. Which is honestly all I could ever ask for at this point.