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Fallout: Season 1 (4K UHD) – Series Review

Even though the Fallout franchise has been going strong for nearly 30 years now, we honestly didn’t expect it to get a live-action adaptation any time soon. When the announcement was initially made, we were rather skeptical, as many video game adaptations often ended up being underwhelming or just downright bad – a case in point being Borderlands the movie. While we already watched Fallout: Season 1 when it came out on Amazon Prime, we were curious to see what a physical release could possibly do to make an already amazing series even better. After a short introduction that sets the stage for the first season of Fallout, we meet Lucy (Ella Purnell), who is a so-called vault dweller. She is part of the Vault 33 population, but she is unable to find a suitable marriage partner; thus, Vault 33 approves her finding a husband in the neighboring Vault. Vault 33 decides to open the vault door to let the people from Vault 32 in to seal the deal. What initially seemed like the perfect occasion for celebration quickly turned into a massacre that not only caused many casualties, but Lucy’s father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), was kidnapped and taken to the surface. Lucy is now determined to get him back and restore things to how they were. We also get introduced to Maximus (Aaron Moten), a trainee in the Brotherhood of Steel, who is ambitious enough to try to rise through the ranks and see the world. Sadly, he is often shunned by his peers and is not expected to be promoted any time soon. But when a twist of fate happens and he ends up in the service of Knight Tytus (Michael Rapaport), things seem to be looking up. At least, until Knight Titus unexpectedly kicks the bucket. Last but not least, there is The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a mutant who is supposedly already around since the start of the apocalypse. He’s a famous gun for hire, but he’s also kept under the control of the last person he crossed. When a bunch of criminals dig him up from his prison six feet under, The Ghoul decides to go solo, after showing what he can do to those who threaten him. Fallout: Season 1 isn’t the fastest show, and it does dump a lot of information on you during the first episodes, but it never gets too complex or too heavy. The flow and pacing are spot on, and things that are unclear are often quickly explained in one of the next episodes. There is a proper balance between action, story exposition, and character evolution. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing how events unfolded, and more than once we were driven to the edge of our seat. The retro futuristic vibe of the universe was respected, and the music choice was also superb in this first season. While music seems to be something that more and more shows are starting to invest in, we particularly enjoyed the soundtrack that was chosen here. While the first season of Fallout has a few bigger names backing the project, you’ll mainly see Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, and Walton Goggins grace your screen, as they are the main characters of this post-apocalyptic story. All of these cast members play original Fallout characters that never appeared in the base games, meaning they were blank slates. We applaud the showrunners for choosing original characters, rather than trying to adapt already-existing characters to fit the narrative of the series. Even so, all of the cast do a formidable job bringing this original story to life, and there is a lot of character evolution. The 4K UHD edition of Fallout: Season 1 comes with a vault filled with special features. There is a lot of making-of content to sink your teeth into, handling different subjects as to how the video game content was translated to a live-action format, but also features revolving around costumes, set design, character interpretations, and so on. We quite enjoyed browsing through the additional creative content here. That being said, the animated features that were included truly were the highlight for us. These small cartoons feature the iconic Vault Boy in his quest to run the different aspects of a vault. Conclusion If Fallout: Season 1 would set the standard for live-action adaptations of popular video games, we’d be in for an absolute treat. The series managed to captivate us from start to finish, and our only regret is that the first season only had eight episodes. We loved the character renditions, the dark atmosphere of the Fallout universe, and the overall quality of the sets and props was outstanding. We can’t wait until the second season comes out, and we hope that it continues with the same high quality as the first season.