The second season of “Fallout” concluded in February. While it is a fun watch, there are several aspects from the original video game’s lore that are either contradictory or left out completely in the live action adaptation.
The “Fallout” series is set in an alternate future where a nuclear war known as “The Great War” has reduced the U.S. to an irradiated wasteland, with the remnants of humanity trying to rebuild and survive against mutated hostile creatures. The show follows Lucy MacLean, played by Ella Purnell, who left her home in a massive fallout shelter to find her father with the help of Walton Goggin’s character Cooper Howard, a veteran and cowboy actor turned bounty hunter whose appearance was disfigured from radiation, giving him the nickname “The Ghoul.”
The majority of the second season of “Fallout” is set in the city of New Vegas and the surrounding Mojave Wasteland.
The grimy post-apocalyptic environment and unique retro futuristic aesthetic of “Fallout” are beautifully depicted. The pre-war flashback scenes are always sunny. The sleek design of the vehicles and technology, as well as the advertisements warning against nuclear threats, are reminiscent of the 1950s atomic age and add a sense of Cold War era propaganda.
Despite taking place in the future, “Fallout’s” soundtrack is composed of pop songs from the 1950s and 1960s to tie this aesthetic all together.
The post-war locations give a stark contrast with dark, abandoned buildings with skeletal remains and mutated creatures inhabiting them. Viewers get long shots of the barren wasteland and ruined cities often with disturbing ambient music in the background, giving a feeling of danger and suspense. The cinematography and music truly make “Fallout” an immersive experience.
For those who enjoy over-the-top violence, “Fallout” covers that. There is no shortage of people being mauled by wasteland creatures, shot, impaled, decapitated or having their heads explode remotely.
Each episode has one to two violent scenes, so it doesn’t feel excessive or overly edgy. The fights and shootouts are well choreographed, but it is the overall pacing of the story where “Fallout” comes up short.
Since the second season shares the same setting as the video game, many of the locations and factions are adapted directly from the source. While the show does offer fan service to viewers who played the game, many changes were made that contradict the events of the game. For example, in the video game there are two factions fighting over control of the region — on one side is the New California Republic and on the other side is Caesar’s Legion. Although both factions are present in the show, they are more diminished and cast as a side story for a majority of the season.
Two locations adapted from the game are the towns of Novac and Freeside, both settlements that were reworked without explanation. Novac, a settlement in the wasteland built from a pre-war motel resort, has been taken over by a gang of raiders and the show offers no explanation to the original inhabitants.
In Freeside, there was a gang of Elvis impersonators called “The Kings,” but now they have turned into zombie-like ghouls for no reason.
Throughout the season, many subplots are developed among the many characters.
While there isn’t a weak link among them in terms of engagement, none of them reach any kind of resolution toward the end of the season. The most disappointing thing about the second season of “Fallout” is that it ends on a giant cliffhanger.
