By Johnathon Shaffer / Sports editor
The first season of the Fallout series was one of my favorite shows of the last five years. It was a brilliant introduction of the world of fallout to the TV screen, while also building the world of fallout in a well-crafted way. It featured expertly crafted writing, excellent performances from the cast, (Walton Goggins, Kyle McLaughlin, Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten), very focused attention to detail for the longstanding stories of the games that preceded it, and a bombshell finale.
If you want no spoilers or context behind the show, I would suggest to stop reading here, but if you want some minor context to set the scene off the show, I would keep reading.
In a nutshell, the overarching story of Fallout is set in an alternate universe where instead of atomic energy being used for the threat of atomic bombs in the Cold War, it was used to develop nuclear energy, and expedite society’s development. Then, halfway through the 21st century, the world began to run out of natural resources, like oil. Wars would be fought over the remaining resources. The two big players in these conflicts were the United States and China. Hostilities between the two became so heated, they reached a boiling point, and nukes were launched on both sides against each other. It is not known who made the first move.
In preparation for the inevitable launch of nuclear weapons, corporate America planned around this, planning to capitalize on everything they could. In particular, there were vaults, state of the art airtight shelters built by the corporation Vault-Tec, who advertised spots in the vaults’ capacity for high prices. However, Vault-Tec also conducted experiments in each one of the vaults, some relatively harmless, some that are completely sinister. For example, Vault 21 was a vault where all important decisions and disputes were decided by gambling. Vault 75 was entirely composed of musicians, and after a short time in the vault, the PA system played a concurrent white noise in every corner of the vault that caused everyone to go completely insane.
The plot of the first season followed, mainly, a man who was alive before the bombs dropped, but was horribly deformed and mutated by the radiation, also known as a ghoul. His name is Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins), who was a war veteran, and later a movie star, who is attempting to find his family in one of the vaults, and has kept himself going for two centuries just for that purpose. We also follow his story before the war, struggling with the political and corporate climate of the world, with his wife, Barbra, who is an executive at Vault-Tec, and his daughter Janey.
We also follow a vault dweller, Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), attempting to find her father, who was captured by raiders who came into her home Vault 33. We also follow the story of the vault, through the eyes of her brother, Norm, who attempts to uncover a mystery hidden in the vault system.
There’s also the story of Maximus (Aaron Moten), an aspirant of the Brotherhood of Steel, a militaristic organization that wears the series trademark power armor, that makes a point to collect technology to keep it away from humanity, to protect humanity. He becomes a squire to Knight Titus, and assists him on a mission. He later becomes a Knight of the Brotherhood of Steel after many misadventures.
There is much more behind these characters and stories, and I would highly recommend watching the show from the beginning to experience the twists and turns of the show. *THIS IS THE FINAL DISCLAIMER BEFORE SPOILERS*
Watching season one, I immediately wanted to see season two right after that, immediately after the finale. Especially with an end credits scene revealing that season two would take place in New Vegas, a location from one of the most critically acclaimed games in the series, I was more excited than ever.
While it is ongoing, I have been overjoyed with the development of this season so far. I believe the season, similar to season one, is building up tension and information to another dramatic confrontation that will shatter perceptions of the world.
The only criticism I have is the amount of plotpoints and stories the show tries to manage in eight one-hour long episodes, but they still manage to pace it very well and allow it to still be easy to follow.
The plot follows Lucy and Cooper pursuing Hank McClean (Kyle McLaughlin), Lucy’s father, for different reasons. Lucy wants to bring him to justice, for several reasons, but topping the list is him being responsible for nuking Shady Sands, the capital of the New California Republic. Cooper wants to find his family, who he has been searching for past season one and into season two.
In particular, I love the acting performance by Walton Goggins, both as Cooper Howard, and his “Ghoul” persona. He displays a unique charisma and passion into each and every scene with each persona, and you can feel how this man has changed over the course of centuries, from a charming actor to a cold hearted outlaw.
Maximus, struggling to be an enforcer for the Brotherhood, with the morals and division of the chapters being less than ideal, has a falling out with the brotherhood. I also love the performance Aaron Moten has put on, he has made himself feel like someone who has to keep rolling with the punches that someone else makes for him, then he takes control.
The vault storyline is a little less interesting, but there are some interesting points of interest, with the F.E.V.. I love how the show transitions from the title of “Future Enterprise Ventures”, an overly corporatized name, to “Forced Evolutionary Virus”, which, in past games, brought about monstrosities such as super mutants and centaurs.
Overall, the show has some really high highs, but where it falters is when the show tries to balance too many stories at once.
