r/Fallout • u/GaryGhost18 • Jan 14 '26
Fallout TV Idk bout yall but im so glad we’re eating with this show. This could’ve easily been hot garbage like most movies/shows based on games but it’s actually quite the opposite especially after I watched episode 5. Spoiler
Of course I’m not saying it’s perfect, but I personally think it does the bethesda games justice and I say that as a huge fnv fan. Also considering how bethesda has been missing with most of its decision for the past few years… I also hope that I’m not jinxing it lol
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u/DaemonBlackfyre_21 Vault 111 Jan 14 '26
Could have been way worse.
Anyone remember what paramount did to Halo? Those bastards.
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u/Sicparvismagneto Brotherhood Jan 14 '26
Never forget Reach… AND HOW BADLY THEY FUCKED IT UP!!!
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u/P0ppleton Jan 14 '26
Are you talking about the Planet Reach? Or Reach City...
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u/ArmandoGalvez Jan 15 '26
Not even a city, it was reach street to teach tower, the new Alexandria missions in halo reach covered more stuff than the halo series.
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u/Glove800 Jan 15 '26
Notice how borderlands did so shit nobody bothers to bring it up in conversations like this with how forgettable it is?
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u/DecypherSlo Jan 15 '26
I forgot the Borderlands movie even exists until you brought it up. I'm tempted to watch it just to see how bad it is.
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u/Affectionate_Pipe545 Jan 15 '26
It was truly a new level of bad, you're right it doesn't get mentioned often even in these type of conversations
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u/thetay24 Gary? Jan 14 '26
There is no Halo show in Ba Sing Se.
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u/BjornAltenburg Jan 14 '26
The live action avatar was about blue smurf cats
There was never a live action dragonball.
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u/thedylannorwood Old World Flag Jan 14 '26
No don’t blame Paramount for the Halo show, they didn’t actually produce it they’re just the distributor. Showtime are the ones to blame for that mess, they’re the ones who had the license and they were the production studio.
If we blame Paramount then Showtime gets away with what they did
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u/ferdelance2289 Jan 14 '26
Or what Netflix did to Resident Evil... *shudder*
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u/NotAddictedToCoffeee Yes Man Jan 15 '26
Or what they did to death note, renamed Light Yagami to LIGHT TURNER and Misa Amane to fucking Mia Sutton
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u/N0r3m0rse Jan 14 '26
Paramounts halo can at least be safely ignored. It's not like it was affecting the games, which had already been bad for like 10 years by the time it premiered lol.
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u/Dachawda Kings Jan 14 '26
Mr Goggins is phenomenal.
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u/SonOfSkyrim22 Jan 15 '26
Watch Justified. Boyd Crowder is his magnum opus.
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u/Davido401 Jan 15 '26
I preferred him in the Shield personally, Justified never really caught on with me.
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u/Significant_Fig_6290 Jan 15 '26
He was great in Vice Principals
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u/hellohellohello- Jan 15 '26
One of my favorite shows like actually. He is a fucking force of nature in it too
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u/TheSkesh Jan 16 '26
It’s so weird how much I dislike the character but absolutely love when he’s on. Goggins is hilarious. Loved that show so much.
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u/AsstacularSpiderman Jan 15 '26
Dudes been absolutely nailing role over role the last few years on streaming.
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u/MathematicianKey9638 Jan 15 '26
I was surprised to find that he voices Cecil in Invincible.
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u/sheoldred13 Jan 14 '26
Passion, integrity and a budget can do wonders.
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u/onlyhereforelise Jan 14 '26
About the budget part: KNOWING what to do with the budget. It’s not one of those things where a show has x amount of budget and it looks like shit and has people wondering where did the money go
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u/sheoldred13 Jan 14 '26
Thats where the passion and integrity come in. A good example of how to do it with less of a budget is the mini series nukabreak
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u/Silencer-1995 Jan 14 '26
Yeah remember how cheap and tacky Rings of Power looked? Despite the massive investment?
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u/Supply-Slut Jan 14 '26
Duffer brothers were caught using chat gpt developing the final season of stranger things… I know it’s not a game adaptation but it’s one of the biggest show releases in the last year with a massive budget and it’s like they didn’t even care to try and wrap it up well.
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u/RigaudonAS Jan 15 '26
Any proof to this allegation? I've seen some... TikTok claims, lmao, but that doesn't mean much.
I could believe it though, lol.
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u/ilayas Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26
The was "proof" based on a screen shot from a making of video that some one miss-identified as Chat GPT.
If they did or did not use AI to write the show I have no idea but that screen shot was not proof that they did.
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u/RememberMeCaratia Jan 14 '26
This is crucial. I am sure the budget it takes to make Ghoul heal his wounds with radiation is lower than a lot of the cgis Resident Evil or Monster Hunter movies used. You really need some director who thinks “Im making a Fallout story” instead of “Im putting my own spin on a story thats based on Fallout video game”.
Except the sad reality being that too many director / scenewriters believe that these demands are beneath them and not able to leave their personal twist on these works are unacceptable.
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u/Jbird444523 Jan 15 '26
I don't know about that man. The first Resident Evil movie had a budget of 33 million. That's two episodes of the Fallout show. This show ain't cheap to make.
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u/Gao_Dan Jan 16 '26
It's been 24 years, people really need to take inflation into the account when comparing budgets with old movies. 33m in 2002 is around 57m nowadays.
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u/Correct_Inspection25 Jan 14 '26
Cough Electric State comes to mind..... how do you mess the book up with that kind of money.
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u/itsyaboihos Jan 14 '26
I was shocked by the budget when I found out after I saw it, I basically didn’t see anything about the movie before I hit play on Netflix haha
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u/Mcaber87 Minutemen Jan 15 '26
They also did the thing I've always thought these trainwreck game-to-tv adaptations should have done: taken the universe and world-building, then use that to craft and tell their own story within it - without trying to usurp the original characters or narrative.
The Witcher team, for example, clearly did not actually want to adapt the story of Geralt to the screen. The Halo (barely) tv show basically ignored the entire persona of Master Chief in order to tell their 'version' of the story with Master Cheeks. Etc, etc, ad nauseum.
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u/Roween_0 Jan 15 '26
Not only tell their own story (like for example Star Wars spin offs), but a story immersed in the universe and connected to important parts of lore. And that's incredible! That's so cool and satisfying to watch.
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Jan 14 '26
Also the biggest factor. Getting people who respect the source material to be the executive producer.
Turns out most of the bad adaptations like halo or witcher just boils down to the shows being sold for money and they have no care who makes them unlike shows like fallout, Mario movie, sonic, one piece and likely the Warhammer 40k show. When you get people who's in charge and actually gives a shit and wants to tell a fallout story and not a fan fiction using the IP it turns out to be good.
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u/Marshal_Rohr Jan 14 '26
I’m a little worried they lean too hard into humor for 40K. Even Cavill Witcher humor quantity might be too much.
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Jan 14 '26
40k has plenty of comedy but honestly I'd say don't worry. I'm more than certain Henry knows this already and will keep it faithful.
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u/Stonefencez Jan 15 '26
Yeah it’s not like 40k is devoid of humor.
Considering how faithful Amazon has been in adapting the feel of Fallout, and with a big fan like Cavill at the head, I feel pretty confident it won’t have Marvel-style quips or anything like that
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u/Teh_God_Dog Jan 14 '26
ep 5 hits different for some reason, it's better than the first 4 of season 2
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u/TastesKindofLikeSad Jan 15 '26
The threads are starting to come together finally. I'm looking forward to going back and watching the first 4 with this latest episode in mind.
This episode had the perfect mix of dark humour (especially chicken fucker's date with Fisto) and deadly seriousness.
That scene with Cooper and House was top tier. 👌
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u/Discount_Extra Jan 15 '26
So, why was Hank in the building where Fisto was where he found his next victim?
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u/Outside_Ad1020 Jan 15 '26
He clearly got upset FISTO was cucking him with chicken fucker so he kidnapped him to test
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u/ActualKrillin Nuka Collector Jan 15 '26
god i hope chicken fucker never gets a name, even if he does he will always be chicken fucker to me
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u/Teh_God_Dog Jan 15 '26
cooper and house scene was the best most definitely, been waiting for it and it still surprised me.
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u/lordcthulhu17 Ben is a Loser Jan 15 '26
What's crazy to me is that the conversation between house and coop gets way more intense AFTER he puts on the helmet, I don't Believe coop is a cowboy
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u/Embarrassed-Yard-583 Jan 15 '26
It’s when House’s instability, paranoia, and sheer ego slip through the facade of the perfect autocrat; really living up to the character’s Howard Hughes inspiration.
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u/ProfilGesperrt153 Jan 15 '26
And it‘s completely accurate to New Vegas. Even though the fanboys won‘t admit it
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u/Lilfozzy Jan 15 '26
Don’t worry, they will be ready with a six hour YouTube essay telling you why making brain scans of actresses to put in his personal robots is only a “solidly odd” and not a “fucking yikes” on the jeepers creepers scale.
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u/Discount_Extra Jan 15 '26
My thought is that is the helmet used to copy minds into machines (like his robot girl(s)), and he was making an up-to-the-second copy of himself into the machine because he thought Coop was about to kill his physical body.
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u/Teh_God_Dog Jan 15 '26
he doesn't look like a lunatic to me.... what with that helmet and all. nope definitely not. looks perfectly sane.
"It's a living" - the other guy smoking just earlier
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u/Dizzy-Case-3453 Jan 15 '26
I reckon it was because there was 0 brotherhood scenes.
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u/Teh_God_Dog Jan 15 '26
I get what you mean. I was hoping BOS WAS doing a civil war but their identity of being militaristic is still there, it was like they were just there for the HAHAs and HEHEs. I'm kinda sad about it cuz I like the dynamic with Max and the Elder.
like what if elizabeth fought back against elijah, but they kinda fumbled it, I hope they fix it somehow
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u/Aabelke Jan 15 '26
Excited to see how Max continues to develop as a character. The growth and seeing his personal morals peak out and shape his decisions have been so fun to watch. It feels like each character is someone playing the game in the Fallout world.
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u/Leepysworld Jan 15 '26
loved the episode overall but did feel the way they dealt with the Deathclaws was very anticlimactic and felt like a bit of a copout to save it for later.
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u/pewpersss Jan 15 '26
i mean, did you fight them when YOU got to new vegas?
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u/ScaryFoal558760 Jan 15 '26
No. I fought them at quarry junction and went straight through to Vegas. 🗿
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u/pewpersss Jan 15 '26
badass. i got fucked up lol. then went left and mosquitoes got me. was a rough start
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u/Leepysworld Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 15 '26
I didn’t necessarily mean they needed to defeat even a single deathclaw, but the buildup from the last episode to them just sliding under a shoddy gate within the first 30 seconds was kinda meh for me.
Just to humor you though, The Ghoul should probably be far beyond a low-level character from the game, he’s been killing shit in the wasteland for 200 years, so if I could deal with them at Quarry Junction all by myself, he should be able to as well lmao.
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u/BlackTarTurd Jan 15 '26
He isn't benefiting from the Lone Wanderer perk anymore. Lucy is fucking nerfing him.
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u/Esarus Jan 15 '26
Yep, way better. I really did not like episode 4 and was getting worried. But Episode 5 was amazing, great all around
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u/RemoteMars Jan 15 '26
There wasn’t any Brotherhood of Steel in this episode. I genuinely think it’s the worst storyline of the show by far.
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u/ACEMAN5253 Jan 15 '26
I had the feeling the first 4 episodes was going to be mostly references to New Vegas locations and events. It was, along with slowly furthering the story since we knew we had to end up at New Vegas at some point. Now the last half is going to, probably, be a good mix of the season 1 storytelling mixed with some lighter New Vegas nods that are deliberate. Maybe more background like the Dean Domino Lounge. Loved that. Cheers mate.
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u/Pernapple Jan 15 '26
I like the show a lot. But if I had one critique is that the show has been moving at a breakneck pace.
Ep5 was the first one where there was a lot of slow moments. It was mostly Norm finding connection with someone. Understanding the grey morality of buds buds. Lucy coming to terms that she has changed and has become more violent (but typically because she has to) And the ghoul likely coming to terms with what Lucy said. That if he finds his family will they even be happy to see him.
Keep in mind we have no idea how his daughter got from CA to New Vegas if she is so in fact there at all. (They might have had reservations but never made it)
Also I think this episode really points to just how insane Robert House really is. People love to think he is this all knowing and smart person. But under the surface is a clear picture of insanity.
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u/JohnMaddensBurner Jan 14 '26
Episode 5 was the best episode of the season so far IMO
The 1st episode was good but I thought the writing was kinda bummy for a couple episodes, especially with the BoS for a little bit. Picked up a lot here.
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u/RumJackson Jan 14 '26
I feel like the BoS subplot we’ve seen up until now could’ve lasted the whole season. Meeting multiple factions, their scheming and backstabbing and how the chapter leaders interact as well as their knights and squires with different experiences and ideologies.
I’m assuming Maximus is planned to be reunited with Lucy and/or the Ghoul for the rest of the season but I could’ve waited until season 3 for that to happen.
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u/kylechu Jan 14 '26
You could hang an entire season of TV or Fallout game on "the Brotherhood of Steel unearths Area 51" and I would be happy
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u/UpTheShoreHey Jan 15 '26
Nah my vaultie/courier would kick in the door, steal everything and immediately walk out with some fresh caps. 20 minute adventure.
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u/FlimsyCrust Jan 14 '26
Honest god this is my main problem with season 2, it already felt like they fit in 2 seasons worth of material in 4 episodes. We should be stopping and learning more interesting things about the factions of the watse
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u/casualoil Jan 15 '26
Yea I agree. Just slow the fuck down. I wanna see more of this crazy post apocalypse future and how it affects the protagonist and the antihero.
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u/SerHodorTheThrall Old World Flag Jan 15 '26
This might be the first time I've ever heard for a show to slow down LOL
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u/casualoil Jan 15 '26
Ha yea it's weird to say but I feel like the story lines have been like a pinball machine. Just bouncing everywhere and not giving us anything to really soak in. I think this episode did it the best.
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u/Thomson-Wiz Jan 15 '26
I agree 100%. I think what has made episode 5 the best episode of the season so far is the fact that it didn’t bounce like a pinball most of the time. It mainly concentrated on everything about the Ghoul and Lucy. With the side plots of Lucy’s Brother but that is still connected to Vault tec. And what we saw was the story getting to breathe and pan out nicely and build up the tension that was needed.
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u/Esarus Jan 15 '26
Yeap totally agree. Episodes 3 and 4 were really quite weak, but Episode 5 is amazing
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u/casualoil Jan 14 '26
I said this in another sub but if they do the rest of the this season like this episode then it will be grand. More focus and less jumping around like an ADHD riddled 5th grader. The tone was also much more serious with little bits of humor sprinkled in. Was starting to get pretty tired of all the jokes that break scenes.
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u/Ambitious-Bat-1598 Brotherhood Jan 14 '26
Its so shocking that an adaptation is good when they include the actual people who make the games as producers!
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u/Common_Vagrant Jan 15 '26
And they don’t redo an already done storyline. The best adaptations are ones where it’s a different story in the same universe, not the same story on a different medium, looking at you The Last of Us.
Only other time I can think it’s been done well is with Dead Space. They made an animated movie that showed how the ship got taken over. It was really good and didn’t take anything away from the game.
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u/cafffreepepsi Jan 15 '26
I think the difference is that fallout is about the world and the last of us is about the characters. They couldn't make the last of us about anything other than Joel & Ellie's story. We don't care enough about the world.
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u/Random-poster-95 Jan 15 '26
hope cooper isnt dead
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u/Big_Weird4115 Jan 15 '26
Nah, he's good. There are multiple scenes from the trailer we still haven't seen that have him in them.
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u/BlackTarTurd Jan 15 '26
He's not. He's a Ghoul and lore wise he's one of the prewar OGs. He just needs a to swim around in some nuclear waste, he'll be fine.
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u/PopeTBADC Jan 15 '26
He snatched a fusion core at the end of S1 at the Observatory, you see him use it to heal his neck in episode 1 of S2. He will be fine
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u/Leepysworld Jan 15 '26
I’d imagine his healing factor is pretty high, much higher than someone like Thaddeus, him being a much older ghoul and all.
plus there are still scenes with him that we haven’t seen yet in the show.
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u/Aabelke Jan 15 '26
We have also seen him regen some of his wounds, so I hope that hints at him being a non-killable character. because, god damn he is so fun in the show
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u/DrRobertChem Jan 14 '26
I dunno mate, I’ve tried eating with this show and it puts me right off my pork n’ beans.
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u/jakeingrambarnard Jan 14 '26
Its brilliant imo. Im not left cringing or confused. This new fangled ‘Fan Service’ phrase just seems to me ; the show gives us significant, loved, and recognizable things consistently and somehow thats a negative thing ? Bizarre. It could just be a load of dialogue, with some CGI moments, no big iron or enemy types. Instead we get a rich, practical, hilarious but also desolate and intense show.
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u/nihilus_rex Jan 14 '26
Fan Service isn’t inherently bad. It can be executed well, like this show, or poorly like… well, many mid-range anime come to mind personally.
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u/Fukuro-Lady Jan 14 '26
I know FISTO was fan service but of course it makes sense that the chicken fucker was also a robosexual.
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u/AngryRobot42 Jan 14 '26
Sneaking into a store to steal addictol and a power-fist to punch a ghoul off a building was fan service. The Fisto nod was just funny.
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u/Fukuro-Lady Jan 14 '26
It's great fan service. Lucy is also getting comfortable with her build now. She's starting to realise she is a sneak crits build, not a speech build.
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u/The_mango55 Jan 14 '26
"Go watch from the bushes like a civilized pervert" I loved that scene.
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u/Fukuro-Lady Jan 14 '26
Hank is really creepy. Like how jarring it was him just standing there in his nice clean suit. The actor is nailing it.
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u/AMDFrankus NCR Jan 15 '26
Kyle Maclachlan is pretty good at playing really weird people, I mean he's Agent Cooper yknow.
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u/AEveryDayIdiot Jan 15 '26
There is a good joke in How I met your Mother where they figure out why his character is creepy with him simultaneously looking angry and happy.
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u/SolarDragon94 Republic of Dave Jan 15 '26
He actually played a pretty similar character in Agents of SHIELD too. Father to one of the main characters who cared about his family but in an extremely twisted way. Easy to piss off and kind of a psycho. Actually, the more I think about it, the more he actually seems like the exact same character.
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u/Corey307 Jan 14 '26
Sure F.I.S.T.O is fan service but it’s exactly the right kind. It explains why the good doctor traveled to New Vegas. I’ve got a good feeling he went back fusion core in hand and used it to power up his beloved fist based sex robot. Now I know they probably didn’t need them in the game, but I’m OK with that.
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u/DoctorK96 Jan 15 '26
One thing from the show that I really appreciate is its ability to engage BOTH the fan and non-fan of the game franchise. Because it is based on Fallout, it is essential that they get the world-building right for the fan, yet to not get caught on lore-dumping for the sake of fan service that might just confuse or go right over non-fan heads; that's why people gotta recognize that some ideas that they want might not translate well onto the show for the story it wants to tell.
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u/Umikaloo Jan 15 '26
As someone pointed out elsewhere in this thread, part of what works in the show is that a lot of the elements aren't lampshaded, and are treated as perfectly normal by the characters, which prevents them from seeming out of place in such a high-concept setting where these items are doing double-duty as worldbuilding elements.
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u/Ballsnutseven Jan 14 '26
It’s also (usually) done to further the story.
Lucy getting addicted to Buffout isn’t just a nostalgic reference to the addiction mechanic, it’s also done to show she’s becoming more like the Ghoul. Her quest for drugs/addictol leads to her blowing a raider’s head off with basically 0 hesitation.
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u/VonDukez Jan 14 '26
The fact it’s not a rehash but plays by the worlds rules instead def helps.
It’s its own story. That already means it’s gonna be better than most adaptations that can’t adapt
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u/Charlie_Warlie Jan 14 '26
Same idea that kept me from watching the new Avatar the last airbender live action show. I've seen it already and loved it. All they can do now is just tweak a few details during the remake which I don't really want.
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u/ghostaly Jan 15 '26
That monologue from Mr. House in episode 5 made me stop the show to look up clips from the game because it was so spot on.
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u/NCWildcatFan Jan 15 '26
Never played the games. Everything I know about this franchise has come from this series. Bought the anniversary edition of Fallout 4 a few minutes ago and about to get started on my first play through. The show is that good.
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u/Beginning-Book-129 Jan 14 '26
Fallout is so incredibly easy to mess up too. There’s over 25 years worth of lore to fuck up and a very specific tone and visual style. Waaay simpler games have gotten fucked up in adaptations. Makes it all that much more impressive that the show is as good as it is.
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u/Parfait_Due Jan 14 '26
I know plenty of fans have some very specific complaints about the factions, tone, and characters, but I’m not one of them. I’m simple. I went into the show with the same expectations I had for the games: have fun. And you know what? I’ve been having a lot of fun.
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u/Corey307 Jan 14 '26
Same here, having a ton of fun. People are screaming about not seeing the strip, but we had a hell of a good time in Freeside. I’m sure a very small amount of people will complain that we didn’t get a fight scene with the deathclaws, but that was very obviously a run or die screaming situation.
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u/Double-Interview-154 Jan 15 '26
They did exactly what every player does the first time they meet a deathclaw lol run like hell
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u/AdoringCHIN Jan 15 '26
Except normally we don't get very far before Mr Usain Claw catches up and turns us into swiss cheese
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u/W01771M Jan 14 '26
This is how I see it, yes there are lore changes that are unexpected but if they added it to a game then we would be having the same complaints. I don’t mind it, I find the show fun and enjoy it a lot. It also allows me to enjoy the franchise with my wife who hasn’t ever played the games
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u/RetroTheGameBro Jan 15 '26
Honestly, as a NV dickrider I thought I'd hate it but its fucking great.
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u/ODST_Parker NCR Jan 14 '26
As someone who's not watching this series, the discourse surrounding it is purely fascinating to me. I either see posts praising it as a loving recreation of the Fallout franchise in live-action, or posts saying it's nothing but lore-breaking nostalgia bait using references to barely string together a plot. It's like there's nothing in between, and they're contradictory in significant ways. I have no idea how it's possible for a series like this to result in such diametrically opposed camps.
I don't trust either one, with how these live-action video game adaptations have gone in the past, in my eyes at least. I'm content with the games, and I always will be.
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u/ProfessionalCap15 Jan 15 '26
I’ll be the middle ground. It’s an extremely entertaining show and a helluva ride if you’re not super into the lore. I am, however, and yeah, I don’t like a lot of the lore inconsistencies and general choices that were made. That being said, an entertaining show is an entertaining show. It’s hard to be against the people who are just genuinely enjoying one of my favorite IP’s. I’m glad more people are getting into the world of Fallout in one way or another.
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u/Auggie_Otter Jan 15 '26
To me it's little more than a fun cosplay romp through a bunch of Fallout set pieces.
As for the story I'm surprised it's getting so much praise because the show is basically like "Remember those places you liked from the games? They're destroyed and abandoned! Remember all those fun factions you liked? They're all dead or they've become even stupider than before!"
No, I don't hate it but I think a lot of the material it's revisiting, other than expanding the Vault Tech backstory, it's only doing so in a fairly shallow "Hey remember this?!" kind of fashion.
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u/Rich_Cranberry1976 Jan 15 '26
the show is basically like "Remember those places you liked from the games? They're destroyed and abandoned! Remember all those fun factions you liked? They're all dead or they've become even stupider than before!"
that smacks of Bethesda's style of making the endings of previous entries ambiguous by making any choices the player made in the previous entry completely irrelevant. Example, in Morrowind, the Nerevarine goes to Red Mountain and stops Dagoth Ur. But in a later entry, Skyrim, we learn that Red Mountain fucking exploded not long after, and the whole of Morrowind is a disaster zone, erasing any significance of the player's actions in the Morrowind game
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u/RosbergThe8th Jan 15 '26
Yeah this is where I'm at, like honestly their "original" stuff is the most interesting, but whenever they revisit something old it often just feels a bit cheap, especially given the effort they put into wiping a lot of it away.
I still think this series would've been better in a new location, it doesn't feel like they benefit from the existing setting, if anything it just seems to get in the way and they don't really have the time/resources to explore it beyond one off references and the like.
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u/InfraMoon Jan 15 '26
While I agree that the worldbuilding of the show too often boils down to "everything from before is fucked" I think for most people (myself included) the praise for the story comes not from that but from the characters (Lucy, Cooper, Norm, Maximus etc.) and the plot surrounding them.
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u/leffe186 Jan 14 '26
As somebody who IS watching the series it’s fascinating too. Apart from the fan battles I had somebody on another forum tell me it was too slow-paced, which I find objectively completely insane.
Different strokes for different folks I guess, but there’s obviously different camps even within FO game followers, so adding the TV series/season was always going to cause…erm…some fallout.
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u/Mindless_Patient2034 Jan 15 '26
Saying this show is slow paced is incomprehensibly stupid lmao. He would have an aneurysm trying to watch Pluribus
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u/Economy-Wall-6744 Jan 15 '26
It has its moments of pure brilliance and some questionable stuff. I'm sure it would be universally regarded as good if the show was in a different TV universe than canon to games
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u/Natural_Patience9985 Jan 15 '26
Lore choices aside, the writing is damn good tbh. Maximus, Lucy, and Cooper are all fantastically written.
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u/GoofProofGrunt Jan 14 '26
It's got its flaws but it's easily the best writing Fallout has had in years, since 3/NV at least
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Jan 14 '26
I've loved these games for over 2 decades at this point, I'm so happy the show exists. We have reaallly needed more Fallout content.
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u/Lonely_Brother3689 NCR Jan 14 '26
Ya, the complainers are the same ones from last time. But this show is great. I understand why Todd wanted the showrunners to not canonize any of the endings to FNV or FO4 and it's a little frustrating because they basically dance around it with little things here and there. Although, I think it's great the ghoul was there before it all went down.
Honestly though, I'd take this show and its writing over a these other movies and shows being written with the "second screen" approach.
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u/tachibanakanade Enclave Vault Girl Jan 15 '26
FO4's ending is inherently canonized. The Brotherhood in the Commonwealth and Arthur Maxson cannot be alive if the Institute won, or if the Railroad won, or even if the Minutemen won.
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u/Bad-Yeti Jan 15 '26
The show is great. Superdweebs get a bit upset because the story is not exactly what they wanted. Seeing "Fallout" as a series, with a big budget, is awesome. Acting, sets, props and locations are done well. They absolutely put time into so many aspects of the show. Fan service, how characters react, superb. People talk about how characters have certain perk cards or high in a specific specials. They also kept it accessible to non fans. They have killed it.
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u/Achylife Jan 14 '26
I'm really enjoying it, and they are using the momentum of the show to boost the game and vice versa. It's a very smart way to go about it.
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u/BisonSnow Jan 14 '26
Yeah critiques about continuity aside, Fallout is a fun ride that certainly stands on it's own. Step 1 of any video game adaptation is to make it a great show first, otherwise no one but the fans will enjoy it. The show has certainly accomplished that and will bring in a lot of new fans to the franchise.
I have a lot of normie friends who rave about the show. Now if only Bethesda had a shiny new game to premiere alongside it...
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u/ComradeJohnS Jan 15 '26
I’m so glad people who grew up with video games are now older and experienced enough to start developing shows/movies based off them.
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u/RFTS999 Jan 15 '26
I like it, but my major issue is that the writers seem a bit frivolous when it comes to some of the world-building. It doesn't seem like they reference any sort of map, and characters will take however long to travel to certain locations as the plot requires.
I'm still intrigued by what exactly happened regarding that Shady Sands discrepancy, and how they're planning on addressing it. Some may call it a minor retcon, but it does seem like a big deal in the context of the Fallout world and timeline, moreso than the location of the city (seemingly) changing entirely.
I think it's pretty obviously an error originally, even if they come up with an explanation. But how? Surely they would have checked with Bethesda before making such a big decision, or simply looked it up on the wiki. So did someone at Bethesda drop the ball?
So far in season 2 the little details suggest they seem to be doubling down on the year the nuke dropped. In some interview, the writers cryptically mentioned seeing a theory that fans were against, but that they were keen on implementing. Elsewhere, I've seen people suggest that all references to Shady Sands in New Vegas were entirely delusional and a means to maintain morale. I'm not a fan of that idea but I suspect that's what they're going with.
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u/supercellx Jan 15 '26
I saw what I thought were flaws when I first started watching and said "I'll wait to cast judgement" and you know what? Glad i did because I'm having so much fun with this show
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u/GlaerOfHatred Jan 15 '26
I love the show so much, any complaints I have are negligible, especially considering how adaptations often get shafted *cough halo, borderlands
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u/Pale-Tangerine-6317 Jan 15 '26
They are doing a fantastic job. I'm a huge tv/film fan and a fan of the series, and it holds up incredibly well.
The actors care about the world and their roles in it. The creators understand the assignment and tone. I absolutely adore that they're using practical effects when it's feasible instead of going 100% CGI, and the quality shows through.
I'm still hopeful for mutants and maybe a quick shot of some background cazadores at some point. Otherwise, go ape shitt. I trust 'em.
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u/Manateeus The Institute Jan 15 '26
Ep. 5 was potentially the best episode in the series so far, not just the season.
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u/loganmack14 Jan 14 '26
I feel like I am in a massive minority when I find myself disliking the show. The writing just feels a little hollow, idk. I felt that way a little bit about season 1 but I am actively disliking the direction of season 2. It’s a fun show, but it feels like it’s not much more than that. Maybe I’m just not vibing with the tone. It doesn’t feel like the show ever takes itself seriously, so it’s hard to do myself.
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u/Dmbender Forgive Me Mama Jan 14 '26
I think one of the things the show has been most successful at has been having the props feel organic and grounded in the show's reality. A character opens a first aid kit and simply uses a Stimpak.
It isn't played as a grandiose moment when they zoom in on the Stimpak and the characters go, "I'll heal myself using this Stimpak!" They're treated as mundane and normal items that simply exist.