Fallout - Amazon Prime Series Review

How much I recommend it: 8/10

Over a decade ago, as a high schooler, I played the game Fallout on Xbox 360. It’s set in an apocalyptic world with radioactive creatures, underground vaults to explore, and a mid 20th century aesthetic.

Fast forward to 2024, that video game franchise has been turned into an Amazon Prime series and a very good one at that. While I enjoyed the game when I was young, I didn’t expect to like the series as much I did. The characters are great, the scenery is stunning, the story is compelling, and it’s really funny along the way.

The premise of the story is that the last remnants of humanity survived a nuclear blast by escaping underground in the 1950s or so. For over 200 years, they’ve survived underground waiting until the surface radiation levels drop to a safe level to return to the surface. What the vault dwellers don’t know is that humanity has in fact continued but it’s been a struggle for survival. The surface is bleak and riddled with crime and danger.

In Fallout, there are several stories happening at once:

• One follows a famous Hollywood actor who, at the beginning of the series, witnesses a nuclear bomb explode over Los Angeles. He survives but becomes a ‘ghoul,’ a creature who is only half-alive but can live forever.
• Another story is that of a vault dweller. An innocent, naive young woman who ends up on the surface and exposed to the harsh realities of life outside the vault. She spends the series on the search for her kidnapped father.
• Another story is that of a member of the Brotherhood, an order of knights who wear mechanized suits and keep peace in the Wasteland. We see him ascend from being a recruit, to a knight’s squire, to forcibly becoming a knight.

The series has some incredibly creative action scenes and while dark, had me laughing out loud at moments.

Fallout is well worth the watch!