While there is certainly a lot to praise in this rendition of the Fallout universe, I still can't really call myself a fan of this show.
Beginning with the praise, this show was beautiful to look at. The cinematography was strong, the costumes were great, the production design was absolutely fantastic, and the visual effects were well done. Basically every technical aspect of the show was very well done and often times exceptionally so.
The makeup for the ghouls was excellent, the designs for the creatures and world were stylish and interesting, and the action sequences were well choreographed and well executed.
Beyond the technicals, the show's cartoonish tone and sense of humor was sometimes very effective. There were a few times that it made me chuckle, no doubt. And I was genuinely impressed with the setup of the story. The initial scene that established the Nuclear Fallout was excellent, and Lucy's introduction was very well done. You get a real sense of who she is almost immediately and are drawn into her perspective effortlessly.
Part of that is the lead actress' talent. In fact, nearly every member of the cast performed their roles quite well (with a few notable exceptions).
And overall, despite my criticisms (which I'll get into), there were definitely moments in the story that were entertaining and engaging. I was curious about the mysteries the show introduced and was interested enough to follow it to the conclusion.
But that's all the praise I have to offer. Now, I'm afraid, is the time to discuss my criticisms.
For one thing, the story's cartoonish tone and sardonic attitude made it hard for me to really get invested in the dramatic aspects of the story. And the show definitely wanted me to be invested and really care for the big dramatic revelations during the finale, but I just wasn't buying into it. The final episode was full of big twists that I saw coming a mile away (partly because they were very unsubtle in setting them up) but also because it's actually such a cliche trope at this point. The father character, who the protagonist idealized, is actually a bad man... SO SHOCKING!
I found the introduction for Lucy's story to be interesting but as it went on it just repetitive and less and less engaging as it went on. Her disillusionment felt forced. It was driven by a series of reveals where things she admired or cared about were systematically deconstructed and shown to be evil all along, just like her dad. And over and over that just kept happening, and it just became trite and predictable before long. I didn't feel any emotion for her story in the final episode.
The Ghoul (who's also the cowboy actor, I'm forgetting his name) also had the same arc and his character was a symbol of the deconstructionist mentality of the entire script. His false cowboy identity is the perfect metaphor for what this story is saying overall. The "cowboy" is a myth that's just a nice looking mask for bad men who were violent and what not. That heroic ideal isn't real, it's just a mask. Just like the Ghoul's wife isn't really a good woman, she's a cartoonishly evil corporate monster who pretends to be good. The one thing I actually like though about the cowboy angle is how it's a reversal of Lucy's role in the story. The cowboy tames the wilderness, Lucy is made wild by the wilderness. That was pretty cool.
Easily the worst character in the story was Maximus. His contribution was so bland and poorly executed, I wondered why they even included it. He was a character I really felt nothing for. They didn't stress what his attachment or investment in anything was. I never felt his motivations properly. I observed that he was unhappy with being bullied, I guess. But his murderous lying attitude made him fundamentally unlikable and stopped my from pittying him like I think the script wanted me to. His plotlines are overly driven by convenience and contrivance, and he's ultimately given a redemption arc that feels entirely unearned. He also has a very thin and emotionless romance with the lead that I felt absolutely nothing for. His friendship with the nonbinary brother was emotionless as well. I just felt like every scene with him was a waste of screen time.
Oh and did I mention that not all the humor is funny? And that when it isn't funny, it's actually fairly annoying? A mismatch between silly Ned Flanders like performance and brutal violence or dialogue is only funny so many times before it gets old...
And I don't know, in general this show is so cynical and mean sprited. It takes every opportunity to claim that wholesomeness or reciprocity is little more than a mask for selfishness. It makes sure to try and "disillusion" the viewers of the idea of "good guys" as nothing more than naivete but then it has cartoonishly evil "bad guys" who are greedy illuminati types that have nothing but selfish/bad intentions for their actions. If believing in fundamentally good guys is naive, then isn't believing in fundamentally bad guys? Because ultimately that's the same thing. It just shifts a good guy into meaning "not as bad as the really bad guys".
The whole show mocks and insults the naivete of the vault dwellers and seems to suggest that their reciprocal ideal is old fashioned and just a cynical lie, but I don't buy that. I also don't think the story earns that as a conclusion, I think it contrives that conclusion. Lucy's story reminds me of the classic "small town girl moves to the big city" story. She's from this small, sheltered community and heads out to the "real world" and is forced to adapt and become less "small town" in order to make it. I think that's where this whole show's philosophy comes from. It's city dwellers who have internalized the "only look out for yourself" ethic as universal and then cynically insist that everyone secretly feels the same way deep down. And projecting that mentality onto an Apocalypse suggests that it's human nature to feel this way.
But again, that feels like a contrivance. I'm certainly convinced that there's genuine value in those ethics that the show failed to confront, and that failure made it hard for me to get invested in Lucy's character turn because I didn't feel "disillusioned" along with her. I just felt like "well they just decided to make everyone with that point of view a liar, that feels totally contrived. It doesn't prove or convince me of anything".
Perhaps you're an extremely cynical person. Or perhaps you're just not keen to interpret themes so intently. If you read it at merely a surface level, I could see enjoying it just for the jokes and the spectacle.
Before the end of the review I must also point out the irony of the "anti capitalist" messaging in the show. Coming from Amazon of all places, that's totally rich.
But yeah, not the worst show ever. Not by a long shot. In fact, it has many redeeming aspects. And depending on how deeply you intend to read into the story or your worldview this could be more or less enjoyable. I personally found the messaging to be a roadblock but I can see that hasn't been an issue for many others. But I am having a hard time understanding why other people seem to think it's well written as a narrative. I just don't find it to be engaging or emotionally effective. Lucy is the only character I care about and the rest feel like 1-2 dimensional cartoons and little more. The drama lacked drama, so to speak. But that's just how I felt.
It's worth checking out regardless. If you're not sold by episode 3, then turn it off.
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