Todd produced something that's actually good‽
I've watched the first two episodes and I've really liked it so far. While FO4 as a game was OK at best (at least vanilla; Sim Settlements 2 is great fun), I've liked the art direction on it. I know the "chunky" look has been a bit… divisive, I think it looks suitably retrofuturistic and less drab than the earlier games, so it's fun that the show has really leaned into the style. The score by Ramin Djawadi is also really good, at times really reminds me of Ben Frost's and Marc Streitenfeld fucking amazing score for Raised by Wolves.
The dark humor and a somewhat quirky and sarcastic take on things is also very Fallout; it doesn't take itself too seriously, but is also surprisingly dark in many ways, and not just because it's postapocalyptic and bloody.
spoilers for first 3 eps
Things like what Maximus did to whatstheirname, with the razor in the boot, and then what happened between him and Titus after the yao guai attack. It's like everybody's at least a little bit of an asshole and that there's not too many if any unambiguously "good" characters in the main cast.
Edit: did that axolotl-looking huge mutant with fingers coming out of its mouth drop loot when it died‽
All in all, it's been a really nice surprise that the show seems to have turned out well; my cynical old ass was definitely prepared for something worse, heh. How have you folks liked it?
(Oh and for the love of the gods and all that is fuzzy, please remember to use spoiler tags if you talk about plot points 😁 It's the second button on the right on the comment format bar.)
To me, fallout is more about the setting and aesthetics than the story and the TV show captures those two points very well! It's definitely very campy at times but I've found it to be a really enjoyable watch so far (just finished episode 5).
I really like how much of fallout is crammed into the show, from the brand names for foods to the vaults and monsters to the music. They really do make the setting the core aspect of the show, which was all they really had to do to make a good fallout show IMO.
The plot and many of the character's decisions are probably the weakest points so far but it's all stuff that easily overlooked.
Overall, very pleasantly surprised by how good the show is.
Yeah the characters motives just randomly change to fit the plot and there's never any logic behind their decisions.
I understood their logic most of the time (some iffy moments for sure), but my main issue with it was it all felt too fast. Like someone telling a great story but in such a rush to the finale that they end up glossing over details that make it so enjoyable. Decisions the characters made felt like they should have cooked several times longer than they did. I expected some arcs to last a half a season, maybe even a full one. But by the end of the episode it's not an issue anymore and we've moved on.
That said, Walton Goggins is killing his role, and I see it as a solid resume addition for a lot of the others. There are scenes and lines that are meh, but also ones that show me these actors can pull off some great performances