(trailer review) - Fallout: Season 2

 

(TEASER TRAILER)

It's absolutely mad how great this looks! Now I might be talking from a place of bias because I purchased and played the games Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, but the games are quirky. A city where there are all types of enemies out to kill you, rob you or trade with you, double cross you and monsters, creatures, all trying to kill you, robots and synths, all trying to kill you, and then there are factions and small pockets of people who just wanna live or some who just want to make the world a better place. This trailer touches on a lot of these things, but it is the unique story, just like the game, that hooks you along with the world, and this looks just as good as the first season.

This trailer gives us a bit more of Fallout: Vegas. Lucy is looking for her father to bring him to justice, while the Ghoul is looking for his family (who should be all dead at this point). We get to see a Radscorpion, a Radroach and a bunch of Elvis Ghouls. The kills are still blood splattering, which is very much like the game and having a little more backstory with the father experimenting might give us a clue as to how a lot of the creatures and insects become what they become, if it is not simply due to the nuclear fallout. But on the back of that, there is a very deep voice in the trailer, and I am assuming, it is a Mutant, so let's watch this space. With that said, it looks like Lucy is going to liberate vault dwellers and bring them to the surface, since they all believe the surface is poisoned and uninhabitable. I only have two concerns: the guy in the Brotherhood of Steel uniform, what is his story, and are we going to get more of him and from him other than fighting one of the most deadly creatures in the game, and what about the Vault Lucy is from? We do not need to see them because they are in a different city, which makes me wonder if there is a separate story with characters there? All in all, this looks good, and I cannot wait to get back into that world. 

(trailer review) - Fallout: Season 2

One of the streaming industry's most missed opportunities is to create or curve the trend in recent years. As technology evolves and people have a greater reach to almost all things across the world, our need for information has vastly expanded. Our need to consume everything all at once has gotten to an all-time high, and one could argue that it is still climbing. So, when streaming started to grow more popular and the success of Netflix and other similar models began to grow, "bingeing" was a thing people did to consume their favourite shows. Episodes after episodes, seasons after seasons. It was not too dissimilar to watching your favourite movie and watching the sequel afterwards, or getting together with your family and/or friends and spending the weekend watching the entirety of Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings. It became a culture, but when the pandemic hit, that was all we could do: binge. But when the pandemic was over, a show like 'WandaVision' taught us, that with great writing, scripting, directing and a good story, people will come back week after week after week after week and continue the conversation for a show for days and weeks, building a snowball of popularity when people caught on and wanted to become part of the "water cooler conversation" until the snowball eventually melts away. Also, the trend had changed. But this model is not new by any accounts, because we had seen it with older shows, and even newer shows and they labelled it, "event screening", something like a 'Game of Thrones' where everyone locked in, watched and couldnt stop talking abou it all week until the next episode, but streaming (not all), do not seem to get it. Because it is streaming, it does not mean the binge model is something that cannot be removed, and to introduces a weekly release model. And like most bingeing content, season one of Fallout came out, but disappeared like a fart in the wind. The only reason, I believe we are getting a second season, is due to the fact that, the story was interesting and very good (just like the computer game it is based on) and there may have been a staggered binge of the series meaning, if you knew about it you binged it, then maybe a week or so later, someone else binged it, so on and so forth. The problem with that is, you have small pockets of people talking about it, but the event or the hype dies; but on this occasion,  it was prolonged, just for a little bit, as people spoke about how good the show actually was. The weekly format works and I hope that with this second season, Amazon decide to release it weekly because I really enjoyed the first season.

The first season focused on 3 characters, the Vault Dweller, A Ghoul and a deserter from the Brotherhood, a group of militia that polices the wasteland. The show ended with everyone converging at the end, defeating the big bad, only to end up heading to New Vegas, or at least, the Ghoul and the Vault dweller are heading there. This trailer gives us a little taster of some background story as to what has happened to Vegas, the world, and likely the Ghoul, who (as we know from the first season) had a storyline that involved his family. And the Vault dweller, having been sheltered from the outside all her life, accompanies the ghoul (or vice versa) on this road trip to find answers. We see more shots of the vault dwellers we met in season one or another vault entirely (since the game has a lot of vaults in the city at different towns). We see a man who may have played a part in destroying the world. We see the deserter, and it looks like he is also on a quest of his own. And lastly, the money shot at the end for those who have played the computer game, is a Death Claw, a creature with incredible reach, strength and speed, and usually means instant death when you see one, because they come charging at you with their long arms and talons. I hope they release this second season weekly, which will allow people to watch and talk about it, whereas the first season wouldn't allow it. The music is great, and the gore is still intact. The first season introduced us to a quirky world, and I sincerely hope they keep the same energy with this next season.

(series review) [STREAMING] - Fallout

It could well be the fact that I have been a fan of the Fallout series, even though I have only played 2 out of their "8" games. When they made the announcement of a new Fallout show, I was not sure what to expect initially, but because I am a bit of a fan I decided to give the show a shot. Besides, some of the shows adapted from games of recent, have not been terrible (I am looking at The Last of Us). Fallout 3 came out in 2008 and Fallout 4 came out in 2015. Again, I loved those games. I completed Fallout 3 including the expansion packs and I purchased Fallout 4 but never got around to completing it. Fallout is one of those expansive games where you are on a map and you can literally go anywhere...well, walk anywhere and everywhere, discover things and die multiple times in multiple ways and at times, this can become a little boring but it is fun. From what I have noticed, you start in a relatively small and safe area, but the moment you start to really get into the game, anywhere is not necessarily off-limits and you will die multiple times. The sheer scope of it all, the land you are roaming, all the other vaults you could visit which are usually abandoned, all the secret areas or secret rooms you have to lockpick your way into, monitors you have to hack for restricted areas, you just have to walk everywhere and there are lots of quests, jobs, and tasks to do, it can get a bit daunting at times, but it is fun. If you are like me, you would want to do everything and go everywhere and pick up EVERYTHING. You can either do all the quests and tasks or you can follow the storyline and do just that, but who wants to do that, right? This show, everything I just said about the game is faithfully adapted to screen and although I have some minor gripes, this show is excellent.

Lucy MacClaine (Ella Purnel) is a vault dweller who has lived in the vault her whole life. She only knows vault life like the other inhabitants who have lived in the vault for more than 200 years since the bombs went off. But when the vault is under attack and Lucy's father, the Overseer is taken, Lucy decides to venture out of the vault and journey into the wasteland in search of her father. As I stated in my episode one review "A vault dweller is the term used for someone who lived in an underground bunker when World War 3 happened and a nuclear fallout occurred. The term is used in the show. These people lived underground for hundreds of years and your character leaves the vault under the impression that the world above has poisonous air, is unsafe and uninhabitable. Whilst this is not necessarily far from the truth, your character finds their way above ground and you go on a quest." Exactly the same here, exactly like the game, but executed superbly. You understand Lucy's motive due to the bond with her father.

The show has some special effects but the use of practical effects was great to see as it gave the show a more physical and "unnatural natural" look. For example, I am pretty sure the Gulper (Salamanda) was practical effects here and there and a Gulper (Salamanda) in real life is not that big in size, but the practical effects made it feel like a real real-life Salamanda mutated from radiation, the size of a long-wheel based van and they used special effects where they could not make it look "natural" in other places such as movement. With that said, the visual depiction of an atomic bomb going off at the beginning of the show shocked me soo much that my jaw dropped. I even clapped when the opening credits started because the lead-up to it was simply great storytelling and great dialogue accompanied with great writing and acting from Walton Goggins. An atomic bomb going off looked beautiful and terrifying at the same time. As for other types of visuals, near the beginning of the show, there is a massacre and blood is flying everywhere and it looks great. We even see it in slow-motion., so I am guessing, as the gamer you would have slow-motion when using V.A.T.S (a targeting system) or when your character dies, you'll see your character die in slow motion, I think the slow motion in the show is a version of V.A.T.S for the audience. Plus the slow motion also shows the total carnage and chaos which can happen in the game. When I think of the nonsense and tongue-in-cheek elements of the game, they have successfully translated it here to screen.

As the episodes go on, the show touches on different ideologies of those who want to do the right thing and those who want to "take over the world". It does not help that the world you live in is not safe from the many mutated creatures and insects in the wasteland, but the people are also dangerous. This show manages to show you the normal people who were unaffected by the radiation and the people who were. The Gouls, the Ferel Gouls and some of the creatures such as the Rad Roaches, two-headed cows and the aforementioned Gulper. They touch on the deep dark secrets of Vault-Tec and the peak of human civilisation before it all went up in a ball of flames. In the game, you learn these things through dialogue, computer terminals and documents you come across. In the show, you get to learn about the history of the world through a few different characters.

The aesthetic of the Fallout franchise has always intrigued me due to its 1950's/1960's look, but with advanced technology for its time or, I guess, retro technology, I always found it fascinating and cool. Automic robots that hover and speak, devices and medicine to aid or help you from dismemberment or from many different illnesses or ailments, the show shows it all and as I also stated in my episode 1 review, "There are things in the game that make zero sense, also zero sense in the show, but if you are somewhat with the show and you see someone get killed with a projected doll's leg and you laugh and shrug it off, the show has you at this point. It's silly, but it works in the game and it works here". It is the dark humour laced throughout this show that adds to the tongue-in-cheek moments, because a post-apocalyptic show about the depths of how low humanity will go for control, should not really work on paper especially when it is accompanied by dismemberment, floating talking robots that can perform surgery, ghouls who can talk and others that do not, and people walking around in a suit making a person resemble a walking tank (looks amazing in the show) and animals mutated from radiation, just does not really work on paper, but this show makes it work translating everything from the game with ease. The sets for the landscape look amazing and it gives you a feel of what a real wasteland could look like. Plenty of dead bodies, and radiated areas and the vaults look amazing. In comparison to the few you come across in the game, the vaults are usually vacant, infested, dirty and grimey, but there is a reason for the "polished" look in the show, which makes sense. When playing the game, you use a device on your arm called a Pitboy. A Pitboy is like a smartwatch but very advanced and chunky in size. The show recreated the Pitboy and they found creative ways to show you the different functionalities which was cool.

There are three stories in this show from 3 different people's perspectives so the show is in 3 parts. After learning about Lucy, we learn about Maximus (Aaron Moten) and his journey from The Brotherhood of Steel. Later you get to learn bout the Ghoul and the layers are peeled back slowly about the world they live in and the characters in it. Each character has a great storyline and backstory that might even bring you to tears. Some of the drama in the show is written so well and acted superbly, when an episode finishes, you definitely want to get into the next episode and then the episode after that, so I understand how the binge model works here when a show is presented like this. Later in the show, the pieces start to connect together and the apple does not fall far from the tree considering one of the writers was Johnathan Nolan, brother of Christopher Nolan (look him up if you are lost...won an Oscar this year and also known for his out of sync/disjointed narrative). So from a marvellous first episode, every episode simply gets better and better with every watch. For example, I love a cold opening, so the cold opening in this show was right up my street, but when the title card started to drop from episode 2 onwards, I came to realise, that I really do like the "Invincible title card animation". I do not recall if this has worked anywhere else in TV other than Ozark, but having the title card different for every episode was a very nice quirky touch and not only does it set the tone for the show, it adds that quirkiness the show is laced with. Lastly, the music is ripped directly from the game, so halfway through this season, I suddenly had the urge to play the game because, well...I've said it before... because it's fun. Great show and I cannot wait for it.