I absolutely love a good TV show. Something binge worthy, something I can get invested in, and something that makes me REALLY hope for a second season. Some of my favorite shows in the past have been Lost, Loki, and Star Trek (OG and TNG). I finally got around to watching Fallout, and I mean this seriously when I say, it is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

Let me start by saying, I’ve been playing Fallout 4 (PlayStation girlie here) for only a few weeks now, so I can’t entirely speak to its faithfulness to the game, but my brother who has been playing for much longer was very happy with the accuracy and details of the TV show. (Much happier than he was about the Borderlands movie.)

I would classify Fallout as a post-apocalyptic atompunk western. (If you’re not familiar with atompunk, look it up. It’s awesome. Think, Jetsons type of futuristic.) This show is a perfect example of genre blending with fairly untapped subgenres. And not only did they follow along with the aesthetics of the genres, they also included the thematic elements that go with each one. From the communism/red scare matters in the flashbacks, (atompunk) to the gunsligning lawness the post-nuclear world (western), they were fully committed to doing justice to the genres they chose.

Fallout is a great example of a multi-POV story with flashbacks that actually works. Multi-POV is very popular right now, but in most cases just doesn’t work. They either include too many characters, have characters that you don’t like, or have a timeline that is separated in a way that the story feels disjointed. And flashbacks are quite tricky to pull off without feeling like info-dumps or quick-fixes for issues in the writing. Fallout did not fall into any of these mistakes. The show had three main characters, and not only tied in the stories seamlessly, but also had separate goals and arcs for each individual character. The flashbacks were relevant, interesting, and fit very well into the show.

I could have done an entire post solely about the main character Lucy. Actually, I could teach an entire class on how she is a perfect example of a well-written FMC. Without giving anything away that you don’t learn in the beginning of the show… there are underground “vaults” across America where a certain amount of the population can stay in the case of nuclear war. The main character Lucy was born in one of those vaults and has grown up there. Because of this, she is innocent, trusting, and has no knowledge of the post-war world outside of her vault. Throughout the show, she undergoes massive character development, while still remaining a good person and maintaining her moral compass. I think that this is quite refreshing in an industry where female characters often end up falling into two camps. 1. The lifeless “tough-guy” character created for the purposes of meeting a diversity quota but not actually being a developed character, or 2. The love interest who is there so that they can get the PG13 “partial nudity” rating. That is not the case with Lucy from Fallout. Anyone looking for a quality FMC will enjoy the writing in this show.

Speaking of the writing, can we talk for a minute about the worldbuilding? I know that a lot of the worldbuilding was already there from the videogame, but I think that the TV show did an excellent job of showing that there was a fleshed-out universe behind the story, without being overwhelming or taking away from the characters’ individual stories. There is fantastic potential for development of new locations and conflicts in future seasons, which have been confirmed!

The production quality was outstanding, from the filming, to the effects, to the music, it was clear that the show was backed by not only a huge budget, but also a crew that put their heart into its production. I hope to see more shows like this – the kind that are five-stars with not a shadow of a doubt – in the near future. As a writer, Fallout is an inspiration, and a great example of a high-quality piece of fiction. It also makes me want to write a western.