Fallout: The Show (maybe)

[Dweller_Benthos]

I watched the first two episodes last night and was quite pleased. The first ep is a bit slow for sure, setting up the three main characters and such, and I can see that turning off some people. Same with the universe in general, there's not a lot of explanation as to what the story of the world is if you haven't played any of the games. So for someone unfamiliar with the games and the lore behind them, I can see them being confused and probably not following up after the first episode.

I've seen some complaints from fans in the Fallout subredit but most of them are nit-picky fan boy complaints like "Oh the power armor doesn't have this or that tiny detail, can't watch the show". These are the type of people who are never pleased with anything so they get ignored.

I liked the parts of (what's her name, the vault girl?) wandering around the devastation, which were filmed in part in Namibia at some old empty mining town, that wasn't cheap to do I'm sure. The fight with the Yao Guai was pretty cool, CGI nicely done, and that Brotherhood Knight got what he deserved lol. I'm guessing Max either killed him or just left him there and took his armor.

Seems like they have already optioned a second season, so that will be something to keep an eye out for. I'll watch the rest of season one the next week or so.

[PZ]

I just finished the last episode and already am looking forward to the next series. At the very end of the series I actually watched the credits and an interesting walk-through kind of thing came up. It describes the people, things, and best of all the music which makes it grand for me. It might be worth a look. I did not completely finish exploring, but I did not fine anything to much of a spoiler. Character descriptions, graphics, etc.

The vault girl's name is Lucy Mclean and I too enjoyed the naive girl learning what the wasteland (real world) is all about. It only gets better after the part you described at the end of your watch (the fight with the Yao Guai).

Fan boys always have something to complain about and as you mentioned, it is usually about the most trivial things that mean absolutely nothing to the enjoyment of the video. I think they post simply because they want to appear knowledgeable about something, which actually backfires and makes them look a bit daft.

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[Dweller_Benthos]

Watched another two episodes last night, and found it quite enjoyable. I'm glad they are including what's happening in the vault as usually once you leave the vault in a game, there's no more contact with it. Fallout 4 was different that way as you could go back but it was still empty, all the other games you can't even go back. So that's cool, and the story still connects with what is happening on the surface.

As for getting a person "up to speed" on the background to Fallout in general, I would suggest having them watch the video intro to Fallout 4, as it explains what the world is about. I think an intro like that built into the series would bring in more viewers who are not familiar with the games or the history behind them.

[PZ]

I guess I'm in a good spot because I don't remember hardly anything about FO4. At the time FO3 was my favorite because there were tons of mods available, and I modded the heck out of it with things like modern weapons, a really cool underground house/shelter, etc.

I agree about the intro video. Watching things like that either get me into the game, or make me realize that it is not for me.

Because I'm now building pages of YT playlists (I hate advertisements) and have seen several in which the fanboys nitpick to the nth degree. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to hear them say that the T-60's color is a shade of gray off. 

[fragger]

D_B, I'm glad you are also enjoying the show Indeed, I've seen some of the inevitable fanboy gripes online, and in this case the nit-pickiness of their complaints just tells me how good a job the show's producers actually did of bringing the Fallout world to life. Some people are simply determined to find fault with things I guess, no matter how pedantic they have to get... Most of the gripes seem to be about departure from the games' "lore", but considering that the Fallout games themselves are inconsistent in that regard, I don't know what the fanboys expected. Bethesda's Todd Howard said that he was determined to make the plot and characters of the TV story utterly different to any of the games' while still faithfully adhering to the Fallout world - as is true of the actual games themselves - and let's face it, watching a glorified playthrough of an existing game story would get old pretty quickly.

Of course there are more things I would have liked to have seen in the show - Super Mutants, Protectrons, more wildlife specimens - but I understand that they can't include everything without the show getting "cluttered", and anyway there was more than enough to keep me happy They also need to keep some goodies in reserve should they get a second season. There is a brief shot of a Deathclaw skull right near the end of the last episode though, which was pretty cool.

The acting was a lot better than I expected. Ella Purnell as "Lucy" the Vault-Dweller did a terrific job (she's actually British) and Aaron Moten as "Maximus" the BoS Squire reminded me of a young Denzel Washington. All the cast's performances were high quality, especially my fave, Walton Goggins as "Cooper Howard/The Ghoul".

I'll definitely be giving the show a second watch, maybe in like six months or so.

PZ, I missed that walkthrough thing at the end of Ep8. I'll have to go back and check that out. Cheers!

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I find the show an enjoyable watch for sure.

Probably finish up this weekend as I want to get on to the Masters of the Sky series on Apple TV. That show might be of interest, if you've seen Band of Brothers and The Pacific about WWII and enjoyed them, then Masters of the Sky might be up your alley. Made by some of the same people who did the other two series, it follows airmen flying B-17s on bombing raids from Britain over Germany. I hear good things about it and if it's even half as good as Band of Brothers was, then it's worth watching. Getting Apple TV is the only hurdle, and it's about the same as other services, $10 a month here, anyway. I thoroughly enjoyed the Monarch series which follows the secret government agency from the new Godzilla / King Kong movies from it's beginnings. If giant monsters and government secrets aren't your bag, there's also the series For All Mankind which was really well done and follows an alternate history where the Soviet Union was first on the moon and the space race never ended. There's four seasons of that which I would hope there's a fifth on the way, I haven't checked. Two more shows I enjoyed on Apple were Invasion, an alien invasion series that was pretty decent and the one I originally subscribed for called The Silo, which sort of aligns with the Fallout story but is completely unrelated, about a group of people living in a vault like bunker for hundreds of years after some catastrophe makes the surface unviable for life. That was really well done.

Oh yeah there are also a couple of really good Tom Hanks movies on it that I don't think are available elsewhere, one called Greyhound where he plays the captain of a liberty ship protecting convoys in the north Atlantic during WWII and one called Finch which I don't see listed anymore, where he plays the survivor of an apocalypse and how he builds a robot to help him. Both very good movies.

[PZ]

That sounds like a good series, D_B.  I really liked Band of Brothers, and in fact, most things WWII. I purchased the entire set of DVDs, and I only do that for the programs I enjoy the most. On a slightly different note, anyone with T-Mobile gets Apple TV and Netflix for free with the Magenta plan. Also, thanks for the tips on other programs to watch - there is so much to choose from these days, it is nice to have a list of recommended titles.

@fragger Walton Goggins is a favorite of mine as well. Two series I've enjoyed quite a bit are Justified and Seal Team.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah if you can get Apple TV for free then by all means check out Masters Of the Air, I've only seen clips but it looks like it's something worth watching.

[PZ]

Thanks, D_B 

Always looking for a new military movie/series to enjoy. So far, Band of Brothers is my favorite, and I even have a game: Band of Brothers: Hell's Highway - linear but fun none the less. I wish I could find something like that with modern graphics/open world game play.