Eight episodes of Pip-Boys, power armour and daddy issues
Purnell plays Lucy McLean, a Vault 33 resident who must make her way to the irradiated surface and search for somebody - an open-ended premise that has served many Fallout games down the years. Walton Goggins, meanwhile, plays a legendary ghoul cowboy handed one last job, and Moten is a Brotherhood Of Steel trainee who soon discovers that the Brotherhood Of Steel aren’t as righteous as they claim. The tale alternates between their perspectives, with other notable characters including Kyle MacLachlan off Twin Peaks as Lucy’s dad. I’ll avoid giving too much away but suffice to say, there’s a wider conspiracy and who knows, people who are trying to murder each other might eventually have to join forces to make things right.
There’s plenty of authentically Fallout violence: a power armour punch-up with a Yao guai, and a shoot-out that pays splattery homage toFallout 3’s freeze-time limb-targeting system - Bethesda’s equivalent for the turn-based combat of the original Black IsleRPGs. The show makes less obvious reference to the videogames here and there. For example,it weighs into the debate around Vault Boy’s thumb. There’s also a scene where Purnell gets to - please control your excitement - investigate a collection of artfully positioned skeletons. I’m pretty sure I shouted “YES” at this point during the screening. Ah, imagine a whole series dedicated toFallout’s many skeleton tableaux- perhaps we should prepare the ground by ranking them? Oh hell, I didn’t mean it, Alice B. Please don’t make me write a Best of Fallout’s skeletons.
If you’re keen - and the current wider critical reaction is certainlyskewing positive- you can findthe whole first season of the Fallout TV show on Amazon Prime. Amazon and Bethesda have already confirmedFallout Season 2.
