Fallout

★★★★★

starring: elle purnell, aaron clifton moten, michael emerson, and walton goggins,

REVIEWER: lyall carter

In a future, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles brought about by nuclear decimation, citizens must live in underground bunkers to protect themselves from radiation, mutants and bandits.

Even though it launched in the late 90’s on PC and on console when I was in my ‘gaming era’, unfortunately I’ve never played a single minute of any Fallout game. So I went into this TV series absolutely blind, with no preconceived ideas or expectations. I was completely blown away. With an engrossing, action packed tale populated by intriguing characters, Fallout is one of those rare shows that demands to be binged as quickly as possible. One of the best TV shows of 2024.

Based on one of the greatest video game series of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. Two hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind—and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.

From the very first scene set at a children’s birthday party hundreds of years before our story begins, you know that you’re in for something quite special. If I’d walked into the media screening without knowing that we were about to watch a couple of TV episodes I would have thought that we were watching some tentpole, box office blockbuster. The level of detail in the world building from the costuming to the sets themselves makes Fallout look and breathe like a real world.

But a beautifully crafted sci-fi world isn’t enough. The story’s gotta stack up too. And in Fallout we have a tale that is completely engrossing as you’re pulled into this strange world and the characters that inhabit it. His brother pulled off one of the best films of the decade in Oppenheimer, has Jonathan crafted one of the best TV series of the decade? It’s pretty darn close.

Ella Purnell is superb as Lucy, exuding a determined boldness in her home, fallout shelter 33, but also a wide eyed naivety as she enters the world above. But Walton Goggins is who you’re really going to remember here. Brash, bold, but simmering with humanity, his Ghoul is one of the most memorable performances in recent memory.

With an engrossing, action packed tale populated by intriguing characters, Fallout is one of those rare shows that demands to be binged as quickly as possible. One of the best TV shows of 2024.