The Fallout TV show's Season 1 is now available to stream

11.04.2024 - 13:03 / rockpapershotgun.com / Bethesda Softworks / Walton Goggins / Kyle Maclachlan / Jonathan Nolan / Lisa Joy / Ella Purnell / Aaron Moten

Amazon and Bethesda's Fallout TV show is now available to stream over Amazon's Prime subscription service. Picture it: the post-apocalyptic America of Fallout, radroaches and stimpacks and all, except that this being a TV adaptation, the first hour doesn't consist entirely of trying to persuade Bethesda's face editor not to make you look like your character's soul has been sucked out. Instead, you you can kick back with a can of Nuka Cola and watch flesh-and-blood stars Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins and Aaron Moten rove the wasteland. I caught the first couple of episodes last week, and while I find the show's aesthetics off-putting - it's kind of a Fallout themepark, rather than a convincing world - I do think there's the makings of a fun tale here.

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.

The whole thing is executive produced by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, otherwise known for Westworld, which I think is the better show so far. Nor would I call this a compelling answer to The Last Of Us TV adaptation. Still, it's a cut above the Halo TV series, and there's enjoyment to be had watching the three, mismatched leads bounce off each other, sometimes literally. Purnell is a fresh-faced idealist, as you'd expect, though she learns the ways of the wasteland fast. Moten is similarly naive at first but with an undertone of bitterness that could yet morph him into the villain of the piece. Goggins, meanwhile, has great fun mugging and jawing through thick layers of ghoul make-up - not just a Man With No Name but a Man With No Nose.

There's plenty of authentically Fallout violence: a power armour punch-up with a Yao guai, and a shoot-out that pays splattery homage to Fallout 3's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. limb-targeting system - Bethesda's equivalent for the turn-based combat of the original Black Isle RPGs. 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