Like me, after years of playing the Fallout games franchise, all of the versions, people are very excited over the new show, FallOut, released by on April 11, 2024, on Amazon Prime Video. I myself was super excited to see that the lead player character part is Lucy Goosey MacLean, a female player!
What? Fallout’s a Show?
Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kitler Films worked with Bethesda Game Studios along with Amazon who purchased the rights to the project back in 2020 to produce the show that has very quickly become a fan favorite, adding fans who never even played the game.
Variety reported that the new video game-based series pulled 65 million viewers in the first 16 days after release making it the second most watched title ever on the Amazon Prime Video platform since the debut of the LotR: The Rings of Power in 2022.
Whether you’re already a fan of the game or the show is your first introduction to Fallout, all of the stats and such are out there for everyone to see so I won’t continue down that line of thinking. What is this article about? It’s about why you should watch and what you will gain. Yes, ok. It’s actually what I thought of the show and how it relates to the video game in my point of view – which to me is a reason to watch.
Show vs Game
OMG is what I have to say. Watching the show is like playing the game, right down to the smallest details. The product placement (products from the game), the way the characters, both the NPC and the actual player characters are so video game real in the way they move, talk, and interact, to the very “video gamey” violence make it feel like you are playing.
Watching Lucy be shocked by having to – oh wait, no spoilers here. Watching Lucy be shocked by the things she needs to do or Maximus having no idea how to do what he needs to do was both endearing and hysterical.
Asking my own circle of family and friends, some of whom are gamers but most are not, it is amazing how many who watched and loved the show who never played the game. Mathew Razak of The Escapist noted that Director John Nolan knew that most people who would watch the show probably never played the game, therefore, created the show for that possible fan base and that is exactly what has happened. Guess that’s why he makes the big bucks.
The characters in the show are not taken from any of the games, though they very well could have been with the attention to detail given to all aspects of the show. The show actually takes place during a different time period, years after the storylines in the games. It does, however, tie seamlessly into the storyline depicted in the 6 games currently being played.
So, to end this part of the article, does the show mimic the game? Yes, it does, from looting bodies, boxes, and containers, or stealing from NPCs to obtain supplies, to putting quests in the Pip-Boy, to the products like Rad-X, Nuka Cola, and Yum Yum Deviled Eggs that you can collect on your journey, the show follows the game in almost every aspect.
Lucy Goosey MacLean
I guess I should say something about Lucy as it’s her name in the title and part of the reason I was so excited about this show. While the show does focus on three main characters, Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul, Lucy is, in my opinion, the main character leading the core story and the one I was most excited about.
Why? For one, she’s the lead character and she’s female. Many games force you to choose a male character, though not the Fallout games, and movies and TV shows almost always seem to default to a male lead character.
Lucy, while filling the part of a vault dweller very well in the beginning; naive, confident, and always optimistic, it doesn’t take her long to figure out that this isn’t going to work in the world above ground. I do find it endearing, however, that she continues to try to solve her problems, when she can, without violence, just before she kills the current enemy.
Throughout the show, as the characters mix and mingle, interacting with each other and the other NPCs, the storyline, at least in my opinion, always rotates back around to meet with Lucy’s own story, the main storyline for the game, oh, excuse me, show. Also, her storyline fits well into the scenarios of the core storyline of all of the games. See? Hard not to feel like you’re playing a game.
What To Do With This Information
Well, I guess you can do what you want with it. If you’re a gamer or not, I would recommend watching Fallout if you’re looking for quirky “gamey” violence, strong leads, especially that female lead, a good storyline that might make you sad but will also make you cheer, and entertaining way to spend 7 hours and 53 minutes. You won’t regret it.
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