It takes a dark, anxious age to produce a story as dark and fraught with anxiety as Fallout. It’s like a combination of Terry Gilliam, Quentin Tarantino, and Doctor Strangelove, and it has become one of my all-time favorite shows.
Fallout begins by showing us a retro future as it burns in a nuclear apocalypse. Skip ahead two hundred years, and we’re introduced to our hero: Lucy McLean (Ella Purnell). She lives in a vault: part of an underground network of oblivious, would-be utopians. They naively await the day when they will rise to the surface, bringing order to the “barbarians” who have presumably been eating themselves.
When Lucy’s father, the leader of her vault, is kidnapped by raiders from above, she goes on a single-minded quest to save him. Purnell brings a lot of good-naturedness and humor to the table; her character struggles to survive without losing her soul. It can’t be an accident that her father is played by the great Kyle MacLachlan, who once gave the series Twin Peaks a center and a conscience.
On her journey, Lucy hooks up with a squire who killed the hi-tech knight he was supposed to be serving; she tangles with, and evades, a bounty hunter who is both a cowboy and a zombie. He’s played by Walton Goggins, and yes, he steals the show.
The soundtrack consists of old standards from the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s. The music is charming, and often used as an ironic counterpoint to graphic violence.
Like a lot of modern entertainment, Fallout begs the question: how nightmarish is too nightmarish? I would argue that underneath all the darkness, Fallout has a heart. The humor is morbid and ironic, and the tone coldly satirical, but the viewer’s investment in the story and characters is never compromised. The visuals are immersive, and the world building intricate. We also see how the Earth came to burn, in flashbacks. The mysteries are fundamental, and keep you guessing until the end of the season.
Apparently, the post-apocalyptic genre has not been exhausted. This is a work of tremendous imagination, vision, and relevance. It’s also a lot of fun.
WATCH THIS SHOW.