«Fallout» - Series Review by Kinoafisha

While some producers are mired in unnecessary remakes and endless franchises, others have learned to adapt video games into films. Continuous failures have abruptly shifted to a string of solid projects: "Arcane," "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners," "The Last of Us." Now, confidently add Fallout to this lineup, managing to meet the high expectations of the franchise's fans.

As with other successful adaptations of games, viewers don't need to hold a controller in their hands even once to get immersed in the story. Through a tragic setup, snippets of conversations, and television news excerpts, we are swiftly immersed into the backstory of the Fallout universe. In the middle of the last century, science made a sudden leap forward, cultural development stalled, and tensions between countries reached a boiling point. The 50s style coexisted with robotics and nuclear weapons until the Great War occurred in 2077. In just a couple of hours, superpowers launched such a quantity of warheads at each other that almost the entire population of the Earth was annihilated.

More than 200 years have passed since the Great War, but during this time, the nuclear catastrophe has not affected Shelter 33. The descendants of the wealthiest people live a peaceful life until they are attacked by raiders. Wastelanders create a bloody meat grinder and capture the shelter's overseer. His daughter Lucy is forced to venture to the surface for the first time to save her father. In addition to Lucy, the plot focuses on several equal storylines. One of them follows a ghoul who retains his sanity but loses his nose and morality. This zombie-like creature, who used to be Cooper Howard, a Hollywood Western superstar. Radiation has greatly extended Howard's life, and his memories provide a comprehensive picture of two centuries of apocalypse. Also appearing on screen is Maximus, a recruit of the military organization the Brotherhood of Steel. The paths of the three heroes intersect because of a common goal — a certain MacGuffin, the pursuit of which brings one or the other hero to the forefront.

Each character embodies the most iconic elements of the franchise and throws dozens of Easter eggs to the fans. Homages to the original evoke joy of recognition in the player but never become fan service. The most important thing that showrunner Jonathan Nolan maintains is the balance between tragedy and comedic absurdity that accompanies the entire series of games.

The opening and closing credits change in each episode, and between them, heads are chopped off, torsos are shot, and grotesque mutated creatures are hacked. The game's retro-futurism is perfectly conveyed through costume designs, and above all — music. Country and jazz almost never fade throughout the season. Hits by Ink Spots, Nat King Cole, and Johnny Cash manage to exist perfectly in an atmosphere of destructive technologies and rivers of blood.

Expensive special effects against the backdrop of a meticulously designed space look great, but the inflated runtime prevents full enjoyment of them. Prolonged shots and disrupted rhythm deprive the coolest action scenes of dynamics. In the sharp editing of the trailer, they had a nuclear effect, but in the flow of the show, they do not possess the same destructive force.

Fallout does not reach its peaks in editing and the strength of its characters (the image of Maximus noticeably lags behind the development of the characters Lucy and Ghoul). Script-wise, the retro-futuristic project would have looked less "retro" had it come out a few years earlier. For example, a whole detective subplot with Shelter residents looks secondary compared to last year's "Shelter." However, the series skillfully reworks the familiar story. Painstaking work on world design creates a diverse and memorable space. In it, cruelty and tenderness, past and future, human and machine constantly collide. The series still has much to tell about its characters, the impunity of state leaders, and the destructive power of corporations. Moreover, funds for the second season have already been added to the creators' coffers.