Fallout

Premieres on Prime Video on April 11
3 stars

Based on the video game franchise of the same name, Fallout is the second science-fiction dystopia from American writer-directors Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who created the acclaimed series Westworld (2016 to 2022),

Set 200 or so years after a nuclear war, the show follows a handful of survivors as they navigate the radioactive wasteland that was once Los Angeles, encountering various rival groups, mutant creatures and moral dilemmas along the way.

The first is Lucy (Ella Purnell), a bright-eyed young woman from one of the communities that have lived in underground vaults since the bombs fell in the 1950s.

When Lucy’s vault is raided and her father Hank (Kyle MacLachlan) is kidnapped, she ventures to the surface to look for him, and a wild adventure ensues.

Here are a few reasons to stream the eight-episode show.

1. Genre-bending post-apocalyptic tale

It invites comparisons with another post-apocalyptic drama adapted from a video game, The Last Of Us (2023 to present).

But despite the thematic similarities, Fallout is far more whimsical and genre-bending. And like Westworld, it juxtaposes elements of westerns with futuristic sci-fi.

In the vaults, it still looks like the 1950s – or something out of the 1960s Space Age cartoon The Jetsons, with retro-futuristic technology that is advanced in some ways and antiquated in others.

The surface is more like the Old West, complete with tumbleweed, surly storekeepers and ever-present danger.

But you also have soldiers called knights and squires – some wearing roboticised armoured suits that look borrowed from Marvel superhero Iron Man. And once in a while, a crazy-looking mutant creature pops up.

This freewheeling genre-mixing is less jarring in a video game than a television show, but if you give it time, the series does manage to tie all these elements together.

2. Hunt for a mysterious object

Soon after she emerges from the vault, Lucy meets the Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a bounty hunter who is one of the freakishly long-lived but severely mutated humans slowly decaying from the nuclear fallout.

She also runs into Maximus (Aaron Moten), a young soldier in a militaristic faction trying to bring order to the wasteland.

And all three end up chasing a man with a mysterious artefact that will change the power balance in this world.

3. Violence, dark humour and snark

In the four episodes provided for review, viewers become invested in Lucy and Maximus’ personal journeys and intrigued by the Ghoul’s backstory.

There is a fair bit of limb-severing and body horror – another nod to the show’s video-game DNA – but it is leavened by black humour.

The story lacks the philosophical heft of Westworld and the angst of The Last Of Us, and both those shows had more interesting things to say about the human condition.

But Fallout’s portrayal of the rich, sheltered vault-dwellers, who naively hope to rehabilitate the raiders bent on killing them, is trenchant and hilarious – and not the sort of commentary you expect from woke Hollywood.