Inside Fallout, Gaming’s Most Surprising Television Success

The Fallout TV show is back to streaming services, and it's safe to say that fans were pleasantly surprised by the quality of its debut season. By portraying the atomic-age, post-apocalyptic United States through the perspectives of three separate characters, it effectively portrayed various facets of the gamer's adventure.

There was vault-dweller Lucy, trying to do the right thing and learning that the wasteland made that exceptionally challenging; Max, the Brotherhood of Steel initiate, who starts challenging his faction's dogma and unleashes a lot of havoc in robotic power armour; and the Ghoul, a breakout character who has entirely abandoned any moral compass out in the radioactive wastes.

Setting the Stage for the Second Season

The debut season's finale revealed key information about who helped cause the global annihilation that sealed a society in bomb-proof bunkers for centuries. It also posed numerous mysteries open for the upcoming chapter – and, this time, anticipations are significantly higher.

“We’ll take ‘not terrible’ – let’s get that on a poster,” remarks Jonah Nolan.

“Starting the initial season, people were like, ‘Just get it right’,” states the game director. “We are thrilled with the feedback to the show, so this time people are arriving with more eagerness and altered expectations.”

The Mojave Beckons for Season Two

The new season is taking place in the neon-lit city, the backdrop of the 2010’s game Fallout: New Vegas, which is often praised for having the best writing and characters in the franchise, even if it was technically flawed at launch.

“It has a arid atmosphere, a Mojave vibe, that’s so integral to that game,” explains the co-creator. “That parched, blasted-out iconic highway feeling of the game is so much enjoyable to bring into the show.”

In the show's timeline, a significant amount of time has passed since the events of the New Vegas game by the time the protagonists arrive there. Nevertheless, the creators indicate that it does reference the fan's adventure.

Crafting a Tangible World

The Fallout TV series is distinguished by its tangible quality – its creators prioritized real props and locations were built, echoing the makeshift nature of the outposts in the games.

“Being a genre enthusiast, so many productions I watch, I’m conscious that they’re all filmed against a green screen,” comments co-creator Geneva Robertson-Dworet. “The key objective of an adaptation, especially of a video game, is to seem like it’s authentic.”

In fact, almost everything you see on-screen is real, including the notoriously frightening radioactive creatures known as the apex predators. In the show, they are brought to life with puppets, and were apparently rather intimidating up close.

Made by Fans, for Fans

The Fallout series succeeds because it is made by accomplished storytellers who are also longtime fans, in collaboration with the original creators behind the video games. This common understanding for the universe is apparent in the final product.

The new batch of episodes is debuting on a weekly basis rather than as a all-at-once release, marking a change from the previous season. This schedule will foster a different audience reaction, something the showrunners themselves are looking forward to witness.

“It delves deeper, it’s bigger, it’s funnier, it has a lot of surprises,” teases the game director. “I am excited to seeing what people think.”