It was great!
...Though not good for newcomers to the series or perhaps people that never ever played the video games to begin with.
If you haven't played the games, you probably won't enjoy this series.
But I loved it through and through, from beginning to end (though episode 6 weirded me out).
Also, the Fallout humor was on point.
Like, it's clear that Jonathan Nolan wanted this to be a love letter to the franchise (and it... kinda bonks you on the head about it?)
Yeah, it does bonk you on the head about it and it's amazing that the first season turned out as well as it did (given that at times it seems that they're going by a check-list of "Fallout things" to show).
It's like... Robo-brain? Check. Yaou Guai? Check. Ghouls? Check. Lore-accurate BoS (more or less)? Check. NCR? Check.
I loved it! ...But again, it's clearly not geared toward newer audiences.
And that's fine (in a way).
If it was sort-of holding your hand... it wouldn't be nearly as good, you know?
And it really does encapsulate the video game series well.
I mean, it's literally got side-quests and a moral dilemma at the end there.
Also, American monopoly capitalism looks bad here. Really bad.
I take back what I said about the series being "kinda liberal."
I mean, yes, there's no "alternative" to capitalism but a wasteland, essentially (even as it is anti-capitalist, clearly), but it definitely portrays the corporate monopolists well.
Oh yeah, and shout-out to having actual reds in this series (one was apparently Indigenous too).
Kinda vague on whether or not Moldaver was a communist.
I wonder if my own CPUSA was around in 2077? I'm guessing they were, but they would have to still be a staunchly pro-Soviet part (and thus, perhaps, anti-China) due to the Fallout lore.
(The Party was anti-China until 1991 and you all know what happened in 1991 in our own timeline.)
But honestly, it was good. But damn, they're going to have to pick up all the threads they left hanging and that's going to be hard to do. The first season also had a problem of certain things that either happened too fast or they happened and then were resolved quickly.
Also, sometimes, the season kept flashing or showing things on-screen and it's hard to kinda keep up with it all (again, sort-of going back to the check-list problem). Like, the season was jam-packed... which is great... in a way... It grabs your attention but at times, it goes by too fast and then it really does feel like a video game (in a bad way, that is).
Also also, sometimes things happened for the sake of the plot (looking at Maximus releasing the dad at the end there... even though while, yes, it makes sense given that the main protagonist was still recovering from the shock, it's also a bit too convenient for the sake of the story).
Also also also, shout-out to the Robert House (RobCo) cameo.
Also also also also, I really hope this isn't the only Fallout media in the next few years.
Like, yeesh, Bethesda, just give the license or IP to Obsidian or Larian (maybe make a isometric RPG like the old days?) and have them do a spin-off (while you focus on the "main" titles). I mean, come on, it can't be that hard, right? Then again, I'm not a CEO or a stakeholder or on the Board of Directors or whatever.
So, err, yeah.
It was very good.
Flawed.
But very good (imho, don't @ me!).
Watch it if you're a Fallout fan, at the very least.
Moldaver specifically says she is not a communist. You can argue that she is lying, but it's far more likely to be yet another entry in the grand liberal tradition that thinks the deepest tragedy of McCarthyism is that liberals were wrongly called communists.
No it doesn't, it's one of the stupidest depictions of it I've ever seen. A bunch of upper management types decide to start the apocalpyse because in a few centuries they'll... have a monopoly? Except this is a group of every major corporation cooperating for it, they already do. All these guys care about is line goes up and are notoriously short sighted, this is like the definition of line goes down and (nonsensical) long term planning.
If these guys caused nuclear armageddon they'd have done so believing that it wouldn't actually happen or would be limited, and have a clear plan to actually profit from their actions. They'd do brinksmanship stuff to scare the public into buying more vault spots and the government into funding them more, risking everyone's lives for a few dollars more under the assumption they'd win the dice roll.
I don't know why, it definitely seems like it is.
Nah, I disagree.
It shows that they're maniacal. I like it. I think it's fitting.
They're capitalists. They're not the smartest bunch.
Brinksmanship stuff would still be maniacal and incredibly stupid, but it'd actually portray the uniquely twisted logic of capitalism. This is just nonsense.
I mean, so is capitalism.
It's a bit lib.
But that's in keeping with the games, which are vaguely anti-capitalist at best.