Thanks to the popularity of projects like “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “The Last of Us,” video game adaptations have become a gold rush in Hollywood. An unexpected success to come from this trend is “Fallout,” which expanded Bethesda Game Studios’ post-apocalyptic video game series to television and broke viewership records on Amazon Prime Video. Produced by some of the top minds behind HBO’s “Westworld” in collaboration with Bethesda, the massively popular show has introduced millions to the wacky wasteland that gamers have been roleplaying in for nearly 30 years. Now, a year and a half after its debut — a miraculously quick turnaround by modern TV standards — the second season has arrived. While it has its faults, it manages to improve upon the first season with a tighter narrative, delightful fan service and all the absurd carnage that viewers have come to expect.
Taking place more than 200 years after a nuclear war that devastated America, the story picks up shortly after the season one finale. It begins with naive vault dweller Lucy, played by Ella Purnell, and The Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins, in the midst of their unlikely alliance. They have embarked on a mission to find Lucy’s father, who betrayed her family and killed thousands of innocent people on behalf of his mysterious corporate overlords.
While Lucy has become somewhat accustomed to the harsh nature of the Wasteland after leaving the safety of her underground vault, she still has an endearing sense of virtue that makes her a likable contrast to all the violence and depravity. On the other hand, The Ghoul is a surly mutant who survived the apocalypse and has been roaming the Wasteland for centuries with a single goal in mind — to find his family that he lost when the bombs dropped. Their odd couple dynamic remains charming, and it develops in compelling ways over the course of the season as their contrasting ideologies rub off on one another.
Once again, Goggins steals the show in his dual role. He plays actor-turned-spy Cooper Howard, the man who would eventually be transformed into The Ghoul as a result of the nuclear fallout. In frequent flashbacks, Cooper races against the clock to uncover the corporate and political schemes at work in the impending nuclear war. Unfortunately, the constant jumping back and forth in the timeline makes it hard to stay invested, and these scenes are rarely as interesting as the ones that take place after the apocalypse, which hurts the pacing of the season overall. However, they add some fascinating world building, and they allow Goggins to show off his emotional range. Some of the most impactful moments come when The Ghoul shows flashes of his long-suppressed humanity, and spending greater time with Cooper makes his journey more compelling than in the first season.
The bizarre alternate reality of “Fallout” has lots of characters, factions and lore details to get reaccustomed with, so the season gets off to a slow start. Thankfully, things pick up once the story settles in New Vegas — the ruins of Las Vegas and one of the only bastions of civilization left in the region. The glimmering lights of the Strip were teased at the end of the last season, and fans have been anticipating how the show would depict the series’ most beloved setting. In short, the show’s reproduction of the game’s world delivers on nearly every front. The tremendous set design brings iconic locations from the game series, like the Lucky 38 casino, to life in exquisite detail — an astounding live-action re-creation of a virtual world.
Of course, the visuals are only part of a strong adaptation, and “Fallout” appeals to longtime fans and newcomers alike because of its respect for the source material. The adventures of Lucy and The Ghoul are the highlight, partly because they capture the spirit of the franchise so well. Seeing them encounter horrific creatures, get distracted by side quests and make morally gray choices with far-reaching consequences proves that the creators of the show truly understand the appeal of the games.
The shift in location between seasons — from Southern California to the Mojave Wasteland in Nevada — introduces some new elements like Caesar’s Legion, a cult of slavers inspired by Ancient Rome who are obsessed with conquering every tribe they come across. The most prominent addition to the cast is Robert House, played by Justin Theroux. Once America’s wealthiest man, House protected Las Vegas from the nuclear warheads that destroyed society and uploaded his consciousness to a computer to rule over the remnants of the city, adding a new layer of tension and conflict with the change in location. Theroux embodies House’s suave, all-knowing charisma and offers greater emotional depth than his video game counterpart, particularly in the pre-war scenes where he struggles to accept that the future is no longer in his control.
Not every character carries their weight, however. Maximus, a soldier in the zealous paramilitary group the Brotherhood of Steel, was the weak link of the first season and has not improved much this time around. In a cast of over-the-top survivors, his dry demeanor is hard to latch onto, and his promising moral conflict is tossed away in favor of a predictable hero’s journey. In Vaults 32 and 33 — the experimental shelters where new generations grow up in hopes of one day repopulating the country — the subplots also drag. Aside from an eventual twist that connects to the larger narrative, nearly every scene that takes place there feels like a waste of time.
Despite its weak points, the season improves as it progresses — at least until the underwhelming finale. The finale feels less like a cliffhanger and more like an anticlimax, because it teases a major reveal in the series’ longest-running mystery only to offer a new breadcrumb on the trail and point to yet another destination where the search will continue. In that sense, the show’s popularity may be a blessing and a curse, because the writers often seem more focused on stringing the viewer along to the next season rather than resolving the arcs that have already been established. There are plenty of intriguing threads to be explored in the future, but a more satisfying ending would have made the wait for the next season more bearable.
Overall, though, season two of “Fallout” is a strong follow-up that expands on everything that has made the show such a success. The wasteland has countless stories to tell, and with its early renewal for a third season, fans can hope that the series will continue its creativity and ingenuity well into the future.
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