🔗 Share this article

The Fallout TV series is back to Prime Video, and it's fair to say that viewers were pleasantly surprised by the quality of its debut season. By depicting the atomic-age, nuclear-ravaged United States through the perspectives of three distinct characters, it effectively portrayed different facets of the gamer's adventure.

We followed vault-dweller Lucy, trying to act with integrity and finding that the wasteland made that exceptionally challenging; Max, the militant faction initiate, who begins to question his cult's dogma and causes a lot of havoc in robotic power armour; and the Ghoul, a standout performance who has completely shed any moral compass out in the contaminated badlands.

Setting the Stage for Season Two

The debut season's finale revealed a major secret about those responsible for the global annihilation that condemned a society in subterranean shelters for hundreds of years. It also left several enigmas unresolved for the next installment – and, this time, anticipations are significantly higher.

“We’ll take ‘not terrible’ – we should print that on merchandise,” quips Jonah Nolan.

“Going into the first season, everyone’s like, ‘Just get it right’,” adds Todd Howard. “We’re over the moon with the reception to the show, so this time people are coming in with more excitement and altered expectations.”

The Mojave Beckons for the Next Installment

The second season is taking place in the neon-lit city, the setting of the 2010’s game Fallout: New Vegas, which is often praised for having the best writing and characters in the franchise, despite the fact that it was somewhat buggy at launch.

“It has a sun-baked feel, a Southwestern essence, that’s so key to that game,” explains Nolan. “That parched, blasted-out Route 66 aesthetic of the game is so much rewarding to translate into the show.”

In the series narrative, a considerable period has passed since the story of the New Vegas game by the time the characters make their way there. Nevertheless, the creators indicate that it does reference the player’s journey.

The Importance of Physical Sets

The Fallout TV series is praised for its tactile feel – its production team insisted on real props and locations were constructed, reflecting the makeshift nature of the towns in the games.

“Being a genre enthusiast, so many series I watch, I’m aware that they’re all filmed against a digital backdrop,” observes co-creator Geneva Robertson-Dworet. “The key objective of an translation, especially of a video game, is to appear as if it’s real.”

In fact, pretty much everything you see on-screen is physical, including the legendarily scary radioactive creatures known as Deathclaws. In the show, they are portrayed by puppets, and were reportedly rather intimidating up close.

A Labor of Love

The Fallout series succeeds because it is developed by accomplished storytellers who are also longtime fans, alongside the original creators behind the source material. This mutual respect for the world is evident in the final product.

The new batch of episodes is being released on a weekly basis rather than as a all-at-once release, offering a different experience from the previous season. This approach will allow for a different weekly discussion, a dynamic the team themselves are eager to engage with.

“It's richer, it’s bigger, it’s funnier, it has a lot of surprises,” promises Howard. “I’m looking forward to seeing what people think.”