WIWTW: Fallout

Format: Series (1 season, 8 episodes)

Streaming Service: Prime Video (Amazon)

Genre: post-apocalyptic dramedy 

Length: 45-70 minutes

Release: Season dropped April 10

Logline: 200 years after a nuclear explosion, two siblings raised in the safety and comfort of a bunker learn the complicated truth about the world around them.

Key Creatives: Jonathan Nolan (creator of the Westworld series, and writer of Interstellar, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight) and Lisa Joy (Jonathan’s partner at work and at home) executive produced the series, and Jonathan directed the first three episodes as well.

Stars: Ella Purnell, the lead of the show, has been popping up in great stuff for the last few years – Yellowjackets, or Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. The plucky, optimistic protagonist of the show, Ella gets the assignment. The show relies on her wide-eyed stare more than it should as she believably swings from comedy to violence to drama and back. Moisés Arias plays her brother, and it took me far too long into the series to place him as Rico from Hannah Montana. Kyle MacLaughlin – of Twin Peaks and Sex and the City fame – plays their father. He doesn’t have much to work with in S1, but S2 is set up to be juicier. 

What to Know: The show is adapted from a role-play video game franchise, and for the most part is a faithful adaptation. The second season of the show has already been greenlit. Thoughts: What a year for video game adaptations… The Last of Us showed us how prestigious the genre can get, and Twisted Metal took us in the comedy-horror direction, and Fallout is somewhere in the middle. This show was a slow simmer for me – I wasn’t hooked for the first four episodes, and that was half the season. The world-building (or world-ending) mystery kicked in, and suddenly it was about two siblings, perfect foils, who go on two very different journeys to end up at the same insidious truth. This wasn’t as cinematic as The Last of Us, nor did it blend genre as intentionally as Twisted Metal. I like the themes and the mystery that unfolds over two timelines, and I am thrilled there will be a second season, but I do think anyone who likes Fallout should check out Twisted Metal on Peacock!