In 2023, HBO’s The Last of Us set a new standard for live-action video game TV adaptations. But it’s not the only video game show that deserves wider recognition.
Prime Video‘s Fallout followed a year later in 2024, and it’s proven to be a great take on the source material.
This is a video game series that’s broadly appealing without going as dark as The Last of Us. And the second season premiered earlier this month.
Now, Watch With Us is sharing the reasons why Fallout is the one Prime Video show you need to watch in December 2o25.
‘Fallout’ Manages To Be Funny Without Undercutting the Story
Tone is a tricky thing to get right, especially in video game adaptations. As an example, Peacock’s Twisted Metal veers a little too far into comedy for any of it to be taken seriously. By contrast, Fallout is a very funny series that isn’t a comedy. Some scenes were clearly written to be amusing, but the way that they play out on-screen doesn’t undercut the rest of the show. Fallout isn’t trying to ape the serious style of The Last of Us, but this is a show that still has personal stakes for its characters and larger implications for their world.
This is largely exemplified in Ella Purnell‘s performance as Lucy MacLean, a young woman who lived most of her life in the secluded safety of a vault. Lucy has outdated perspectives on justice and social norms, which bring out a lot of the humor in her character. But she’s also serious enough to be the show’s heroine as she pursues her father, Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan), for the crimes he’s committed. However, the series’ most dramatic moments tend to belong to Walton Goggins.
Walton Goggins Gives Two Great Performances as the Same Man
Technically, Goggins is only playing a single character in Fallout, but his twin personas might as well be two different people. There are episodes where Goggins actually gets more screen time than Purnell because his character, Cooper Howard, was alive when the nuclear bombs dropped two hundred years before the events of this series. In the flashbacks to that era, Cooper was just an actor who endorsed the company, Vault-Tec, that may have caused the end of the world. His wife, Barb Howard (Frances Turner), may have even personally played a role in that cataclysm.
As sympathetic as Cooper is in the past, his present incarnation as The Ghoul is amoral, vindictive and more than willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. The Ghoul is the antihero of this show who lost his heart long before he was horribly mutated. There’s a stark contrast between Cooper and The Ghoul, but his desire remains the same in both time periods. He just wants to be with his family, regardless of what his wife did. That makes The Ghoul into the most compelling character on the show.
The Show Recaptures the Spirit of the ‘Fallout’ Games
The specific budget for Fallout seasons 1 and 2 hasn’t been disclosed, but its recreation of the video game world is impressive. Season 2 is drawing some of its inspiration from Fallout: New Vegas, which depicted a post-apocalyptic version of Las Vegas. Casual viewers don’t need to know about the games to appreciate the show’s fidelity. A lot of work went into bringing these visuals to life, and it’s part of the reason why Fallout is now one of Prime Video’s most popular shows.
It’s also worth noting that the story of Fallout isn’t a direct adaptation of any of the games that came before it, but this feels like an untold chapter that could fit side-by-side the tales that have already been told. This series was designed to appeal to video game players and newcomers alike, and the creative team has done a great job of recapturing the spirit of its source material.
Fallout is streaming on Prime Video.
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