With a thumbs up and a beaming smile, the iconic blond-haired, blue jumpsuit-wearing, vault boy from Bethesda Softworks’ famous video game franchise was adapted to an eight-episode, must watch series on Amazon Prime. Fallout is set in an alternate universe, in which a series of nuclear bombs during a raging conflict known as the Great War of 2077, supposedly wiped out the world through nuclear annihilation.

Fast forward around two centuries to the future. Lucy Maclean (Ella Purnell) has always been an upstanding citizen of Vault 33. She’s athletic, charming, intellectual, the daughter of the vault overseer Hank Maclean (Kyle MacLachlan), and above all emulates an unparalleled optimism for the future and her people. Known as “vault dwellers,” Lucy Maclean and other vault residents are descendants of the lucky individuals who sought refuge in underground fallout shelters run by a large corporation known as Vault-Tec. They are ardent pacifists set on a single goal that has withstood since their ancestors first hurried into the vaults. They will until the radiation levels have subsided and when the time comes, return to the surface and repopulate Earth.

When Lucy Maclean is arranged to marry a stranger by the name of Monty from neighboring Vault 31 in a traditional vault wedding ceremony, it is revealed that her husband-to-be is part of a band of raiders: hostile ruffians who seek to terrorize to survive. As part of an elaborate scheme orchestrated by the raiders, Lucy’s father is kidnapped by the leader, a woman by the name of Moldaver. 

The show follows the storyline of a naive Lucy Maclean as she sets off, defying the pleas of her fellow vault-dwellers, to find her father. Fallout periodically jumps between year 2077 before the war annihilated the United States, and the “present-day” year 2296. The “present day” timeline depicts fragments of the Lucy and other character’s individual journeys as they overcome adversity, build unconventional relationships, and uncover the truth of the Great War of 2077 and the fate of mankind.  

Though Fallout deviates from the plotline of the original roleplay video game, the show establishes its own unique and engaging storyline, and expands upon the worldbuilding in the source material. Viewers do not need to understand the plot of the original video game to be able to enjoy or understand the series.

One of the greatest character progressions the audience witnesses is the development of Lucy Maclean’s self-identity. First appearing as a happy-go-lucky, innocent, and radiantly optimistic young girl, Lucy is far from the archetype suitable to take on the horrors of the surface world. However, the audience is able to witness Lucy’s growth as she grapples with the conflicting conditions of the surface and her fundamental vault-dweller values of following the Golden rule and spreading kindness. A breath of fresh air, Lucy continues to maintain the values that she feels aligns with herself as she adapts to the outside world, encounters the ill of the post-apocalyptic society, and uncovers the darker secrets of the vault-dwellers– all with a smile from ear to ear. 

Furthermore, stunning visuals and worldbuilding are vital to nail both dystopian and science fiction cinematography, two departments in which Fallout does not disappoint. One of the integral stylistic choices comes with Fallout’s embrace of aesthetics of the 1950s. Though the series is set in circa 2077, in the alternate universe, humanity never truly progressed past the technological and ideological advancements of the 1950s. In the 2077 flashback, Americans feared the repercussions of Russian communists and constantly lived in fear of nuclear retaliation, and did so in their fifties feminine silhouettes and elegant suits.

The Cold War era-esque atmosphere is further exemplified in the Vault-tec underground scenes. The 1950s inspired interior design and soundtrack allow the vaults to emulate both a friendly yet eerie and unsettling tone that sets the scene for the storyline to come. This is captured in the wedding scene between Lucy and Monty. Though the romantic ’50s tunes, chatter of the Vault-33 residents, and a vibrant Lucy dressed in her hand-me-down wedding gown supposedly suggest a fairytale-like celebration of matrimony to a stoic heartthrob–the old projector “simulating” the outside environment, the awkward silence of the Vault-32 inhabitants, and the suspenseful as well as claustrophobic atmosphere of the scene itself proves otherwise. 

Another aspect of the show that was particularly enjoyable was the contrasting nature of the main characters and the diversity of their plotlines despite their stories ultimately intertwining. Though the main storyline follows Lucy and her endeavors, there are various side characters that add depth to the series.

Maximus (Aaron Moten), a member of a post-apocalyptic paramilitary group known as the Brotherhood of Steel, is an example of one of these subplots. When Maximus is sent on a mission, a striking mistake causes him to go off-course to achieve an unthinkable task in hopes of regaining the trust of the Brotherhood. 

Meanwhile on the surface, creatures known as “Ghouls”, who were once human but mutilated into beings that resemble skeleton-like figures, have survived on the surface since 2077. Cooper Howard (Walter Goggins), nicknamed “The Ghoul” is one of these human-turned creatures, who is revealed to have been a famous Hollywood star before nuclear annihilation in the Great War of 2077. He has survived two centuries and scours the desolate landscape in hopes of finding his family, whom he got separated from in the bombings.

All the while Lucy Maclean’s younger brother, Norm (Moises Arias), remains in Vault 33 as he gradually uncovers the mysteries of Vault-Tec, their history and their existence in the post-nuclear world. Norm sets off to unveil the true nature of Vault-dwellers without being caught by suspicious overseers of the vaults. 

Despite the characters being vastly different from one another and coming from perpendicular walks of life, their stories come together to cohesively weave action with thought-provoking commentary on overarching themes of morality, greed, and the nature of war. The series flawlessly executes both the aesthetics of the Cold War nuclear paranoia combined with the underground vaults and the post-apocalyptic rugged cities on the surface.

When the dust clears in a future far from ours, Fallout will undoubtedly remain as the go-to series for ardent dystopian, history and science-fiction enthusiasts alike.