After HBO delivered a grand slam adaptation of the hit video game series The Last of Us, Amazon has stepped up to the plate to take a crack at Fallout. Like The Last of Us, Fallout is also a wildly popular gaming franchise set in a post-apocalyptic world, but this one is more desolate and barren thanks to, well, all of the nuclear fallout. (Get it? Like the title.)
Set to start streaming this week, Fallout arrives under the guidance of Westworld creator Jonathan Nolan, who brings all of his sci-fi skills to the table along with the show’s most powerful weapon: Walton Goggins. The Justified star plays The Ghoul, a 200-year-old bounty hunter wandering the wasteland. However, Goggins is more than just the deformed gunslinger. The actor spends a significant amount of time in the past as Cooper Howard, a movie star who has front row seats to the end of the world.
Based on the early reviews, Goggins and Fallout are a powerful combo. You can see what the critics are saying below:
Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter:
From the very first minutes of the Nolan-directed premiere, Fallout boasts a strong sense of place. Lucy’s vault is midcentury suburbia rendered in Space Age steel, dotted with incongruously chipper slogans (“Don’t lose your head!”) and populated by unsettlingly cheery citizens in matching jumpsuits. The surface world that Lucy finds herself in after a catastrophe is the polar opposite — a retrofuturistic Wild West mishmash caked in the kind of grime that’d be impossible to wash off even if there were enough water to go around. But the biggest shock for Lucy is that the world’s hard-bitten survivors have no interest in her people’s lofty notions of re-civilizing the planet.
Aramide Tinubu, Variety:
The first half of “Fallout” is undoubtedly the strongest, as Lucy tries to grapple with the lies she’s been told about the world while barely keeping herself alive. Still, even as the storylines linger too long in less exciting places, viewers are eager to see how the varied mysteries and secrets of the surface and the dwellers will reveal themselves. Bizarre but intensely fun, “Fallout” is like nothing you’ve ever seen; for that reason alone, you won’t be able to turn away.
Paul Tassi, Forbes:
And of course, there’s Walton Goggins. Everyone thought that his casting as a ghoul was spot-on and guess what? It’s spot-on. But you may not realize just what a dual role it is, as yes Goggins is a badass, somewhat villainous ghoul gunslinger with a CGI-ed out nose, but there are lengthy stretches of the show about his time before the war as a Clint Eastwood-type movie star who starts shilling for Vault Tec while slowly learning the company’s actual plans.
Kyle Hilliard, Game Informer:
Beyond its overall tone – a world filled with violent delights in a science-fiction setting – Cooper Howard, played by Walton Goggins (Justified), is perhaps the most direct line to Westworld. He is reminiscent of the Man in Black in Nolan and Joy’s sci-fi western, a violent cowboy with intimate knowledge of the world that he puts to frequent, terrifying use. Goggins is the kind of actor who effortlessly stands out in any cast, and even behind Ghoul prosthetics, Fallout is no exception. Goggins has one of my favorite lines in the show, citing the danger of getting distracted by bulls*** when trying to complete a primary mission. It is effective as a standalone joke and a reference to the inspirational video game.
Matt Purslow, IGN:
It’s not hard to see why Amazon went to bat for Fallout. This is a weird, often hyper-violent, sometimes satirical black comedy that sits comfortably next to The Boys. While never quite as puerile or gross as some of Vought’s most extreme moments, Fallout consistently uses the darkness of its irradiated landscape to spin surreal jokes, from a talking brain-in-a-jar to an organ-harvesting robot spouting the honeyed tones of Matt Berry (of What We Do in the Shadows fame).
Kambole Campbell, Empire:
Not all of it holds together, but in its best moments the show underlines the game’s themes, poking at the ludicrousness of conservative doctrines when the empire has already crumbled. The Vault satirises nuclear-family mundanity, relocated underground in a hermetically sealed suburbia; the Brotherhood Of Steel’s cool exosuits are a spin on cultish feudalism. Ultimately, Fallout is playing not just with the iconography but also the power fantasy of the games — of one person deciding the fate of the world.
All eight episodes of Fallout season 1 start streaming April 10 at 9 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video. Be sure to check out our interview with star Ella Purnell.
