Todd produced something that's actually good‽
I've watched the first two episodes and I've really liked it so far. While FO4 as a game was OK at best (at least vanilla; Sim Settlements 2 is great fun), I've liked the art direction on it. I know the "chunky" look has been a bit… divisive, I think it looks suitably retrofuturistic and less drab than the earlier games, so it's fun that the show has really leaned into the style. The score by Ramin Djawadi is also really good, at times really reminds me of Ben Frost's and Marc Streitenfeld fucking amazing score for Raised by Wolves.
The dark humor and a somewhat quirky and sarcastic take on things is also very Fallout; it doesn't take itself too seriously, but is also surprisingly dark in many ways, and not just because it's postapocalyptic and bloody.
spoilers for first 3 eps
Things like what Maximus did to whatstheirname, with the razor in the boot, and then what happened between him and Titus after the yao guai attack. It's like everybody's at least a little bit of an asshole and that there's not too many if any unambiguously "good" characters in the main cast.
Edit: did that axolotl-looking huge mutant with fingers coming out of its mouth drop loot when it died‽
All in all, it's been a really nice surprise that the show seems to have turned out well; my cynical old ass was definitely prepared for something worse, heh. How have you folks liked it?
(Oh and for the love of the gods and all that is fuzzy, please remember to use spoiler tags if you talk about plot points 😁 It's the second button on the right on the comment format bar.)
My main criticism is that they have done literally nothing to establish or explain the rules/quirks of the world. If I wasn't already a fan of the games, this show would be confusing as fuck. They expect you to just know about the NCR, the Brotherhood, what a ghoul is, what caps are, etc. Like, I hate exposition, but this is going too far in the opposite direction with it.
The other is the place and time. I watched all 8 episodes and it seemed like it took place in multiple parts of the country between at least Massachusetts and California considering they say they are in the Commonwealth at the beginning, but clearly are in Los Angeles pretty much the rest of the time, and it's unclear how long McClane and Maximus' journey had been due to the weird time compression. It's almost like a TV show done like a linear game where you just move from set piece to set piece, while losing all the stuff you do in between.
Other than that I loved it. If it didn't have actors I recognize and have the studio logos in the opening credits, I could easily believe this was made by hardcore fans of the games as a independent project.
They do a tiny bit to explain ghouls, but not a lot. It’s mostly implied that they’re the result of nuclear radiation. It’s not that complicated, really.
But some other stuff really could use more backstory, that’s true.
I never played the games but was able to pick up enough through context clues about what each group is all about and generally what's going on. I do have lots of questions about the specifics of each group, but I'm hoping that in future episodes (I am only a few episodes in) and seasons they flesh things out a bit more to fill in some of the more mysterious aspects of the show.