You Can't Escape the Vault

The first episode of Fallout, season 2 premiered on Amazon Prime last night, written by showrunners Geneve Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, the worst writers on season one. But this premiere episode wasn't quite as bad as their first season offerings, though they still struggle to write material for the wasteland segments. I did think a scene where Lucy buys a bowl of flea soup was pretty funny, though an earlier action sequence in which she and the Ghoul trick some bandits was kind of lame. The makers of the show still seem to have no interest in imagining what surviving in such a scenario would be like, still believing it's best for the Ghoul to slowly strut around in the open rather than seek cover. The show continues to fail at capturing what makes up 90% of the game experience, which is exploring and fighting in the wasteland.

This season is based on what has slowly, over the years, become recognised as the best game in the franchise, Fallout: New Vegas, though, of course, a TV show can't replicate what makes that game so great, the fact that it happens to be one of the best dialogue tree games ever made. Bethesda games are famed for their world building, not so much for their dialogue. New Vegas was different, its dialogue by John Gonzalez being genuinely interesting and responsive to player input. New Vegas managed to find that elusive sweet spot between allowing players total freedom and giving them a structured story to inhabit.

A TV series can't have that, by definition. So far, in episode one, the focus has been primarily on the people still dwelling in Vaults and on the Ghoul's flashbacks to his life before the nuclear bombs fell. The latter continue to be the show's weakest point by far, consisting of cloak and dagger dialogue that fails utterly to make up for the fact that we already know where all of it is heading. The Vault stuff is basically a slightly more twisted version of The Office and that's where these writers are at their best. It's no surprise, given that it's the closest thing to their own lived experience.

Fallout is available on Amazon Prime.