I was already planning to watch this on the day it was released on Prime Video few days ago. But once I again I failed to realize that it wa...
Brief Story Line
219 years after nuclear war in 2077, some people were living peacefully in a Fallout shelter called the Vaults. Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell - Army of the Dead, Yellowjackets TV series etc) from Vault 33 decided to go to the surface in search of her father Hank (Kyle MacLachlan - The House with a Clock in its Walls, Tesla etc) and leaving her younger brother Norm (Moisés Arias - Samaritan, Jean-Claude Van Johnson TV series etc) who preferred to stay behind. During her journey, Lucy got mixed up in an altercation with a Ghoul bounty hunter (Walter Goggins - Ant-man and the Wasp, Vice Principals TV series etc) which would hinder her personal objective.
On the surface, there was also a faction called Brotherhood of Steel focusing on gathering pre-war technology to enhance their own and aimed to rule the world. Maximus (Aaron Moten - Disjointed TV series, Father Stu etc) and his best friend Dane (Xelia Mendes-Jones) were part of this organization and practicing to become squire who would be assigned to Knights, special soldier wearing high tech armor called Power Armor. When Maximus did get his assignment, he would soon find out that being a squire was not exactly what he had hoped for.
So what would happen to them all? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
I have never played the Role Playing game of the same title (created by Tim Cain) that this series was based on, which were very popular and even won some gaming awards. So I watched this without knowing what it would be about. However, since it was set in post-apocalyptic time and I was sure it would be of action genre, it obviously raised my interest. Anyway, the first few minutes of the series immediately convinced me that it would be entertaining, especially with wonderfully done visual effects. And although the pilot episode seemed to be focusing on introducing the characters, but it made me more invested as they were quite interesting.
As the story progressed and we got to know the main characters better, the series became more engaging to me. With well crafted action that were enhanced by great special effects, I was so entertained by the series that I found myself not able to stop watching. However, I did feel that the actions were getting lesser as it concentrated more on the mysteries surrounding the Vault and the historical events. I was intrigued by them and at the same time curious of how everything happened. And after the rather disturbing sixth and the slow seventh episode, the season finale was truly satisfying. To me it had the perfect climax which managed to combined nicely the drama, the tension, the shocking revelation and the grand & stylish action sequence.
The cast were generally awesome, in particular Walter Goggins whose character seemed to have been perfectly created for him (or he was perfect for the role, whichever angle you are looking at). I also like Ella Purnell and Aaron Moten here whose chemistry was nice to see. In addition to the names I mentioned above, the series also got some recurring cast/guest stars that were familiar to me such as Michael Emerson (Evil TV series etc) as Dr. Siggi Wilzig, Leslie Uggams (Deadpool 2 etc) as Betty in Vault 33, Sarita Choudurry (Homeland TV series etc) as Lee Maldover and few others.
The first season of the series had 8 episodes with duration between 45 to 75 minutes. It was created by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (co-writer of Captain Marvel and 2018 reboot of Tomb Raider). I also noticed the names of Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy as part of the executive producers who were already experienced in co-producing series like Westworld and the short-lived The Peripheral. Nolan even directed the first three episodes. And from what I read, critics and audience had high praise as well which hopefully would translate to the series being renewed.
For an action science-fiction drama series, I felt this one was really enjoyable. I like the story, characters, action, special effects and it clearly had high production value. The only thing that I was a bit critical was the lessening of action scenes in the middle of the season. But as a whole it was still very much entertaining. Oh in case you want to know more on the items related to the games, Prime Video was kind enough to provide the info if you go to the "Explore" menu on the series. So if you are interested in watching the latest collaboration of Nolan and Joy and love sci-fi action set in the post apocalyptic time that was so brilliantly done that it did not feel like based on games, then I am sure you would love this.
Mike's Movie Moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars