Cain appreciated the performances and storytelling, but singled out how the show nailed the Fallout “vibe” as its biggest achievement. “I was just looking at all the props,” he said of one scene. “I realized after a few minutes went by that I had not followed the dialogue at all, because I was so engrossed by it visually.”
On a more sour note, Cain took time to address the way fans of the series can behave poorly online, particularly regarding any perceived rivalry between Fallout entries developed by Bethesda (3, 4, and 76), and those from Interplay, Black Isle, and Obsidian (1, 2, and New Vegas). Cain spoke positively of Todd Howard, and said that “Some of the stuff you [series fans] say online is so off.” See also: the debate about whether the show somehow overrode or ignored the events of those non-Bethesda games, which has since been denied by a senior developer at the studio.
I read a review that said the show was “too woke”. I haven’t seen anything that’s woke except that a non-binary character exists and is referred to as “them”, and the shopkeepers in Filly seem to be lesbians but it’s not explicitly stated. It’s annoying seeing the word “woke” but it’s also kind of nice that it’s easy to spot the dipshits. Anyone using the word “woke” probably sucks big time.
I’d like to see those Fallout players sit down and try Arcanum if they think the show is “woke”.
i’m pretty sure the subtext of “woke” is “there are women and non-white people here”
same with “dei,” i suppose - all goes back to not liking women and poc 🙃
“Woke” used to mean “Aware of systemic social issues”, but has been co-opted by the right to mean “Anything we don’t like”. So, anybody who unironically uses it in the new context is not worth taking seriously. To tell them apart, try asking them how they define “woke”.
Woke might as well be a compliment at this point, anything being called woke just tells me it might be good.
I’m glad I haven’t been reading much about the show online. I just finished episode 4 last night and I’m really loving the show. They absolutely nailed the visuals and general vibe of the world. I’ll admit to be being skeptical about the show in Amazon’s hands. The Rings of Power and first season of Wheel of Time were just poorly written. Though, I did feel that the second season of WoT picked up a bit. So, maybe the folks at Amazon are learning. My only remaining concern for Fallout is how subsequent seasons go. They have hyped the involvement of Johnathan Nolan who was behind Westworld on HBO. Westworld season 1 was downright awesome. But, the rest of the show felt like they were so busy trying to re-capture that magic that they forgot to tell a good story. Fortunately, Nolan is directing and producing Fallout and not writing it. So maybe it won’t get written into a corner where there really isn’t any more story to tell and several more seasons ordered.
You’re right about the writing, and the moment that sold me that the writing in this show is actually good was when Maximus and The Ghoul are fighting in Filly and instead of showing the entire fight, they cut to the people inside talking. Realizing that the fight adds nothing of substance but showy graphics is usually the indicator to me that the writers are in control of the vision of the show which pretty much always bodes well.
Not just the props - everything thing from Sugar Bombs and Nuka Cola to the interiors of the vault, the abandoned houses and even a certain drive-in theatre - but even story presentation details like the part at the very start of the very first episode where our vault dweller character presents herself in a way that is lot like the choice of character traits in the game.
Mind you, the story develops and goes deeper way faster than in the actual game (you end up discovering way more of the lore in Season 1 than from playing the games, IMHO) and it has of course a lot more depth in the human relationship between characters side, but all in all it feels like home if you played and enjoyed the games.
