We're now halfway through Fallout's second season, and despite it generally receiving a lot of praise per episode, I can't help but feel that it hasn't been all that eventful. That is has been slowly chugging along and relying more on its references of locations and items from the games rather than exploring its story and characters. Don't get me wrong, Fallout is beautifully crafted. It's a surprise to see a show shot on anamorphic lenses and with 35mm film stock in today's streaming world. The dedication to producing a world that feels real and has characters that feel real has been done excellently. The production value is genuinely wonderful to see. My issue, somewhat previously mentioned, has been in how it's trying to tell that story. Fallout isn't a particularly serious franchise, the games are riddled with character that can range from strong science-fiction to downright silliness, and that's something that's completely fine.
Season Two has featured some moments like that, and they do break up some of the pacing a bit to show a side of the retro-futuristic post-nuclear wasteland that can't be taken entirely seriously. I think this side of the world building is actually quite important too. Not focusing too much on its characters but also displaying the living, breathing side of the wasteland that needs. A downside is that this season has been portraying Lucy as an insufferable idiot that only makes things worse with her presence. Not that she should be a character that excels in all areas, not that she should be a warrior that can handle the many challenges of the wasteland with great ease. I do think it's good to see her fumbling a bit here and there as it remains new to her in many scenarios.
But the show has been pushing it a bit too much, most of the season so far has been about her inability to understand basic survival in the wasteland much to her many experiences, one after the other, detailing the deathly threat of remaining so naive. The assumption that every person can be saved or that every person is good. That survivors out there struggling to live and eating the most disgusting things might actually be good people that can be talked to and have more rational outcomes. While it would be good to see this here and there, it does feel like every time Lucy is on the screen, she's making yet another mistake and that cycle returns: someone else picks up the pieces and saves her and them, yet again proving that violence is usually the best course of action within these lands.
Elsewhere, other characters have been shown to adapt in a more reasonable manner. Where they've been tested a few times and have managed to come to such a conclusion that sometimes one must step up to contradict their own morals, where sometimes those morals require violence to maintain. One scene (and I won't get too into this here) displays a challenge in which one must choose to kill a member of the Brotherhood or save a group of children that are about to be killed purely for being victims of radiation and turning into ghouls. It was a great show of character that tested them, made them act, even if it meant going against their principles originally. I think a problem is that, unlike the games, the show has chosen its protagonist to be far more emotional and peace leaning. Perhaps soon we'll see a show of character in which she finally grows from this, perhaps they're intentionally building her up in this sense to reach that point of needing to make a decision.
I think so far the most engaging side of the story comes from its side characters and references to the past. Showing the build up that led to the wasteland's creation. The corporate meddling that intentionally dropped a nuclear bomb to pursue its own agenda, ensuring that their business succeeded with the shelters. All down to the creation of the show's most famous ghoul and how he was once a family man with plenty to look forward to, as well as his own contribution to the way things turned out. There are far more engaging stories within the show, and I definitely prefer when they focus on those than the present. One thing for sure: Goggins carries the show.
