Fallout TV Show: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly 

Please all I want is a door opening to a wall that has “fuck you” spray painted on it, it would be so funny

10:20 This moment where The Ghoul kills Roger, it is actually super merciful and good. Cooper knew Roger was gone, and was going to become Feral. That's no life. He wanted him to have a good wholesome memory and a semblance of lucidity before he went out.

On the point of the "anti-feral" drug for the ghouls, I feel like it could be a placebo. There could be some pre-war drug that gives the sensation to ghouls that they feel better, but there are several examples of ghouls from pre-war times that did keep their sanity for the 200+ years, and had no indication they took such a substance.

My theory about the bombs is that Vault Tec wanted to drop the bombs, but china sent them 20 hours earlier, which is why Howard wasn't in vault, why Mr House's calculations were off by 20 hours. The Yangtze Captain says he launched the bombs in boston, so China definitely struck, and according to the Enclave and the Switchboard, China launched first

One little thing I liked was how the Hollywood sign lit up at the end and you see it’s sponsored by Nuka Cola totally fits the fallout universe

i feel like the moment where maximus flies off like a cartoon character is almost like a wild wasteland moment, its so dumb and over the top

Regarding the reveal of New Vegas my folks (both unfamiliar with the game) thought the final shot showed Seattle. Which was really funny to me.

Imagine Hank gets to the 38 and it's just Yes Man left behind by the Courier. Yes Man and Robert have a dynamic of Yesman using House as a toy lol

It's good that they gave 1 INT builds representation with Maximus.

21:09 The issue with this is that Mr. House claims the bacteria will inevitability end his life even if he was slightly exposed. Also, since the House ending is reliant on the NCR being stable enough to provide caps, if the NCR fell, perhaps Vegas fell aswell. Along with the Tunnelers moving to the Mojave.

I think Chet is going to have a redemption arc in Vault 32.

Cooper Howard is a really cool character. It feels like he’s a mix of John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. I also like how he’s the origin of the Vault Tech mascot 😁👍🏼. In my opinion, the best parts of the show are the pre-war flashbacks. Cooper discovering Vault Techs true intentions is a legendary scene. Awesome video man!

The main female actors was so good I had no idea she wasn't American. Her American accent is on point and her behavior is so perfectly the 1950's style the vault dwellers would have.

My biggest issue with the show was the handling of the NCR. I don't inherently have a problem with them being reduced in power, but the way it is handled feels unnecessarily abrupt and vague for a group that has been built up for so long. While I'm aware Todd said that it's unlikely this is the last we'll see of the NCR, I don't think the show should have necessitated such a statement from him in the first place. As far as I noticed Maldaver's group (who don't even feel like they needed to be the NCR) is referred to as the NCR point blank, not as a splinter group or a smaller detachment, their base is labeled as the NCR headquarters, and no other formal presence of the NCR is shown or really alluded to at all. I'm hopeful they'll reintroduce the NCR as a significant faction once again in due time, however their handling in the first season is disappointing for me nonetheless, especially when it seems they have no problem ever expanding the Brotherhood's power.

I think the secret man in the window during the Vault Tech conference was G Man. Prepare for unforseen consequences.

Imagine if radking was called freakyking

The wrist boosters aren’t necessarily a retcon. Could just be a variant replacing the more cumbersome jetpack. This would still allow them to re-add it if they do need a super-heavy boi to fly into battle with a mini gun.

They got to Shady Sands by way of...fast travel.

One thing that bothers me is in the last episode where the Ghoul talks about the flaw in the power armor chestplate welds, but why didnt he know that and just kill maximus in their first encounter?

The faceplate thing: As a practical matter, having a removable/openable faceplate on a suit of armour makes perfect sense and has real world historical precedence. In the later medieval period as suits of armour started to be made out of more rigid material (what most people think of when they think of a knight ... plates of metal head to toe) many/most helmets were constructed so that parts of the face protection could be temporarily removed by the wearer so that they could get a better view of things, or have a quick drink/food, get a breath of fresh air, or issue orders/have a conversation, when not directly involved in a fight. Sure, the power armour allows all of those things while fully encased, but as humans we all feel less comfortable and more constricted when our faces are fully covered. Think about all the cry babies that couldn't stand the thought of wearing a cloth mask for short periods of time during the Covid pandemic and would have full blown temper tantrums any time they were asked to do so. So while I get that traditionally Fallout power armour suits didn't have opening faceplates, it is both a harmless change and makes sense from an in universe persepective and a TV production perspective (You sometimes need to show the actor emoting while interacting with another actor, which would be very difficult if you couldn't just convieniently flip open the visor). I've been with Fallout since 1997. On the whole I thought the show was pretty good. There was the odd bit that didn't fit previously established lore, but I didn't much care. The look, feel and tone was very Fallout, to the point that it almost felt like watching a playthrough at times. It wasn't perfect, but it was more than good enough, and I hope season 2 keeps it up. Good video, by the way. :)

One thing i hope they clear up or at least mention in the 2nd session is how the master did not break in the 3 vaults in la

People keep saying the tunnelers couldve destroyed the strip, but the tunnelers are adverse to light. I don't see the writers wanting to fight off tunnelers during the whole of next season. Everyone is already upset that they destroyed shady sands now if they destroyed every settlement in new Vegas too? That would be asking for hell

I've somewhat softened from my initial reaction to the series. But I guess my overall feelings depend on how the NCR is addressed in season 2.

"YOU SHALL BE LEAVING NOW GOOSY, WITH THIS 2 WEEKs OF SUPPLIES "😂

Don't forget what Ulysses said about the Tunnelers, "They'll start emerging throughout the Mojave in time, might be years. Probably less. They breed fast, hunt in groups, more than enough to bring down the strongest in the Mojave. Once they draw blood... Seen them tear apart deathclaws... Deathclaw might get some, but the rest will swarm it, tear it apart, like Denver hounds".

Glory to atom. We're is tato lore

As someone who also watched with a Non Fallout fan as well it was interesting to see what peaked my interest more than hers. She was into all of it and learning about the lore and world (She has since started a run on F3) But me who has played all but the OG games I was mostly interested in the Goul/Coopers storyline and definitely Vault 31-33 mystery. Something I don't understand is why have some random newcomer be the guy who blew up shady sands? We have a in game reason for it to be nuked with Lonesome Road.

The problem with the destruction of shady sands is that the NCR is basically a country made up of several cities, towns, and states. Along with 700,000 citizen. Just nuking the capital wouldn’t have ended the NCR. Another thing is I’m afraid that they will turn the New Vegas storyline in season 2 into a brotherhood of steel vs enclave conflict, because I can see Todd Howard doing that for the TV show, because no one outside the video game know who the enclave is. I think the first season is great except for the lore.

I have to say, I agree completely with you in this video. About jet nozzles on power armour: they have it in Fallout 4, and I don't mean the jetpack. There is an upgrade for power armour legs that enhances the AoE when landing after leaping. I don't remember the name of the upgrade, but it suggests that the legs contain some kind of braking thrusters, which would help explain how power armour completely negates fall damage in the game. I personally think that it would have made more sense in the show to replace the full jetpack with the same kind of jets mounted at the feet, for exactly the reason you mentioned. Also, Chet is a perfect character. He has the classical movie hero look, clean, muscular and conventionally handsome, but he turns out to be a coward nearly to the point of uselessness. This also makes him the perfect contrast to Norm.

I’m glad it’s canon that Vault Tec did the Mouse Utopia experiment.

Thesedays RadKing is the only fan channel I like to listen for fair takes so this has been a long while coming

Theres also the possibility that the Tunnelers destroyed Vegas. Ulysses said they would do so eventually. EDIT: Keep in mind folks. The Strip gets all of its power from Hoover Dam. If the Tunelers attack the Mojave, they could very well destroy Hoover Dam, cutting off power from Strip. Even if House canonicly wins the war, once Hoover Dam is destroyed, he doesnt have enough power in his generators to maintain the strip. The strip falls into into darkness, and Tunelers swoop in and kill everything, including the heavily armed Securitrons. They can burrow super quickly, have poisonous claws, and can tear through power armor and a deathclaw in seconds. Tuneler are more OP lore wise than people realize. Qoute from Ulysses to further clarify: "They'll start emerging throughout the Mojave in time, might be years. Probably less. They breed fast, hunt in groups, more than enough to bring down the strongest in the Mojave. Once they draw blood... Seen them tear apart deathclaws... Deathclaw might get some, but the rest will swarm it, tear it apart, like Denver hounds."

Jonathan Nolan (The Producer of the show) said specifically that he lost a significant chunk of his life to Fallout 3, so even though the show picked the more modern fallout aesthetic (which I do think is more cohesive), it's clear from what they showed in-show and from Nolan's words that they took big inspiration from the older games as well. And setting it on the west coast in order to also appeal to those classic fallout fans was a great way to go about it if I'm honest.

Best thing about it by far was the music from the games. It never gets old listening to the Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald who is one of the greatest singers of all time.

When you finish NV with yes man he literally says he’s going to shut down to incorporate code he found in House’s mainframe into his computational matrix. I get the feeling we’ll see a spilt personality Yes Man with House still existing in YM’s code fighting for control

Because of the hinged power armor helmet. I think this expansion is actually extremely logical. Not only from a cinematic point of view. If you just imagine this situation: A group of soldiers in full armor somewhere on a battlefield during a ceasefire. They have to eat something. Completely removing their helmets would be a huge risk if they were attacked at that moment. If they can only open part of their helmets, they would still be very well protected and could eat something quickly.

Great review! Great and detailed thoughts on the show.

That final episode with Lucy’s father in power armor, I just couldn’t not see the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie Climax.

I’ve been waiting for this one

Love this. Been waiting for this video and as always u didn't disappoint 🍻

Man, the Fallout series has the chance to do the funniest fucking thing imaginable, and make Todd Howard the real big bad behind the entirety of Fallout.

I personally didn’t like the retcon of ghouls needing drugs in order to not go feral. My head cannon is that the drug dealers around those parts has made a placebo drug to trick ghouls into buying it. This would track with how ghouls are treated through out all the games. Another issue I had was that gulpers were sorta implied that they were made by vault 4, but they are somehow in far harbor all the way across the continent in fallout 4. Those were my only issues lore wise. Narrative wise I really disliked how everyone was connected/ already knew each other. The twist of all the overseers being prewar was cool, but it was kinda dumb how cooper personally knew the overseer. Like the amount of coincidences in this show took me out of the immersion at time.

Great video! Really enjoyed your thoughts and think you have one of the most reasonable takes I’ve seen.

The prop department killed it

For me the ugly of this show is how they basically ignored fallout 1s locations by having the vaults in LA

i still think they did Sinclair the dirtiest, dude had little to do with big mountain in the game but was their representative for some reason, and they made him old and fat even though sinclair was probably in his 40's at the latest and was likely of average build.

I’d get chills if season two started at the top of the lucky 38 and you see a screen kick on with House’s face 😊

8:50 My mom has never played the game but we watched together n she basically immediately identified new Vegas. "Is that the strip?" He's in las Vegas?!??" Followed by "what the hell is that" (deathclaw)

If Joshua Graham shows up. I lost..

I cant believe they made the fallout dust mod Canon Seriously from 19:00 to 21:37 is basically just describing the backstory from that mod, hell the post credits vegas looks like it came out from dust They made fallout dust canon

Great video I really liked your take and insights on the future of New Vegas

RadKing’s gotta be my favorite fallout RU-vidr, great vid man!

Have a good day rad king

Love the Vid, id love to see some theory videos about what's going on with the Brotherhood and the Enclave, as well id like to hear your take on the theory that the Brotherhood incorporated the remnants of the Legion following the death of Caesar.

Not gonna lie. Just cause Tim Cain says it's good, doesnt validate that they missed a lot of "Fallout" beats. It's similar in the vain of 4 and 76 the soft reboot of the series. This is not a bad thing as it caters to a broader audience but it'd be disenginous to say "original creator like so this good" I haven't heard Brian Fargo sign off on it and I don't think anyone is waiting to hear his take. Because it's superseeded him at this point just like how it has Tim Cain.

Looking forward to more videos on the series. Absolutely loved it. Love love LOVED it. As someone who loves New Vegas, I am ecstatic with how they've taken things. This show did in no way hamper my enjoyment of the series or games that I love and only strengthened it. I do think House is still alive disconnected in the tops, reminds me a lot of how the Enclave (U.S. Government) did John Caleb Bradberton in Nuka World. They already had their panel of rich companies to compete with in the post-war, so they lied to the poor guy saying that they could only preserve his head and then left him alone for 200 years. I want to note that there are some sort of clips that may hint and more vault tech things, people are theorizing that vaults from tactics will be canonized, and that could be where Barb Howard and the daughter are. I also want to note that they wouldn't add a "Cryo Pods now available at the tops" billboard in the cutscene for no reason. That's for sure coming up. I appreciate that you saw a lot of things the same way I did. The whole "Team Rocket" ending sequence of the EP 2 fight rubbed me the wrong way too, but literally everything else more than made up for it. I wasn't worried about the timeline, I knew it was after 2277. I wasn't concerned with Big MT's representative being Sinclair, nor with House being there. It was clear House was the least invested in the idea of the companies. etc. I get being impassioned about the game or series that you love, I'm just as impassioned as anyone on the planet. I do not think that there were any significant retcons, other than the location of Shady Sands. I totally understand that, but it was nothing absolutely unforgivable in my opinion. I'm super excited for S2. I replayed New Vegas doing a house ending, and that only got me increasingly more excited. I cannot wait.

The forearm jets seem likely to be meant as stabilizing feature to help the back mounted ones, they’re just getting used in bits and pieces due to scarcity in the post war

My biggest power armor nitpick is the fact that you cannot exit the suit without a power core. No manual eject method while inside the suit? Absolutely terrible design. Especially in the show as we even see Max inside while the power is out his visor still says backup power or whatever. Feels like they just added it to let the plot happen and I really hate lazy writing like that.

The bad: no deathclaw! AAAARGH

Well, the problem with the date is that everyone is looking at the wrong blackboard. Yeah, in that flowchart, there is an arrow between 2277 and the bomb. On the main blackboard earlier, there's only three drawings, the last being the nuke, and above that the date is clearly 2277. So Todd retconned the show, practically.

there is an interview with Jonathan Nolan the Director of the series. in the interview he goes over how much he played fallout 3, and other very in depth aspects of gaming and the different ways it tells a story. so basically the lead actor as well as show runner have played at least 1 of the fallout games. also the Board says the fall of Shady Sands was 2077, not the bomb. the arrow pointing to the right kind of indicates the bomb happened AFTER 2077.

Keep in mind the canonical ending to fallout 4 is that the brotherhood of steel or minutemen won because we see the prydwen in show if you zoom in on the shot

Before watching the your vid I'ma say that I love the show and it's reignited my love for the series

The set design was insane, It felt like the show was pulled straight out of the games, even down to the small details like the yellow construction lights on the ground

I dont like the implication that ghouls need that drug to keep frok going feral. It implies there was some type of anti feral meds made before the bombs dropped. Otherwise, how are any ghouls that turned right after the bombs dropped still sane?

I’m not one of the ones who cares all that much about the face plate, but the issue I see is there was an old brotherhood elder who died because he took his helmet off to look around and a poison arrow grazed his neck and killed him. That sounds like solid evidence you could never face plate. Also it does look a little goofy.

I was waiting for a TV breakdown from you, great work man

The Vertibirds in the Vegas Shot may indicate an attempted invasion of new vegas by the NCR at some point, which would open up both the Legion and Mr.House endings to be cannon, with the invasion taking place some time after that.

if you first met Chief Hanlon he talk about lake mead and dry up water source in the west. he said "We neglected the dams or pumped all the water out a long time ago. Owens, Isabella, the San Luis. Drained the aquifers of everything they had" "Just a lot of mud and dust now. It's a different feeling, watching the sun come up over the water. Takes some getting used to." "Back west, you don't see too many of these. Lakes, I mean. Natural or man-made. Any kind, really." is the fall of Shady Sands is because dry up water source leading up to famine and they move their former capital to boneyard ??

I want the GOOD independent ending to be canon where you selected to deal with all the factions and families properly. There is no excuse that a massive army of upgraded securitrons to have ANY issue holding off some wastelanders with 9mm pistols and sticks.

I been waiting, I been waiting 👏🙌Glory to you dude, bring it ON.

The Roman names and iconography of the Brotherhood in the show also hint at some connection with Caesar's Legion, whom we've heard no mention of so far.

Got it within a MINUTE of posting lol, blessed

How can a yao guai kill a man inside a power armor and die from a 10mm shot to the head?

Hail The Radking for this great Video. at 27:44 you forgot to mention the Gulper int the Basement of V4

Great video man. I feel like you got how wr really feel about the show after the honeymoon phase is over

I hope it was the Brotherhood or the Enclave who bombed Shady Sands, Enclave as a final fuck you, and the Brotherhood as a strategic strike. After all, when kid Maximus emerges from the fridge, he’s rescued almost immediately by a Knight. Why would the Knight have been there so close to the time the bombs fell, unless that little 50’s style fridge somehow had enough room for a kid and days, if not like a week, or supplies? He likely would have known when the strike was to happen. Lucy’s dad, being pre-war and heavily involved with vault tec (and thus the enclave or military) might have known where some bombs were, or the codes needed for them, and given it to either group

The T-60s flip up faceplate may more so be a reference to tanks rather than any kind of helmets. Mostly on historical tanks, the driver's hatch could be partially opened to improve visibility and ventilation in non combat situations. This being present on power armour feels perfectly in line with Fallout's aesthetic! It also makes a lot of sense, i ask you, without the benefit of having your armour pieces be able to clip into eachother, or magically have the helmet disappear with the press of a button like in the games, how easy would it actually be to take that helmet off? Yeah it'd probably be a huge pain and you may need to get out of the suit or have someone else take it off if you want it removed. Having a flip up faceplate just makes perfect sense.

Ncr victory (most chosen ending) but the tunnelers attack would be the most lore friendly continuation of the show im also very disappointed in the reason why shady sands was nuked as opposed to to it actually being nuked

I had an issue with the squires being adults. Squires have always been children, as far as I remember, throughout the games. 🤘🏼

maximus being an idiot savant is a big W in my book

Only thing i really hated was the kinda nonsense nuking of shady sands, it felt like one of those random things that people who have no idea how to write do in order to increase the stakes of the main story or something. Idk it just felt bad. Which is so weird because everything else was pretty well written.

Great video love it and Also love the serie

It seems everyone has forgotten that at the end of Lonesome Road, depending on the ending you choose, Ron Perlman says that nukes fly into "The heart of the NCR". Maybe, just maybe, the Courier lost at the end of Lonesome Road or even if they deactivated the nukes its not too much of a stretch that Hank could have somehow reactivated at least one since he obviously knew the lay of the land

It was really a mixed bag for me. It does what I was worried most about and doubles it: making West Coast Fallout match the East. I absolutely hate everything looking like it's been only 20 years since the war instead of 200+ years and the fact that the Enclave and Brotherhood are shoved into where they don't belong. Shady sands could be nuked, sure, but that doesnt excuse the complete lack of NCR control, citizens or military outside of the remnants we see at the end. It's like the writers and Bethesda are hellbent on never doing anything new without destroying what came before.

Titus was horribly done, there is no way that guy would ever get the rank of knight, let alone a squire.

Didnt the whole shady sands destruction already get debunked??? Because because the age of maximus at the time did not match up very well

Getting little bits of info about the NCR was real cool, Until the flag reveal of the NCR with the fallout theme playing, really just got me in the mood to replay New Vegas for the umpteenth time, I have absolute faith in the team of this show and I'm at the edge of my seat just thinking about how New Vegas will be portrayed, seeing the city I've roamed its chem induced poverty stricken gambling fueled streets I've walked countless times be displayed in a show, just seeing the Lucky 38 towering over Vegas again filled me with pure glee and excitement of what's to come.

People cry about the changes to power armor, well this is the Brotherhood of Steel. For the past 200 years they have technology to modify existing armor, probably build their own armor based off the originals as well and adapt it to suit their needs. The face plate rising for example. It would be far safer to have that raise up to interact with someone, or to eat, then take the entire helm off and exposing your head for an easy head shot. This world is all about survival and modifying things to ensure your survival would be a priority.

The Radio DJ has been shown in Amazon PRime to be a Minuteman Radio tower

there is a line in fallout new vegas, specifically during the G.I. Blues quest where the person quizzing you on NCR history asks what was the *first* capital of the NCR, so it's not a new concept

Minus the few lore things people seem to be either up in arms about or mildly annoyed with, I honestly don't think we could've gotten much better for a Fallout show. Compared to most video game adaptations, this is pretty much right behind The Last of Us in terms of quality; and that had the massive benefit of being a 1-to-1 retelling of an already critically acclaimed story.

Still there's a "fall of Shady Sands" in 2277 which makes 0 sense. People in New Vegas don't even talk about it, hell, they talk as if Shady Sands still is a running city.

The face mask is purely an actor vanity thing. Just like when actors took off their masks during Covid when it was inappropriate. Doesn't help that the silly voice modulator (retcon) made everyone sound the same. Can't wait to hear Lucy the first time she climbs into a suit!

In the first episode the father at the birthday party says he was able to get him to do a kids party was because of alimony, we have to assume then that his wife left him and he lost his job. So he had some sort of custody over the girl and so the mother couldn’t control where they were when the bombs fell even if she knew.

it would be absolutely hilarious if the canonical ending for new vegas is that the courier died in his grave

Like i said before, most fans arent mad they "retconned" fnv, they are mad that fallout finally gets recognition in the new falliut canon and by Bethesda but its first appearance is a destroyed ruins like every modern fallout place.

This is the FO76 syndrome. Every fallout related channel is incentivized to be positive and excited about any and all content that comes out, no matter how garbage. Juicehead was actively selling keys on Amazon to 76 and saying how great it way until everyone started hating it. This is no different. It would be nice to see a channel with some integrity that actually calls out this trash for what it is. Low effort garbage with trans politics crammed into it

if you have a way to square away vault 33 existing in such close proximity to the masters cathedral, this might be salvageable

She was there as a child, so she had the location marker. They must’ve fast traveled 😂