The house always wins
Photo courtesy of Bethesda Softworks, LLC/Wikimedia Commons
This article contains spoilers for Fallout (2024- ) season two.
This past December saw the release of Amazon’s second season of Fallout (2024- ), a story set within the world of the beloved video game franchise of the same name. After its release, the series was quickly regarded as one of the best video game adaptations ever put to screen by both fans and those who had never played the games. This led to the series being renewed for a second season shortly after the first’s release. It was even renewed for a third before the second season was even released. So now begs the question: did the second season hold up in terms of quality?
Short answer; it did not. Do not get me wrong, the second season of Fallout (2024- ) was not bad at all, it was still very entertaining television, but it was brought down by the same eight-episode format that has plagued television for years now, each of its episodes under an hour long. Now that may not seem all too bad considering there are many shows that follow this same format and succeed where this season mostly failed, a great example of this being the first season of the very same show.
So, what happened? The plotlines did. The second season of the show had an insane amount of subplots that made very little progress and practically no lasting impact on the main plot by season’s end. A great example of one of these ridiculous subplots was the one revolving around Vault 33, the one that main protagonist Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) is from. This subplot mostly consisted of a developing tension between the Overseer of Vault 33 Betty Pearson (Leslie Uggams) and random Vault dweller Reg McPhee (Rodrigo Luzzi), with this little feud starting over a water shortage in the Vault. What was the climax of this plot? The big reveal? Well, Reg got upset with Betty and yelled at her when she tried to shut his club down. Yeah. That’s it. Combine that with the random long shots of people walking through the Vault’s corridors with ‘50s music in the background and you got yourself much less time to give to the main plots and more interesting subplots.
Besides wasting time, these pointless subplots breed conveniences, with many of the dangerous situations the protagonists find themselves in becoming inconsequential, as someone always swoops in out of nowhere to save them. Oh no! Lucy was captured by the brutal and ruthless Caesar’s Legion and was crucified! But do not you worry, because The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) appears out of nowhere, walks right up to the Caesar himself while armed to the teeth, and makes a deal for her release with no issue at all.
This very same scenario was a common occurrence, like when The Ghoul got impaled on a pole in the town of Freeside and began to go feral, only for a Super Mutant played by Ron Perlman, which was admittedly pretty awesome, to come out of nowhere and save him. Or when Maximus (Aaron Moten) was overpowered by a pack of Deathclaws, destroying his Power Armor and forcing him to confront these vicious beasts without it, only for the New California Republic to come out of nowhere and save him. Or even the time when Lucy’s own father (Kyle Maclachlan) had her held down so he could install a mind control chip on the back of her neck, only for The Ghoul to come out of nowhere and save her (again).
The ending of the season also left much to be desired, as Lucy’s resolution with her father that she had been pursuing all season ended with him lobotomizing himself, while The Ghoul is still looking for his family, Caesar’s Legion are on the verge of attacking New Vegas where the NCR currently are, the Brotherhood of Steel wants to build Liberty Prime (again), and the Enclave are returning once again. It really feels like a lot is about to happen, but nothing has really happened yet, almost like this season was just a very long prologue for season three. And while there were admittedly some great things about this season—such as Justin Theroux’s portrayal of Robert House, Ron Perlman’s Super Mutant, as well as iconic locations, characters, and factions from Fallout: New Vegas being brought to live action—the many issues of this season balanced them out. Many of these I haven’t even mentioned, like the overuse of cryogenic technology to bring back pre-war characters, turning the Deathclaws into cannon fodder, or Macaulay Culkin’s acting.
Overall, I still believe that season two is a good watch despite its flaws, and that you should give it a try if you enjoyed the first. Just do not go in expecting to be on par, although with all the setup that they did this season it’s entirely possible that the showrunners will ramp up their game once again for season three.