Amazon Prime Video's ultra-violent post-apocalyptic drama, Fallout, has returned for its second season, but one critic suggests viewers might be better off spending their money elsewhere. For an extra £2.99 a month, subscribers can skip the ad breaks, but after enduring the latest offering, this reviewer stated they would have happily paid to watch only the commercials to avoid the show itself.
A Costly Exercise in Nonsense
With a staggering rumoured budget of $20 million (approximately £15m) per episode, the series is set in the 23rd century, 200 years after a nuclear war. The narrative follows survivors, including thousands of corporate middle managers from a company that engineered the global catastrophe for profit. The central story involves Ella Purnell's character, Lucy, who is on a quest across the Nevada desert to find her father, Hank.
Hank, a senior executive portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan, is responsible for the deaths of millions in a failed bid for promotion and remains at large. The character is depicted enjoying the finer things, like a well-tailored suit, and even sniffs his coffee appreciatively—a mannerism MacLachlan's fans will recognise from his role in Twin Peaks. However, the review argues this is not played for laughs nor does it achieve credible satire, instead landing as a failed attempt.
Derivative Pairings and Blatant Rip-Offs
Based on the long-running video game franchise, the show pairs the naive and polite Lucy with a psychotic bounty hunter known as The Ghoul, played by Walter Goggins of The White Lotus fame. The Ghoul sports a gaping facial wound where his nose once was, achieved through painstaking CGI—a detail the review finds unnecessarily extravagant.
Their dialogue is criticised as clichéd, filled with lines about 'The Brotherhood' and 'The Artefact.' Their journey is seen as a heavy-handed borrowing from classic Westerns like The Searchers, but without the emotional depth or charisma of a John Wayne. One particular scene, where Lucy saves The Ghoul from a lynching with a rifle shot, is highlighted as a blatant rip-off of a sequence from Clint Eastwood's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, rather than a respectful homage.
Flashbacks, Evil CEOs, and One Redeeming Feature
Flashbacks show corporate refugees trapped in an underground bunker, struggling with basic survival because they have forgotten how to use email. The villain is an evil CEO, described as a sort of Elon Musk with a Clark Gable moustache, who has invented a radio-controlled box that makes people's heads explode.
The review condemns the entire production as "rancid drivel" that would warrant zero stars if not for one saving grace: the adverts. A particular advert for washing detergent that concluded with the solemn warning 'Always Keep Away From Children' provided the only genuine laugh of the hour. Ultimately, despite its colossal budget and star-studded cast, this critic finds the second season of Fallout to be a crass, derivative, and repetitive disappointment.
