MIDNIGHT REVIEWS Fallout S1 E5 Review
Midnight Reviews features reviews and thought pieces written and edited by a parent, at night, after bedtime.
Fallout Season 1 Episode 5: ‘The Past’
Series created by: Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Graham Wagner
Featuring: Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Walton Goggins
Synopsis: Newly-free Lucy (Purnell) meets a new friend. Maximus (Moten) balances how much to tell his new squire.
Review: Fallout episode five, The Past, features a title that suggests some time with Walton Goggins’ Ghoul, but in a surprise turn our long-suffering protagonist doesn’t turn up. Instead we get some time with the other two protagonists, Lucy and Maximus, finding each other and giving the best demonstration of the gulf between vault dwellers and wastelanders.
The difference between the two types of human beings, one allowed to live a relatively easy life inside clean abodes with democracy prevailing, the other scrounging for food and water and enough bullets to kill the next guy, is best shown in the little moments. We have funny but understandable questions from Lucy about what life has been like above ground (hint: not good). There’s the overriding sense that any encounter will probably lead to violence. The simple act of trying to persuade everyone to take a deep breath is far better a way to show the differences than the simple good at violence/bad at violence dynamic we got in episode one.
A wonderful example of […] hard science-fiction.
Also at play is another character who started out as a near-nobody, but through the mere fact he’s the only member of the family left in the vault, Norm (Moises Arias) has become a de facto main character as well. We see his investigations into the nearby vaults increasing in risk and anxiety and what he finds isn’t nearly as terrifying as what he doesn’t find the next day.
This is where Fallout hits a high point, in the suggested hints it gives out. Similar to the violence barely hiding beneath the surface along Lucy and Maximus’ journey, Norm has seemingly been given free rein by new Overseer Betty (Leslie Uggams) but the feeling is he’s treading in the dark near a viper’s nest.
Arias plays Norm as the only sane person in the vault, strangled by the realisation that things have never been as they seemed and that anyone around him could conceivably be that one person he needs to confide in, yet at the same time could be the one to show him how America does democracy with a gun. Is dear old Dad (Kyle MacLachlan) even one of the good guys?
Despite the dirt and grime of the wasteland, there is sadly a clinical nature to Fallout. Is it the distance between ourselves and the characters, whether living in the wastes or the vaults, living lives so different to our own? There’s no depth to the feeling beyond the humour. I’m certainly interested in what happens next, but there’s a lack of something. Even if a main character died, I doubt I would shed a tear; more I would be interested in how that affects things. A casual observer, as opposed to empathising with anyone too deeply.
There are some great laughs to be had though. This episode features a great repeated gag about a vault dweller’s guilt in who he voted for. Watching Lucy try to persuade two strangers to copy her in holding their hands up as they walk, like dancers moving around each other, is humour alongside the tension.
Complex ideas beyond the ease of good and bad.
Visually, the entire series has had some highs and some lows. Not mentioned in any previous reviews, but the Brotherhood of Steel-owned armour looks terrific. It seems to be a mixture of CGI and practical effects, but there haven’t been any points where I’ve noticed the seams. Some of the sets look very much lived in, exploded, then lived in again, particularly some of the near-abandoned buildings in the wasteland. Unfortunately, some of the sets look like sets, and the nagging feeling that you’re watching two actors doing a scene can’t be escaped because of it.
I often find myself quibbling about Fallout. This isn’t because I’m a nit-picker, but because any complaints I do have about the show are ones that, on the surface, seem easy to fix. What it does get right can sometimes be incredibly hard. The look of the ghouls could’ve been anything from laughable to idiotic. As mentioned, the visual/practical effects work is astounding at times. The final note is that Fallout is a wonderful example of the increasing popularity of hard science-fiction being made popular.
For some, Fallout is simply running around and firing guns, and for those people that’s fine. But it’s wonderful and heartening that television has decided that viewers are able to take in complicated ideas without hand-holding. Shows that enable themselves to have potentially intelligent storytelling by trusting an audience understands without being outright told, and having perceptive storytellers who recognise what an audience really want, deep down. Does it always work? Not always. Another recent example, 3 Body Problem, is a true paragon of hard science-fiction made bland. But it’s great to live in an era where television embraces not only big budgets and prestige production values, but complex ideas beyond the ease of good and bad.
Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Smith_M_D
