MIDNIGHT REVIEWS Fallout S1 E3 Review
Midnight Reviews features reviews and thought pieces written and edited by a parent, at night, after bedtime.
Fallout Season 1 Episode 3: ‘The Head’
Series created by: Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Graham Wagner
Featuring: Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Walton Goggins
Synopsis: Maximus (Moten) has assumed the identity of Knight Titus, but how will this ill-gotten position fit him? Lucy (Purnell) has the head that everyone is after and takes it for a walk. We also get a glimpse at The Ghoul’s (Goggins) previous life.
Review: After the stumble of episode two, Fallout once again reaches the heights of its first episode with some wonderful character work, neat plotting and some nice, dark humour.
After all the bluster of episodes one and two, we get to see The Ghoul before he was The Ghoul, when he was simply Howard. Goggins gives good humour making himself look stupid as a Vault-Tec spokesperson but beforehand shows us a conflicted artist, leaving not just the question of how he got to be The Ghoul over two hundred years later, but how he ended up working children’s parties. Each pained expression seems hidden from other characters, but Goggins’ performance is fantastic at letting us know his every thought every step of the way. A world away from The Ghoul he plays in the irradiated wastelands.
Unfortunately subtitles have to be called upon, however. If this is Walton Goggins’ show, as many reviews would have us believe, it’d be nice if we were able to hear him. This isn’t a critique of his performance; Goggins isn’t giving a mumbled performance, it’s more that the mixing doesn’t consider the muffled delivery from whatever make-up/prosthetics he’s having to wear. A bit of a shame, especially as some of his dialogue is both incredibly vital to the plot and funny, including the meta lament that the wasteland constantly sidetracks the people that live there. Anyone who’s played any of the Fallout games will get it.
Some characterisation that seems mixed relates to Lucy, she of the vaults and on the hunt for her father. Purnell plays Lucy with an ‘aw shucks’ routine, but her deadpan reaction to taking a man’s head off seems less humorous and more psychopathic, considering she struggled with the concept of the raiders earlier in the season. At no point did I feel her struggle with performing this act that, even if the person was already dead, was exceedingly violent. This juxtaposition doesn’t quite work.
Elsewhere we have Maximus, trying to maintain the lie that he is dead and that Titus survived. I can’t help but feel it isn’t going to end well for Maximus, and Moten’s performance gives both comedy and desperation (sometimes simultaneously). It’s amusing watching him digging a deeper and deeper hole, particularly when in conversation with his new squire (Johnny Pemberton, making a welcome return). Watching both of them negotiate a disgusting, creepy gulper isn’t exactly thrilling or pulse-pounding, but it is entertaining.
It’s here where viewers have to consider the values dissonance between themselves and the characters. Fallout isn’t just set almost three hundred years in the future, but in a situation so alien from our own that it’d be impossible to imagine how one would act. Likewise, trying to find a link between these characters is sometimes difficult, in a similar way wastelanders and vault dwellers see the world in a completely different light.
As we approach the end of episode three, it’s clear Fallout has managed to climb out of the mediocrity of the previous episode. The new overseers are hilarious idiots, like a three-headed puppy; The Ghoul musical sting isn’t irritating anymore and we finish with a cracking layer of irony in the final musical choice. It’s almost a shame the entire season has dropped already, as I may find myself binging the entire thing once the little one is asleep.
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
