MIDNIGHT REVIEWS Fallout S1 E7 Review
Midnight Reviews features reviews and thought pieces written and edited by a parent, at night, after bedtime.
Fallout Season 1 Episode 7: ‘The Radio’
Series created by: Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Graham Wagner
Featuring: Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Walton Goggins
Synopsis: Lucy (Purnell) and Maxiums (Moten) take further steps into finding the head. Norm (Moises Arias) discovers more about the suspicious activities in Vaults 31 through 33. We see Cooper (Goggins) wrestle with his loyalties.
Review: It’s clear that each vault hidden under the wasteland is twisted in its own way, and that they are definitely lying to themselves when it comes to how squeaky-clean they are. What we get in Vault 4 is something… quite unexpected, even if the final gag is telegraphed. We get steely looks, drinking blood and Chris Parnell acting like a bad game show host. The disgusting premise that Vault-Tec, the company that put these vaults into the ground, is testing groups of people as opposed to simply giving them the best chance they survive, is classic big corporation gone bad, a setup that leaves a lot of possible apples to pick from the tree both in the remaining episodes and the recently confirmed season two. More on that later.
[These vaults are] both empty and threatening.
Other surprises include the return of the chicken man and the appearance of Erik Estrada with a metal detector. But a rug pull from one of these made my jaw drop and made me wonder what poor Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton) has gotten himself into. Not to spoil what happens to the beleaguered squire, but hopefully he makes it back for the next season.
We also get some more information, alongside the ever-cautious Norm, when it comes to what’s happening in these dang scary vaults. Unlike Vault 4, originally crewed entirely by scientists, Vault 33 seems populated by a mixture of ne’er do wells and cowardly lions. Chet, he of the permanent hangdog expression, tries to live with his fate. Dave Register manages to elicit so much sympathy from a character that could’ve been nothing more than an energy-sapping sad sack and the moments he has onscreen are almost heart breaking. The guy just needs a hug. A slogan read over an intercom is both empty and threatening, like parts of the vaults themselves, presented in a benign way that tries to trick you into thinking everything’s fine. I’d rather be in Vault 4.
A wonderfully complex political statement.
As the episode rolled on, the questions mounted up and the feeling not all of them were going to be answered crept up on me fairly quickly. Have Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy learnt lessons from Westworld, or are we going to be treated to more of the same? A compelling start, followed by gaps and questions in place of teased resolution? Not all stories have to have resolutions, in fact some of the best ones don’t, but to tease them is criminal.
With one episode left and another season already confirmed, it’s hard to feel anything approaching tension when it comes to the three main characters. Every story I’ve glimpsed whilst trying to avoid spoilers has teased the three. At time of writing, Fallout was released ten days ago and yet Amazon have told us all three are returning. This brings the focus away from the episode because, as much as Cooper betraying his wife for communists strictly because of his want for individual freedoms and liberties makes for a wonderfully complex political statement, and as much as Fred Armisen has a top-quality role as DJ Carl, and as much as Leslie Uggams gets a chance to really shine despite limited screen time, the main thread of the show is lost.
Not to cheapen the art of storytelling, but the format of Fallout is essentially having three RPG characters play the same game at the same time. Chances are, at least one of them was going to fall. And yet, they won’t. Which is fine. But what is wrong, because we are given only ten days to binge watch the entire thing, is that we now know this. Episode eight is coming, but to put it frankly the degree to which viewers should care is lessened by this knowledge. A terribly symptom of fast-paced, by-the-minute content release and streaming companies hamstringing themselves.
It seems such an obvious way to increase connection with a show. Even if I weren’t reviewing it, binge watching seems a chore, almost a pressure if others I know have finished it. Engagement, that word internet bigwigs love so much, is reduced when you manage to get millions of people watching your show, and half the time they’re talking at cross purposes! But if it were released weekly…
Have you learnt nothing from The Boys? Or Shōgun? The latter in particular is not necessarily a show that would’ve succeeded had it been simply dropped all at once, but releasing episodes slowly has allowed it to build an audience. Heck, Shōgun Day is even a thing people talk about. Just because people use the internet more than twenty years ago, meaning they can be communicating whilst simultaneously alone, doesn’t mean shows shouldn’t encourage the so-called water cooler chat. In fact, the disjointed, individualised nature of watching a TV show today is all the more reason to spread a release schedule out. What better way to use the internet, the tool you’re using to release your show, to build up everything over the course of months; not just audience numbers but anticipation, relief, release and more importantly that feeling of a shared experience?
Instead, Fallout is out a week and a half and then we’re onto the next thing.
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
