Fallout Season 2 Review – This post-apocalyptic thriller is very funny | television

TThe West doesn’t get any more brutal than it did in Fallout. The series takes place 200 years after a post-nuclear apocalypse, with mostly human beings eking out an existence in a doomed California wasteland filled with sand dunes, outlaw gangs, and mutant monsters. Resources are scarce. Life is cruel. Death is a constant. That should be terrifying. Instead, it’s often hilarious.

Its wicked sense of humor elevated the first season of the well-received Prime Video installment and spared no expense for the long-running video game franchise. An early episode opened with a faction throwing newborn babies into an incinerator — in case you were wondering who the bad guys were — and those flashes of satirical cheer gave Fallout an edge over more somber post-apocalyptic shows like The Walking Dead or The Last of Us.

If the setting was bizarre and the violence was often OTT, the main characters played things admirably straight. Lucy (Ella Purnell) was a wide-eyed naive who had a sheltered upbringing in an underground bunker. It was great to see her skilled, can-do style collide with the lawless chaos on the surface as she searches for her kidnapped father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan). The similarly naive Maximus (Aaron Moten) was an orphan raised in a militaristic religious sect who inherited a rattling mechanized battle suit after his obnoxious boss ran into an irradiated bear.

The world-weary contrast to these innocent young men was the ghoul, played by Walton Goggins with a stunning CGI makeover that convincingly saw off his nose. Dressed in a cowboy hat, rough dust coat, and saddlebag, this rugged mutant was every inch the sarcastic and charismatic gunslinger. But pre-apocalyptic memories cloud the ghoul’s former life as movie star and devoted family man Cooper Howard, navigating a red scare in the beefed-up version of 1950s Fallout.

Season 2 continues the bizarre duo teaming up between Lucy and the Ghoul as they hunt down the discredited Hank, who was last seen heading toward Vegas wearing chunky power armor to enact a horrific, unspecified plot. Lucy still says “candy” instead of swearing but she’s faster at drawing than she was before. Her traveling companion remains impassive as she attempts to break the shell and revive his sense of humanity. (“Empathy is like clay: you’ll lose your shoes in these things,” the ogre grumbles as she rushes to help a stranger.)

There’s also plenty of Goggins in dapper idol mode, as the tunnels delve into the 1950s into who might have been responsible for the original atomic disaster. Cooper’s strained relationship with his wife, Barb (Frances Turner), an executive at the sinister Vault-Tec Corporation, gives him some tasty material to sink his teeth into, even if the flashback-movie-retro-futuristic production design—all desirable curvy cars and Jetsons-style modified robots—is distractingly handsome.

She may have left her basement life well behind her, but Season 2 often pulls back to see how Lucy’s old and slightly outdated underground crew fares, particularly her brother Norm (Moises Arias), who’s locked in a battle of wills with his mind in a jar. We eventually meet again with Maximus, who has returned to the embrace of his old brotherhood and is alternately walking through his duties and daydreaming about his time on the road with Lucy.

There are a lot of plates to keep spinning, but Fallout has always had a fluid narrative structure, trusting that audiences can keep up with the constant parade of eccentricities and interweaving of plot lines. Season 2 draws more directly on the games’ source material – notably 2010’s acclaimed Fallout: New Vegas – but it’s still full of jokes, splashes, and slapstick.

Future episodes see interesting guest roles for Kumail Nanjiani and Macaulay Culkin; Nanjiani, in particular, seems to relish the opportunity to play a cocky heavy. But the most notable addition to the cast is Justin Theroux, who plays the moustachioed Robert House, the reclusive, Howard Hughes-like founder of a robotics empire who would shape the future. Theroux’s barely restrained enthusiasm and distinctive accent—which turns every “W” into a breathy hug—make him stand out in a cast not entirely lacking in larger-than-life characters, even if his appearances are somewhat legitimized.

The first season was released last April as a tradable collection but this time new episodes are being released weekly. The goal may be to create a space for nerd fans to exchange theories about the various Fallout plots that are unfolding. But perhaps this is a misunderstanding of its profound appeal. Fortunately, for every corporate mystery in Season 2, there are at least three exploding heads and a chance to hear Purnell subtly find another variation on her wonderful “Okey-dokey!” Slogan phrase.