An Alternate Reality: I saw Fallout

I often wonder about the stuff politicians promote. This includes wind turbines and the rise of dead dolphins and whales, but we're told it's the fault of men in rickety boats that cause the sonic pulsations that kill. Then there are those bits and pieces that seem to be ushering another world war, but we're told that there's no good guy or bad guy on either side, and if any friction exists, it's only to secure a benevolent end. Hmmm.

Fallout is an Amazon/MGM Studios series that touches upon similar, grave ambivalence. It's based on a Bethesda, if-the-Cold-War-bombs-dropped video game, but since I'm not into video games, I had to take the eight-part series (produced/adapted by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet) at face value, after my dear friend, Leslie Foster, recommended I watch. I've got to say, based on the show's scenarios (some grim, some satirical), it makes clever use of bureaucratic claims and lies. (Gosh, maybe it's not so alternate-reality, after all.) 

Fallout consists of several, genetically enduring, Los Angeles factions: the 1950s-styled, underground, vault dwellers, whose high-tech inhabitants hope to establish a better world for the dystopic surface derelicts, and on that surface dwells an Iron Man brotherhood that abides by a revamped, Arthurian code for its merciless means to protect and serve. Beyond the knightly sect is a group of dangerous rebels, which dares to invade the subterranean annals, and there's a scattered patch of nomads called the Ghouls, who look frightful, but can heal themselves faster than the Wolverine (as long as they get a steady dose of medicinal juice to prevent them from going 28 Days Later insane). 

Those who fill these factions make the diverse plot congeal: the optimistic, vault denizen, Lucy MacClean (Ellie Pernell); her respected dad, Overseer Hank (Kyle McLaughlin); her truth-seeking brother, Norm (Mosies Arias); the ambitious, overseer-in-wait Betty Pearson (Leslie Uggams); towering, knight-by-default Maximus (Aaron Clifton Moten); his backup compatriot, Dane (Xelia Mendes-Jones); sometimes-screwy/sometimes-square squire, Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton); the man-with-a-secret-component-in-his-head, Dr. Siggi Wilzig (Michael Emerson); and The Ghoul, aka Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins), who was once a big-time, cowboy star, but now roams the dusty plains doing what his fictional persona would've shunned. There's also Howard's wife, Barb (Frances Turner), who plays real nice when it comes to home life, but in the vault-selling business, digs deep into the apocalyptic grime. (There are many other characters who figure in, some who stay and some who go, but they each help entrench the eclectic mythology.) 

For the record, The Ghoul isn't the only one to hold a flipside. In other words, some folks who appear good turn out bad and vice versa. To add to the pervading duality, magisterial habits may sound good at the outset, but are never in the best interest of the commoners of any faction. Who caused this or that doesn't matter as much as the tireless double crossing. 

Also, by the final episode, the culmination of winners and losers is debatable due to the series' open-ended resolution, so a sequel is probable. In any event, for those craving a cynical, socio-political mix of Brave New World-meets-Logan's Run-meets-A Boy and His Dog (with a dash of Forbidden Planet-meets-The Good, the Bad and the Ugly-meets-Alternative 3), Fallout might be your cup of tea. Take a sip and see.