Fallout's Trademark Violence And Grim Comedy Will Be A Big Part Of The Show

It is not just "Star Wars," but TV in general that is getting too serious (at least when it comes to blockbuster genre TV), from "Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" and "House of the Dragon" to "The Last of Us" and most superhero shows. Even the live-action "One Piece" was darker and more serious than both its anime and manga counterparts.

This is why it is so refreshing to hear that the TV adaptation of the popular video game series "Fallout" will not shy away from the absurdly grim comedy of its post-apocalyptic source material.

In a preview piece for Vanity Fair, creator and executive producer Jonathan Nolan detailed his vision for the adaptation and how faithful the show will be to the games. As Todd Howard, director of "Fallout 3" and "Fallout 4" explained, part of what makes the adaptation work is that it maintains the humor of the original "Fallout" games.

"We had a lot of conversations over the style of humor, the level of violence, the style of violence," said Howard, who also executive produces the TV adaptation. "Look, 'Fallout' can be very dramatic, and dark, and post-apocalyptic, but you need to weave in a little bit of a wink [...] I think they threaded that needle really well on the TV show."

Part of how the show captures this is by including the Vault Boy iconography of the games, its cartoonish look, and its perpetual smile. The use of the Vault Boy logo is an ironic contrast with the dark and violent world of the games.

Another thing that makes the "Fallout" games so great is how much they rely on visual storytelling. Much of the world-building happens through diary entries you find out in the wasteland and just on the little sights you discover as to what life was like right before the bombs dropped. 

Take the vaults that serve as the opening setting for every one of the games — and the show, too. Each vault is meant to house the remnants of humanity and keep them safe after armageddon, but they are actually just a giant lab meant to do experiments on its inhabitants. You discover this mostly by looking at the decorations of the vaults, like one containing several musical instruments (the vault housed some of the world's greatest musical minds), as well as a white noise broadcast coming out of the vault's loudspeakers that eventually scrambled its population's minds.

But amidst the horror, there is also plenty of laughter. Sticking to the visual storytelling, you find plenty of humorous remains scattered through the wasteland, including skeletons seated on toilets and other embarrassing positions (a skeleton in a bath surrounded by mannequins, a drug deal gone wrong).

"It's a dark world in many ways," Jonathan Nolan said. "But the games were fun to play, fun to explore, and I think that was a mandate for us: to make sure that it was enjoyable to spend time in this universe."

"Fallout" begins streaming on Prime Video on April 12, 2024.