The Fallout TV series is more like a great sequel to the games than just an adaptation

polygon.com:

Fallout is a franchise that’s held together by tone just as much as any unifying story beats or canon. The series’ distinct post-apocalyptic vision of an America that never escaped the wide eyes, fake smiles, and faker optimism of the Cold War has become iconic, and its version of Americana shot through with radioactive black humor is more identifiable than any single character from the games will ever be (except Vault Boy, of course). It’s a series that revels in its ability to be funny, touching, sad, sweet, and disgusting all in a single moment. And that tone is what Amazon Prime Video’s new Fallout TV series captures best, and what makes it an excellent addition to the franchise, rather than just an adaptation.

The new show, created by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, smartly adapts Fallout’s world and setting without directly attempting to retell any of the stories from the game series. There are Vaults, where cheery survivors of the nuclear blasts that destroyed most of America wait out the apocalypse; the militaristic Brotherhood of Steel, irradiated surface-dwellers known as ghouls, and just about everything in the vast Wasteland and out is run by Vault-Tec. In other words, it’s a world that’s unmistakably rooted in Fallout’s canon. It’s a loving re-creation of the icons of the Fallout world, but it’s also more than that, pushing the entire franchise forward into a new story and bigger world.

Fallout’s story is mostly centered around Lucy (Ella Purnell), a Vault Dweller who leaves her home in search of her father (Kyle MacLachlan). In her travels through the Wasteland she meets Maximus, a squire in the Brotherhood of Steel (Aaron Moten); a bounty hunter simply known as The Ghoul (Walton Goggins); and plenty of other very strange denizens.

The show follows all of these characters as their paths cross and converge in the Wasteland of Los Angeles in search of a scientist who has escaped the Enclave with a dangerous technology that could change the