📺 When it comes to post-apocalyptic dramas, we’ve seen it all — zombies and nuclear wars all the way to incurable plagues and evil scientists. Never, however, have we seen a show that somehow manages to employ all these narrative elements and somehow get away with it. Fallout on Prime Video, based on the popular video game of the same name, might be a little too much in theory, but excels in execution.

Silo meets Zombieland meets Mad Max meets Divergent. Starring Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, and Walton Goggins, Fallout follows humanity some two centuries after a nuclear war saw earth go past the point of no return. There are plenty of characters through which the story is told first-hand; primarily Lucy (Purnell), an underground bunker survivor sheltered from the nuclear waste, Maximus (Moten), an aspiring post-apocalyptic knight, and The Ghoul (Goggins), a…well, super intelligent immortal zombie. This sounds like a recipe for disaster — and it is, in the best way possible.

Equal parts enticing and ridiculous. A premise like that is a hit or miss — luckily it was the former. To put it simply, Fallout is camp. What may initially seem like a convoluted story penned by too many literary cooks in an office kitchen soon reveals itself to be so much more. It’s a dark comedy, an adventure drama, and a sci-fi saga all in one. Initially explored through completely separate narrative arcs, the show’s protagonists (antagonists?) cross paths when a series of disasters threatens to end their way of life (if you can call it that). Initially at odds, they reluctantly join forces to defeat a new big bad.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, and best believe you’ll be hitting “next episode.” Fallout stands out because it offers something new by recycling a mishmash of narrative clichés. At no point will you know what’s coming next — and if you ask us, that alone is reason enough to tune in. The show switches between the present and pre-apocalypse, and features arguably one of the best opening scenes in television history. We’ll leave it at that. Season one is available in its entirety, with season two currently airing with weekly episode drops.

WHERE TO WATCH- You can catch both seasons of Fallout on Prime Video. You can find the trailer for the show on YouTube (watch, runtime: 3:28).

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