Does the Fallout TV show need to be faithful in order to be good?

After first debuting in 1997, the beloved video game series Fallout has finally been adapted for the small screen.

The Amazon Prime series follows Lucy, who lived over 200 years in an underground bunker following a nuclear aftermath, as she explores the brutal wastelands of a post-apocalyptic Earth.

Today on Commotion, our panelists Niko Stratis, Rad Simonpillai and Pablo, The Don join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to review how well the series honours the video game franchise — and whether it even needs to be faithful in order to be good.

Niko Stratis is a Toronto-based culture critic who writes the Substack Anxiety Shark . Rad Simonpillai is a freelance film critic whose work appears in The Globe and Mail, CBC Arts and here on Commotion. Pablo, The Don is a culture critic and part of the Those Wrestling Girls podcast based in Springfield, Massachusetts.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, including a review of Netflix's Ripley adaptation, J. Cole's diss track and subsequent apology, and reactions to the news of O.J. Simpson's passing, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: Niko, you've been chomping at the bit to talk about this series. How are you feeling about it after watching the first episode?

Niko: Adaptations are so difficult, right? We've seen this in so many different mediums where it can go south really easily. When they were like, "We're going to do a Fallout TV show," my initial instinct was, what if we just leave well enough alone? So I was going in very cautiously, but I really wanted to see this world brought into a place where they could tell a story in it. And I watched a couple episodes last night and I walked away being like, this is it. They did it. They nailed it.

Elamin: What a satisfying feeling that is when you see something that you love, and what a relief that they actually did it faithfully. Pablo, you're a huge fan of Fallout also. How faithful to the game is this series? Does it need to be faithful? How are you feeling?

Pablo: No, it doesn't need to be faithful. Fallout is a multilayered universe. I think the show takes on its own life form, and it tells a completely different story that's just set in the universe of Fallout — which I enjoy because there's nothing to compare it to, really, other than: is the universe they're putting this in somewhat intact? Are there ghouls? Are the core elements to the game there? And yes, so far, they've done these things. So I think they've done a great job of trying to create their own narrative within the universe, instead of trying to pick one of the stories from the actual games and follow that narrative.

Elamin: Niko, to that point, if you loved playing Fallout, you're going to want to see some of the elements that you loved in the game of Fallout in a TV show. So how precious do we actually need to be about the elements of gameplay and the elements of game story making it into a TV adaptation?

Niko: Not at all. The failing of the The Last of Us adaptation, for instance, was that it took the plot of the game and transposed it to TV, so if you've played the game you know where that story is going. Fallout is this beautiful retro-futuristic world that has a lot of elements in it, and what it does instead is it gives you the universe, and it says, "We're going to tell an entirely different story set within the confines of this universe that you know and understand." Which is such a perfect thing because you can kind of have that element of surprise and wonder, and you can pick out things if you're a fan. But if you don't have those things, you're still invited in. We don't need to be faithful to these things. Just give yourselves room to tell a story. Let Walton Goggins play bizarro Raylan Givens in this thing. Let's go nuts.

WATCH | Official trailer for Fallout:

Elamin: First of all, I wasn't aware that there are criticisms to be made of The Last of Us because as far as I can tell, that series is perfect. So I'm just going to take your comment and park it in a different side of my brain that I'm not going to return to for a while.

Rad, to me the success of shows like The Last of Us, The Witcher and Halo has proven there is this appetite for these video game adaptations to make it to the small screen. Do you feel like Fallout falls in the same kind of league as these other adaptations?

Rad: Well, first of all, I should say I'm on Niko's side when it comes to The Last of Us.

Elamin: I'll just leave this show. You guys can just have it to yourselves.

Niko: Two against one!

Rad: I feel like on the one hand, yes, video game adaptations are better than they've ever been. On the other hand, you guys are so happy that it's not like the '95 Mortal Kombat movie — which I love just for that song…

Niko: Well, hold on a second.

Elamin: Pablo throwing their hands up in the air being like, "Whoa whoa whoa."

Rad: But we've come a long way since then, to the point that I feel like then there's this, all of a sudden, "Oh my God, The Last of Us is a masterpiece." And maybe even Fallout too…. But I do think that video game writing has come so far, where the narratives you see in video games are almost worthy of television and feature film writing…. They become easily adaptable to the point where if you didn't deliver on a video game adaptation, that would be embarrassing because they're giving you the goods, you know?

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender.