I kind of promised I would distance myself from the eternal and deliberate circle of disappointment with adaptations that my rage was a part of, but fuck it, Fallout is close to my heart so I will break that promise for a little bit: Jesus that looks bad. I will ignore the blatant disregard for stablished lore, as it is par for the course for both Amazon's adaptations and Bethesda's anythings and not everything has to be 100% faithful to be enjoyable so I will instead focus on what's bugging me the most: with those pictures alone I already know they don't care or even know the very basics of what makes Fallout click, based on the overall look and the technology used alone.
If you asked somebody with a passing knowledge of Fallout and a basic grasp of visual design, they'd tell you that the two main components of Fallout's aesthetics are advanced technology but with a vintage look (since the transistor was never invented) and 50's Americana. Yes, there's also a strong component of the usual post-apocalyptic Mad Max-esque elements, but they are secondary to the other two and don't really work by themselves. So, let's look at this frame:
First, I wouldn't know this was from fallout and not from a generic SyFy movie of the week if I hadn't read the title of the article. Even ignoring the egregious Boeing-like plane awkwardly copypasted in there for good measure that's is completely out of place in this universe, lore and aesthetic-wise, the whole thing screams "digital" at the top of it's lungs, even more than any other show I've seen recently. I know using actual film nowadays is verboten unless you are Tarantino or something, but there are cheap and easy ways to make things look more analogic and not like the whole thing was shot with a fucking iPhone. The laziest fan film knows this and tries to use a filter or something. Even the lighting of this scene looks AI made, and I bet ten bucks this show will be 95% filmed against one of those hellish Virtual Production LED screens and the other 5% are cheap props that are modern day trash from the dollar store stapled together. I know it sounds like hard work, but to make Fallout look like fallout, you have to make an effort to look as analogic as possible.
I don't like Fallout 3 much (but I don't hate it either), but even Bethesda knew this very simple aspect of fallout's identity and tried
hard to make those two elements shine, even if a 3D videogame in a engine like theirs was the most digital-looking thing ever; they accomplished this by having really good visual, sound, and user interface design with a very heavy emphasis on making the whole thing feel modern and outdated at the same time. It's not coincidence that the main menu of Fallout 3 looks like a slideshow and not like any other contemporary videogames or making the cumbersome but useful Pip-boy so prevalent. Having somebody as great as Adam Adamowicz (RIP) as a concept artist didn't hurt either.
If you can't even be arsed to think for a minute about how the very look and production of your show betrays the basic essence of the thing you are adapting then I have not a sliver of faith you are willing or able to put effort anywhere else. This lack of introspection or creative drive is simply embarrassing, even more so for people who get paid ridiculous figures from one of the biggest companies in the world. Even the laziest cosplayer tries a bit harder than this.
Fucking hell, if you don't believe me, the last photo of the article is a Kodak picture of the actress and Jonah Nolan, the most analogic thing you can get your hands on nowadays, and the costume looks way more fallout-y than any of the other pictures just because it doesn't have 10 layers of digital fuckery over it and a background of pure visual noise:
Photoshop that fuckin Nolan into a supermutant or ghoul, add some burn to the paper and some white spots and you have a much better promotional material that any of the overproduced soulless pictures you seemed so proud of.
On more fanboyish complains, that this is at least partially set on LA but not on the Boneyard and that the ghoul character is creatively named "The Ghoul", which in this context is as stupid as calling the MC "the woman" makes me genuinely sad. At this point only a miracle would make me watch this, I know enough about how they are handling this to realize that it's not for me, and the smart thing for me to do is to ignore it from this point onwards, and don't even comment on it or get mad, as now I know that purposely making fans angry and loud is part of the current business model, so I will do my part to break the cycle and just act like it doesn't exist and move into new things so those dickheads can ruin those things in the future too.
Thanks for attending my TED talk, and remember that finding a good adaptation in this day and age is almost hopeless. Finding it though, that's not the hard part. It's letting go.
