S01.E04: The Ghouls

[paulvdb]

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Death to Management

Premiere date: April 10, 2024

[thuganomics85]

Figured The Ghoul had something nefarious planned after he killed the turning ghoul, but I wasn't predicting making ass jerky.  Classic Fallout!

Loved seeing one of the variations of the Mr. Handy robots get significant screen time.  Snip Snip is certainly one of the most polite organ traffickers to ever be put onto film/television!  Again, Matt Berry and his epic voice were the perfect choices for this role (and hopefully future ones.)

Lucy is still letting her kind heart and need to help others put her in precarious situations and in harms way, but she does have a knack for getting out of it.  But she now has her first kill, so we'll see if this changes things (even if it was a rabid ghoul.)  But she is still holding onto some kind of moral code by giving The Ghoul that medicine or whatever it is he needs.  We'll see if this ends up blowing up in her face or is this a step for him turning a new leaf.  It could be either or!

Something crazy certainly went down in Vault 32.  Looks like they had actually took each other out before the raiders came in?  And Rose/Lucy's mom was the one that opened the door from the outside?  Also, The Ghoul totally had a significant reaction to hearing the MacLean name for the first time, so there is clearly a lot more to this mystery and this family.

Fun seeing Ansel from Reservation Dogs as one of the organ traffickers.  Before he met a typical brutal Fallout end!

[MrWhyt]

4 episodes in and no Ron Perlman!

Other than that: they certainly nailed the tone of Fallout. I'm really enjoying the show.

[Ottis]

6 hours ago, MrWhyt said:

4 episodes in and no Ron Perlman!

Other than that: they certainly nailed the tone of Fallout. I'm really enjoying the show.

Anyone here watching the show with no knowledge of the game(s)? Wondering whether the show appeals to those who aren’t enjoying the game(s) come to life.

The show is certainly disturbing. I do wish we had more prewar scenes, to better understand society before “fallout.” It probably was just as bad, in less obvious ways.

Lucy is very capable. Other vault people seem much less so. Was being capable her official role? Or is she Gomer Pyle-ing her way to success?

Edited April 13 by Ottis

[Sakura12]

In the game uou start with a certain amount of skill points and you choose what you want to focus on. Strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agligty and luck. Which spells out Special. 

Lucy seemed to spread her stat points evenly. While the others focused on one or 2 areas and perception wasn't one of them. Maximus is definitely low on speech points and high on luck. Lol

I've watched reactions from people who never played the games and they are enjoying the show for its characters and story.  This show while Canon is not following any of the games story since it takes place years after any of the games. 

 

 

Edited April 15 by Sakura12

[HerkyJerky]

6 hours ago, Ottis said:

Anyone here watching the show with no knowledge of the game(s)? Wondering whether the show appeals to those who aren’t enjoying the game(s) come to life.

I'm watching this with my 92 yr old mother and we are both really enjoying it and (unlike The Last of Us) we never knew this was a video game.

[ottoDbusdriver]

On 4/13/2024 at 6:18 PM, Ottis said:

Anyone here watching the show with no knowledge of the game(s)? Wondering whether the show appeals to those who aren’t enjoying the game(s) come to life.

I've never played the video game so this is all new to me too -- and I'm really enjoying it.

Edited April 15 by ottoDbusdriver

[PurpleTentacle]

Matt Berry really voices everything nowadays, doesn't he? Not that I'm complaining.

[CatWarmer]

Senior woman here - I never even heard of the video game but am enjoying the show.  Much better than 3 Body Problem! I mentioned Fallout to my 36 year old son and he said, You're watching that?  He has never played but knows all about the game and the show.  

[Jack Shaftoe]

Massive improvement compared to the previous episode. The lack of Maximus' wacky misadventures probably helped.

The set design is outstanding, especially compared to some other Amazon adaptations like The Wheel of Time. The robot looked just like in the games and was super creepy in a darkly comical way. The terminals in the vault were recreated perfectly and the same goes for the atmosphere of doom when trying to find out what befell that particular vault. I just hope it's something deeper than just overpopulation, Fallout New Vegas in particular had some really creative scenarios of vaults becoming hell on earth.

Lucy helping out the guy who used her as bait and cut her finger was a bit too much of a protagonist privilege for me. He was going to find the vials inside anyway and she had already displayed dangerous altruism minutes later by releasing the feral ghouls.

Damn, Steph can't catch a break. I guess she doesn't seem to have a good Luck stat. I see a roaring rampage of revenge in the near future when those prisoners inevitably get free.

[peridot]

I really enjoyed this episode. 

I wasn't surprised by the Ghoul mercy-killing Roger, but I was surprised that he started eating him.  Even more surprised that Lucy joined in on the cutting.  She's a trooper, she hasn't vomited once from doing gross things.

Lucy didn't have much off a reaction to having her finger cut off.  He sawed it off and that was it.  I would have been screaming and wailing. 

I laughed at the pregnant lady giving those doll shoes to the tall cousin.  I thought they would have had to take off the jumpsuits to have sex, but silly me!

The story with Vault 32 is interesting.  I'm glad to see that one of the leaders (the older lady) seems to have sense about her - I wonder if she knows what happened to Vault 32?

[tennisgurl]

I am only a very casual knower of Fallout things, I have played the game maybe five times and most of the rest I know through pop culture osmosis, but I am really enjoying the story and characters on its own merits. I especially liked this episode, Lucy and The Ghoul are an interesting pairing of characters and I am glad that, even as Lucy is becoming harder as she explores the wastelands, she is still holding onto her morals. Even The Ghoul seemed a bit impressed/pensive after she still saved him even after he sold her for spare parts. Now Lucy has a new finger, some new weapons, and a cool new wasteland outfit! 

Matt Barry as Mr. Handy is amazing casting, I hope that we see more of them! Snip Snip was so cute I was sad to see him go, even if he was trying to cut Lucy apart to harvest her organs. I am really amused that the organ traffickers are just two loser stoners who apparently got lucky to find a robot, not scary badass criminals, and I am really glad that Lucy saved all of the captured ghouls. One of them even thanked her! 

Looks like something really freaky happened in Vault 32. And Lucy and Norm's mom maybe opened the door?

[greycoupon]

I also have never played the game and really don't know anything about it.  I'm enjoying the show even though I find Lucy's gosh darn it idealism annoying as she shouldn't have lasted 5 minutes outside the vault.  Really over the 50s music but I get it is part of the game and not going anywhere.  Body parts keep getting cut off and reattached with almost no gore.  I guess they can do that since this was a video game but as a non-player, it is distracting.

[Danny Franks]

I know everyone adores Walton Goggins, but I find this character utterly one-note and insufferable. He's smarter, he's tougher, he's more ruthless, no one can get the better of him. Except for when he's all woobie faced about his past. Blech.

I am finding the gore excessive. I don't need to see fingers being chopped off and heads crushed. It did have some shock value in the first episode, but four episodes in it just feels puerile and immature.

I always love Matt Berry, and having him voice one of the permanently cheerful, insane robots was a genius move. And the dorky kid who works in the arcade in Stranger Things is now a drug dealing raider.

Not sure why the defibrillator was charged, mind. But Lucy definitely has her Luck maxed out, to get free from the table and then watch the ghouls and raiders kill each other while she's unharmed.

But this would be a way more intriguing character if she'd put a bullet through the Ghoul's head instead of giving him the meds to prove she was better than him.

The larger vault storyline is interesting, and harks back to the vaults you'd find in the games, where strange things had happened. Exploring and abandoned vault only to find seriously creepy shit had happened feels very familiar. It reminded me heavily of Miranda from Serenity.