S01.E07: The Radio

[paulvdb]

Quote

Every generation has their own dumbass ideas...

Premiere date: April 10, 2024

[thuganomics85]

Fred Armisen as a disk jockey who only plays fiddle music and has elaborate booby traps surrounding the station to prevent people from killing him over said fiddle music is pretty much what I would expect a Fred Armisen Fallout character to be!  Between him and Chris Parnell, I wonder what other former SNL folks from that era would fit in here (Bill Hader?!  Kristen Wig?!  Andy Samberg?!)

Turns out that the current Vault 4 folks were actually not evil, and were trying to fix all of the horrible experiments their predecessors did.  Doesn't explain away all of the weirdness, but that's just vault life for y'all!  They do banish Lucy though for throwing acid in that doctor's face, but still were kind enough to give her two weeks worth of supplies!  Only for Maximus to destroy it and get himself booted with an attempt to "save" her, even though she actually ended up not needing it.  Ah, mishaps!

At least Maximus actually told Lucy the truth about who he is on his own accord, and she didn't find out another way.  Not surprised she isn't going to hold it against him, because considering everything that goes on in wasteland, some fibbing really isn't high enough to get that worked up over it.

Thaddeus is a ghoul, now?!  That's why you never trust doctors who dress like 1800 carnies!

Cooper ends up spying on his wife for Moldaver.  Yeah, I'm guessing this why they will be estranged at some point.  But it definitely feels like Vault-Tech is up to no good.

Norm is off to Vault 31!

[paigow]

Erik Estrada is still alive...

[PurpleTentacle]

Man, Dogmeat gets around between our protagonists.

I guess the experiments in Vault 4 explain why that Axolotl had fingers in its mouth. Those descendants of the experiments were really super nice guys though.

Lucy, honey, when somebody asks you what the experiment in your vault was and you don't know of any, you are the experiment. Though I'm interested in learning what specifically the experiment is.

Thaddeus, you are not the sharpest tool in the shed, are you? Once the "doctor" told you that you didn't have to worry about radiation anymore, you should have known you were a Ghoul now. Still, could have been worse. The alternative would most certainly have been death.

[shrewd.buddha]

On a scale from 1 to 10, the level of plot coincidence and contrivance is set to 19. 
Lucy, Maximus, the Ghoul, Thaddeus and the Dog all happen cross and crisscross paths with one another with perfect timing.  

With the appearance of radio DJ Fred Armisen, the leader of Vault #4 and the other vault characters, it seems safe to assume that this show wants to be a comedy..
.. which is perfectly fine ..  but the wacky tone of the show isn't doing it for me.

If the show was more like the pre-Nuclear apocalypse storyline, with a sense of dread, corporate conspiracies, anarchist groups and conflicting ideologies, I would like it much more. 

I never played the game - so any appeal based on references to that is completely lost on me.  I can only judge it for how it appeals to me as a streaming series. 
 

Edited April 16 by shrewd.buddha
punctuation

[peridot]

I bet Norm poisoned all the prisoners since they were a drain on resources, though it could have been Betty also. 

I'm not sure why the cousin is so eager to shack up with the formerly pregnant lady, but he may just be a pushover.

Poor Thaddeus!  I wasn't expecting for the serum to actually work, but now it seems he isn't human anymore. 

I'm glad Maximum decided to give up the core so that the community could live.  I was afraid he would be too attached to his suit to give a damn.  I wasn't expecting for Lucy's situation to be a non-issue from last episode, but the giant and dull knife was hilarious.

[Jack Shaftoe]

Lucy and Maximus' romance is rushed to the point of parody but I do wonder if it's intentional or just bad writing.

Why do the Vault 4 folks have naked Moldaver worship sessions if they aren't evil?

Tuna? Oysters? Are they growing them in the vaults or had enough to last 200+ years?

Steph is on the conspiracy too? That woman sure leads an eventful life.

Once again, my problem with the show is that it's not funny enough to justify the endless absurd twists of the plot. Not too surprising when Todd Howard and Bethesda are involved rather than the people who created Fallout in the first place but what can you do.

[Sakura12]

11 hours ago, Jack Shaftoe said:

Lucy and Maximus' romance is rushed to the point of parody but I do wonder if it's intentional or just bad writing.

I don't know that's how romance works in the game. You hang around your companion for a bit, then all of sudden they are in love with you. I didn't even bring Preston along as a companion and I have to keep telling him I just want to be friends. 

[hatchetgirl]

Well, it seems like romance is like that in the vaults.  Look, if you are lucky enough to having working baby making parts, that's all the romance you need!  lol

[tennisgurl]

Yeah considering Lucy has only done "cousin stuff" plus her horrible wedding/honeymoon and Maximus doesn't even know what sex is, I can see them moving quickly. 

So it turns out the residents of Vault 4 aren't actually evil, they're just really weird, which seems to be pretty par for the course with vaults. To be fair to Lucy and Maximus, 9 out of ten times that sort of weird behavior and secret laborites really would spell dark evil secret. Don't judge people by the amount of eyes they have!

This show has had a lot of gross out moments, but Thaddeus's falling apart foot was next level nasty. He might be a Ghoul now, but at least he can walk. Never trust a literal snake oil salesman! 

Dogmeat is just going from protagonist to protagonist, what a good girl. 

Fred Armisen as a DJ who loves sting music! Erik Estrada in a surprisingly dramatic turn! The casting on this show is so wild.

[Sakura12]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

Never trust a literal snake oil salesman!

His snake oil actually worked though. He said it would heal all and it does  If you don't ask about the side effects that's on you. Lol 

 

[Danny Franks]

Lucy is really the only character in the show who is likeable at all. Maximus is a priggish, barely competent oaf who I'm sure still loves the idea of being hero worshipped too much. I genuinely don't believe I'm supposed to root for the guy, and I'm just waiting for what seems like the inevitable shoe to drop.

The Ghoul is just fucking tiresome, with all his tropey 'badass anti-hero' bullshit. It's genuinely like he's written by a thirteen year old edgelord who wants to be cooler and tougher than everyone else, yet still have a tragic backstory that makes him the good guy.

Oh, sorry, Dogmeat is also a likeable character and should have had way more screen time than a bunch of others.

I guess I just don't really care very much about how Vault-Tec started, or the bullshit they were up to. That shouldn't matter hundreds of years later, when all these other societies have sprung up and built their own cultures. The show has managed to make its story feel really small and insular, in a world that has always been about expansive adventure.