Back in 1997, a new computer game called Fallout hit the market. Set in a post-apocalyptic 22nd century wasteland, it placed players as characters who’d existed in underground bunkers and needed to navigate a dangerous “above-ground” world to survive.

This inspired a videogame franchise, and 2024 brought a TV adaptation of the property. The entire first season ran on Amazon Prime in April 2024.

This three-disc 4K UHD set boasts all eight episodes from Season One of Fallout. The plot synopses come from IMDB.

The End: “Humble recruit Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) from a post-apocalyptic organization must scout the wasteland in search of pre-war technology to preserve it, facing challenges and critiques along the way.”

Like most opening episodes, “End” exists mainly to introduce the series’ characters and concepts. Despite the implications of the synopsis in the prior paragraph, “End” covers aspects of the “above world” as well as what happened to 1950s Hollywood cowboy Cooper Howard.

At times, the conflicting tones involved with these three domains can create an episode that doesn’t mesh. In Lucy’s location, we get a mix of the 1950s and Handmaid’s Tale, while the “above world” takes on a futuristic medieval vibe.

Howard’s fate exists in a horror-based Western environment. The three areas can feel detached from each other.

Which makes sense, I guess, but this creates an episode without tremendous fluidity. Still, it sets up the roles and circumstances well enough and launches the series in a mostly positive manner.

The Target: “Maximus (Aaron Moten) commandeers the armor of fallen Knight Titus (Michael Rapaport). Lucy's quest leads to encounters with Dr. Siggi Wilzig (Michael Emerson) and a trip to Filly, where she meets The Ghoul (Walton Goggins).”

Siggi offers a new character, and one I hope comes to a painful end. The episode shows his experiments on puppies, and that acts as enough for me to want to see Wilzig punished, even though the series clearly wants him to come across as a positive force. Nope!

Wilzig acts as the titular “target”, as Titus and Maximus seek him. Rapaport’s cameo offers amusement, brief as his appearance becomes.

This eventually allows for the series’ three leads – Maximus, Lucy and Ghoul – to come together. That part of “Target” fares best and helps push the program over the top.

The Head: “When Wilzig's head is snatched by a monster, Lucy and The Ghoul try to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton) unknowingly teams up with Maximus, and dynamics shift in Vault 33.”

Lucy and The Ghoul create awkward bedfellows, and “Head” explores that pretty well. I also like that we get hints of Ghoul’s prior life as Cooper Howard, though the series still doesn’t tell us how he survived for centuries.

“Head” juggles a lot of balls, as it jumps from one storyline to another pretty frequently. These can leave it a little muddled at times, but it nonetheless manages to help characters evolve fairly well – and we get to see the origins of the cartoon “smiling thumbs up” logo.

The Ghouls: “Lucy and The Ghoul encounter dangerous situations, leading to a moral dilemma and intense confrontations. Norm MacLean (Moises Arias) uncovers secrets in Vault 32, linking back to his mother's past and raising questions about the residents' fate.”

We get another episode that attempts to balance various roles and does so in a slightly uneasy way, though not in a manner that proves genuinely problematic. Still, the series doesn’t completely manage its shifts in tone.

Nonetheless, “Ghouls” gives us some additional backstory that proves effective. Along with elements that push forward the various narrative beats, the episode works most of the time.

The Past: “Lucy joins forces with Maximus to find Thaddeus, who absconded with the head. Meanwhile, Betty (Leslie Uggams) becomes the overseer of Vault 33 and reassigns part of the population to Vault 32.”

To a large degree, “Past” feels like a plot-thickening episode, as it offers a lot of exposition and plot/character development. Some of this feels a bit monotonous but enough intriguing threads manifest to make it a mostly positive program.

The Trap: “Lucy and Maximus learn about Vault's 4 refugee policy and uncover unsettling secrets. Meanwhile, the Ghoul has flashbacks to his former life, where he learned of his wife's (Frances Turner) role in a Vault-Tec conspiracy.”

Though we saw bits and pieces previously, “Trap” digs into Cooper’s pre-Ghoul life better than in the past. I appreciate these elements, as they help give us good information about the world before the nuclear apocalypse.

We also see life in other vaults and the existence of mutants, an interesting twist. All of this makes “Trap” a show with a mix of compelling moments.

The Radio: “Residents of Vault 4 prepare to expel Lucy for breaching the forbidden Level 12. Thaddeus finds a means to heal his foot. Norm infiltrates Vault 31. Lee Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury) convinces Howard to distrust his wife.

As we approach the finale of S1, “Radio” thickens the plot. This means more information about unanswered questions and a good push toward the climactic episode.

By the way, we met one-eyed mutant Overseer Benjamin (Chris Parnell) a little while back. I wish we’d get more of him, as he’s probably the series’ most entertaining character.

The Beginning: “Two hundred years have passed since the beginning of the apocalypse. Leaving the atomic shelter that protected them will pave the way to an unknown world that will unleash a war for survival.”

With Season One at its end, the characters gradually learn more about history and the lies they’d been fed for years. Expect “Beginning” to make a conscious attempt to connect to modern history given the way it depicts corporate culture.

Indeed, a disparaging comment about someone who couldn’t even turn a profit at a casino becomes an on-the-nose reference to a certain Felon-in-Chief. The year wraps with the next program, the revelations prove impactful, although “Beginning” also points out an issue with Season One: the impression that the whole narrative acts as a prologue.

S1 essentially exists as a look at the series’ basic concept and how its characters wound up where they are. This makes the overall arc more backward-looking than one would anticipate, so Lucy, Maximus and the rest do little more than work through various revelations.

These make S1 interesting but I admit I hope S2 pushes ahead with adventures that don’t concentrate so much on the universe depicted in the series. All of this leaves S1 as a compelling collection of shows but one that can frustrate due to its occasional lack of forward momentum.

Fallout appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on these 4K UHD Discs. A native 4K production, the series came with solid Dolby Vision visuals.

For the most part, the episodes boasted strong definition. Some wider shots could lean a little soft, but the majority of the time, the shows seemed accurate and concise.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws remained absent.

The series’ palette combined amber/orange and teal as well as sporadic reds. Though not creative, these choices offered appropriate vivacity, and HDR gave them a boost.

Blacks seemed deep and dense, while low-light shots offered appealing clarity. HDR brought impact to whites and contrast. Outside of a little softness, the episodes looked very good.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the series’ Dolby Atmos soundtracks worked well. Of course, the various action scenes fared best, as they used the various channels in a broad and immersive manner.

The rest of the soundscape offered nice involvement for the score and also created a good sense of environment. The track used the various channels to good advantage and fleshed out the spectrum well.

Audio quality satisfied, with speech that seemed concise and distinctive. Music brought good range and clarity.

Effects showed nice heft and accuracy as well. The programs enjoyed quality soundtracks.

A few extras pop up for the series, and we get an audio commentary for “The End” from director Jonathan Nolan and actor Walton Goggins. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at the videogames and their adaptation, story/characters, cast and performances, sets and production design, cast and performances, and other domains.

At times we get some good notes about the production. However, the track leans too heavily on happy talk to become especially valuable.

All the remaining extras appear on Disc Three, and Inside Episode One goes for one hour, eight minutes, three seconds. This simply offers a video version of the commentary found on Disc One, so don’t expect new information.

Inside Season One spans 18 minutes, two seconds. It brings notes from Goggins, Nolan, showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, executive producer/game developer Todd Howard, production designer Howard Cummings, director of photography Stuart Dryburgh, makeup department head Mike Harvey, sound mixer Tod Maitland, costume designer Amy Westcott, music supervisor Trygge Toven, composer Ramin Djawadi, editor Ali Comperchio, re-recording mixer Keith Rogers, visual effects producer Andrea Knoll, VFX supervisor Jay Worth, stunt performer Adam Shippey, prosthetic effects designer Vincent Van Dyke, prosthetic department head Jacob Garber, and actors Ella Purnell and Aaron Moten.

The featurette looks at the move of the videogames to the series, story/characters, sets and locations, cinematography, hair/makeup/costumes, sound design and music, editing, cast and performances, and various effects.

In other words, “Inside Season One” covers a huge swath of topics for one 18-minute show. While this means it can’t dig into these with great depth, it nonetheless offers a lot of worthwhile material.

Next comes Creating the Wasteland. It spans three minutes, 46 seconds and involves Nolan, Worth, Knoll, Moten, Goggins, gravity jet suit pilot Jamie Stanley, and Magnopus CEO Ben Grossman.

Here we learn a little more about sets and locations as well as effects embellishment of these. A few decent insights emerge but “Wasteland” runs too short to give us much.

Safe and Sound goes for two minutes, 37 seconds. It gives us info from Comperchio, Djawadi, Maitland, Rogers, Toven, and Nolan.

Unsurprisingly, “Safe” tells us about music and sound design. Like “Wasteland”, this one seems decent but not long enough to deliver depth.

After this we head to Set Your Sights on 2296. A two-minute, 23-second reel, we locate notes from Nolan, Cummings, Dryburgh, and Goggins.

Cinematography and locations dominate here. Expect another enjoyable but superficial featurette.

The Costumes of Fallout lasts two minutes, 43 seconds and discusses… the costumes of Fallout with Nolan, Howard, Purnell, Goggins, Westcott, Moten, and actor Frances Turner. Don’t feign surprise when I relate that it becomes decent but without real substance.

Up next, Writing For the Wasteland occupies two minutes, 26 seconds and offers statements from Wagner, Robertson-Dworet, Nolan, Purnell, Moten and actor Kyle MacLachlan. We get vague thought about story and characters in this forgettable reel.

Meet the Filmmaker (And Fanatic) Jonathan Nolan runs three minutes, four seconds and involves Nolan, Howard, Wagner, Robertson-Dworet, Purnell, Harvey, Cummings, Worth, Grossman, Djawadi, Legacy Effects’ Damon Weathers and Cary Gunnar Lee, prop master Peter Gelfman, and actor Annabel O’Hagan. The clip tells us that Nolan’s great and not much else.

From there we head to Prosthetics & Makeup Gone Nuclear, a two-minute, 47-second program with Nolan, Harvey, Purnell, Goggins, Van Dyke, and Garber. This becomes a cursory view of the series’ makeup effects, so don’t expect much from it.

The two-minute, eight-second Becoming the Ghoul features Goggins as he discusses the challenges of his dual role along with added notes from Nolan, Garber and Purnell. It becomes another fluffy little reel, one that comes with a few clips already seen elsewhere.

Console to Camera takes up two minutes, 52 seconds with remarks from Howard, Moten, Goggins, Purnell, Shippey, Nolan, Wagner, Robertson-Dworet, executive producer James Altman and property master Michael Jortner. “Console” goes over attempts to replicate the videogames in the series. This means more happy talk – and more repeated comments – for the most part.

Next we go to Welcome to the World of Fallout, a two-minute, 41-second featurette with Nolan, Wagner, Robertson-Dworet, Purnell, Goggins, Moten, and MacLachlan. “Welcome” gives us basics about the main characters and lacks substance.

A collection of animated shorts appears under the banner of Vault Seller’s Survival Guide. We get seven of these that fill a total of 17 minutes, 28 seconds.

These give us kitschy 1950s-style “educational” films from “Vault-Tec”. They’re amusing.

Partly because it can feel like eight episodes of exposition and backstory, I think Season One of Fallout lacks great forward momentum. Nonetheless, the series sets up an intriguing view of a post-apocalyptic world and remains entertaining even with the flaws. The 4K UHD discs boast strong picture and audio as well as a mix of bonus features. Though I didn’t love S1 of Fallout, I do look forward to Season Two.