Entertainment Swindon

This eight-episode Amazon Prime series starring Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins hit the streaming channel last Friday (12th April 2024), ready to binge in one hit.

This latest series from Prime based on a hugely popular video game that I had never heard of already had a fan base ready and eager to watch this adaptation which apparently captured the distinct tone of this very quirky funny take on a post nuclear war dystopian future.

Odd, Quirky and unexpected, would be an understatement to describe this show, I come from a generation that grew up with PacMan, so had no idea about Fallout even being a game, so I can only describe this phenomenal show by imagine you of the generation that lived in the 1950s, many still didn’t have a TV at home, let alone one in every room! Comics, books and 50s Syfy shows were a very different breed compared to today… Fallout shows the post nuclear war apocalypse world through the eyes of those who were living in the 50s which I found an extremely quirky genius post apocalypse take compared to the usual style we are used to.

Speaking to friends who are gamers and have played Fallout have all stated that the show follows the game perfectly, praising the show with the only complaint that the series ended far too soon, which spurs me on to ask the question, “To binge, or not to binge?”

This adaptation of the popular game Fallout, for me was over far too quick! I started to watch Fallout on the Friday and finished before lunch on the Saturday, gutted that it was all over, begging for there to be a second series. Luckily, a second season will hit our screens, but not quick enough to fill my binging need! SO was it a good idea to binge it? Should I have taken my time? Unfortunatly, I have no restraignt for shows that go out completely to binge, I cant just stop after one episode and go back a few days later, I have the same lack of will power to do this as I have to putting the lid on a tube of Pringles before its empty!!!

So in a blink of an eye it was over! So should streaming platforms spread these adictive shows on one episode a week? Personally I hate having to wait a week for a programme that Ive become hooked on, but equally I hate having binged a shows whole season, knowing that I will have to wait the best part of a year to watch the next season! Damned if I do, Damned if I don’t! So what is the answer?

By Saturday lunchtime, Im feeling like an addict with withdrawal symptoms, begging for more! One of the most intelligent, genius shows I’ve watched in quite some time, if you’re not a gamer like me, you will still love this show! Without spoiling it for any strange person that has not watched Fallout yet to the very end, I felt like the ending was my only negative thought of the whole of the show, there was no ending, there was no cliff hanger, it ended like another episode was about to start, but with the knowledge that really was the end, well until they put out season two which wont be this side of Christmas!

In an age of shows being cancelled before they even get a chance, leaving streaming platforms full of shows you get into for a couple of seasons only to find them cancelled due to financial reasons, usually because of lack of numbers watching these shows, maybe if we were forced by streamers to watch each week instead of being able to binge, these shows would get long enough to build a following enough to warrant these shows being recommissioned. Designated Survivor was such a show that the end of season 3 left us on a cliff hanger, only to be told Netflix was cancelling the show. Luke Cage was another show that ended way before it should have, though for different reasons, Netflix and Marvel (Disney) came to loggerheads unable to agree where the show was going with very differing visions, so Netflix just ended it. In fact Netflix ended up cancelling their whole batch of Marvel shows too soon, such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones & Punisher!

There are countless shows cancelled on streaming services way before their time, often without wrapping up the show with a closing finale episode.

You could say that releasing a complete season at once to binge on gives the viewer the option to dictate the pace they watch it at, though this could also be argued that this hurts TV in a number of ways leaving shows cancelled before they have a chance. Releasing a show with one episode a week give chance for viewers to go to work and chat about it with colegues, to chat about it in the pub with their mate and to post on social media platforms with theories about what might happen next and what they love about the show so far making the show a weekly event.

The event of streaming platforms is still a relatively new thing and producers of shows and films, streaming platforms themselves and more traditional television from BBC & ITV to Sky have struggled to work the best formula to fix what streaming platforms have inadveribly broken, so maybe we should go back to the traditional weekly scheduling of programmes.

As much as I love binging, Fallout could be the show that has finally proven that maybe we are best off going back to the weekly format of television. Fallout was launched on the Friday and within 24hrs the complete series was over for me, likely leaving me a whole year wait for season two.