Amazon Prime promotional poster art for Fallout

(10) SF: FALLOUT

(2024: SEASON 1)

Yes, I’m running with this series and its 2024 debut on Amazon Prime as my wildcard tenth place entry as best of 2024.

For one thing, there wasn’t much else I saw by way of debut fantasy or SF TV series to outrank it in 2024. For another, as flawed as it was, it was fun, even if that fun was carried by its lead Ella Purnell (who, as voice actress for Jinx in Netflix’s Arcane really seems to be having a banger year or years recently on television) as well as the always reliable Walter Goggins as the Ghoul (also having a banger year or so in television as voice actor for Cecil in Prime’s Invincible). The two of them pairing up was the highlight of the series.

Yes, it’s cheesy, but then so are the games from which it is adapted and you could hardly expect high art from it. It’s your standard post-apocalyptic wasteland, albeit from nuclear war between the United States and China in an alternative twenty-first century with retro-futuristic 50s chic.

FANTASY OR SF?

Classic post-apocalyptic SF – after a nuclear war in an alternate history timeline to boot. Of course, post-apocalyptic SF can often have elements of fantasy

HORROR

And more often, elements of horror – as here, notably with the ghouls.

RATING: 4 STARS****

X-TIER (WILD TIER) – BEST OF 2024