Video game adaptations have been on a roll recently with media such as “The Last of Us,” “Arcane” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s” coming out.  This list now has a new addition with Amazon Prime releasing “Fallout” on April 10, 2024. 

The show has exploded with popularity, receiving a positive reception right off the bat. It holds a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 8.5/10 rating on IMDb. A second season was greenlit for the show only eight days after its premiere. Although it was released only a third into the year, it is considered one of the best shows of 2024. 

Lucy MacLean, played by Ella Purnell, is one of the protagonists who stars in “Fallout.” Her optimism about life, alongside her charming and bubbly personality, quickly won over fans of the show. She is a well-loved character who commonly uses the catchphrase, “Okie-dokey” and has a philosophy of treating others the way that you’d want to be treated. 

“Fallout: is set in a post-apocalyptic world following the aftermath of a fictional outcome of a nuclear exchange between the United States and China. Survivors of this disaster fled to various bunkers, which are referred to as Vaults in the franchise. Although, these Vaults turned out to be designed to perform different experiments on the dwellers.

Lucy was born and primarily raised in Vault 33. She had been sheltered from the outside world, only leaving the Vault during the events of the show to look for her father when he goes missing. Along the way, she decides to team up with The Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins, and Maximus, played by Aaron Moten, each having their own motivations.

One thing that sets this show apart from other adaptations is that it takes a different route when it comes to developing the story. Rather than having it be a direct retelling of the games it is based on, it is treated as a sequel instead. This gives previous fans of the franchise a different story with more lore to dissect.

The popularity that ‘Fallout’ received not only gained traction because of fans of the game, but newer fans that came from the show flocked to play the game for themselves. Not only did the most recent games in the franchise gain a boost in player count, all of the other games did as well. During April, the concurrent player count jumped over 500% of its previous number, landing the fourth game a place on Steam’s Most Played list.

Although Purnell has gained a significant number of fans after her role in the show, her previous shows had already boosted her popularity. She starred as Emma Bloom, the main love interest in “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016).” She also had roles in 2021 as Jinx in “Arcane” and Jackie Taylor in “Yellowjackets,” which is around the time which I became a fan of her. She already has so many good shows under her belt, and “Fallout” is without a doubt an excellent addition to her portfolio.