At first glance, Amazon's scratching the post apocalyptic itch in left in Fallout’s wake.

While Fallout successfully translates its source material into a compelling narrative that resonates with both fans and newcomers to the franchise, The Electric State flounders. It delivers a visually stunning but emotionally vacant experience. The contrast in reception between the two productions with comparable aesthetics highlights the importance of story and humanity in sci-fi, highlighting that Fallout season 2 cannot come soon enough.

Amazon's Fallout Show Has Similarities To The Electric State

They Both Have Similar Aesthetics, But Fallout Does So More Meaningfully

Amazon's Fallout shares surface-level similarities with The Electric State, both inhabiting a retro-futuristic landscape marked by The Electric State’s robotic companions, a 1950s-inspired design aesthetic, and sprawling Western-influenced vistas. Both narratives feature a young woman protagonist driven by a search for family: Michelle's quest for her brother in The Electric State echoes Lucy MacLean's pursuit of her father in Fallout. However, while both draw from existing source material, Fallout crafts a compelling original narrative that captures the spirit of its video game origins, while The Electric State struggles to find a meaningful story within its visually rich setting.

The Electric State failed to capture the essence of compelling retro-futuristic narratives like Fallout, delivering a visually slick but emotionally hollow experience. Critics widely condemned the film for its soulless, algorithmically-driven approach, diluting the source material's depth in favor of shallow spectacle. Unlike the immersive, culturally impactful worlds of other retro-futuristic media, the Russo brothers' film was deemed a forgettable production, criticized for its incoherent narrative and a lack of genuine humanity, ultimately feeling more like a hollow product of streaming-era content.

Fallout Succeeds Where The Electric State Failed

Nolan And Joy Know How To Craft An Irresistible Story

The Electric State failed to capture the essence of compelling retro-futuristic narratives like Fallout, delivering a visually slick but emotionally hollow experience. Critics widely condemned the film for diluting the source material's depth in favor of shallow spectacle. The Amazon project follows some similar story and thematic beats, but the difference is that Fallout has a brilliant original story which captures the essence of the games while delivering an original plot.

Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy had already mastered the uprooting of an assumed reality in the first two seasons of Westworld...

The structure of Fallout is also immaculately done. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy had already mastered the uprooting of an assumed reality in Westworld, so the execution of this core story is perhaps even better in their video game adaptation. The retro-futurism evokes Cold War American propaganda, emphasizing the vault dwellers’ plight. In contrast, The Electric State did not seem to have anything original or interesting to say with its retro-futuristic aesthetic. In contrast, Fallout delivers an immersive, culturally resonant experience, proving that a well-crafted original story is the most important aspect of a sci-fi production.