I only watched the first ep but agree about the photography, first class. HD still doesn't have an ideal dynamic range compared to 35mm but you can really admire their efforts here.

I deliberately haven't read any reviews of Fallout, so I honestly don't know what others who have played the game are making of it.

Personally, I feel somewhat let down as characters seem to have been invented to fit the narrative, or altered for similar reasons.  The game, especially with all of its retail extensions and community-made add-ons is a massive, sprawling open world where one can roam at will, and where one can even ignore the main quest line if one is so minded.  The TV series is a very narrow and linear effort.  Also, a lot of the humour of the game has been lost, making a far darker story.  In the game one has, after performing various tasks, the option of joining one or other of the factions, such as the Brotherhood of Steel, or not.


The game, I believe, is too big for this type of storytelling, and as I mentioned previously, in the game one's first task is to escape the empty vault that one has awoken in and to arm oneself with something to kill the roaches, which are the only other inhabitants of your world.  One is introduced to the darkness at the heart of the game at a much gentler pace.  The TV show is way too "in your face" for me.  In the game, although there are ghouls there is no "The Ghoul", there is a helpful(ish) robot (named Codsworth) discovered at your old house in the game, and who was your baby's "nanny".  in the TV series the first robot we see is the one trying to carve our heroine up for spare parts.  In the game, although the music was an integral part of the atmosphere it became wearing after a time so there was an option to turn off the radios it was playing on.  I wish the TV series had that same option because, again, the music is "in your face," rather than creating an atmospheric background to underpin the steampunk-ish time period of the game world.

One last moan, the scientist (played by Michael Emerson) who "altered" the dog, didn't exist in the game, but one could take a dog to be one's companion, and your dog would fight with you.  you could even scavenge rudimentary armour for your hound.

Sorry guys, as someone who played the game for a long time you've dropped a clanger here.

I never made it to the end of the first episode, but to be fair it did look very good visually, just lacked the depth you get from film - brave decision to go B&W though, so I agree Jules, got to admire that choice. I gave up at the scene where Andrew Scott is sitting down having a conversation with some guy in either a big room or a workshop. I found the editing to be rather poor, making my head spin with it's 2 or 3 second cuts - so that was it for me. Shame really, as I like Andrew Scott, he was fantastic in All of Us Strangers.

I also tried Fallout . . . didn't make it to the end of the first episode for that one either!

I do keep plugging away at TV drama, but it's clear I'm pretty much a film guy.

Yes, we are tow episodes in and enjoying it. At first I was a bit suspicious of the choice to shoot in B&W, especially with such a low-key rendering. However, I think it suits the mood overall and the character of Ripley rather well and I no longer notice it as an 'effect', but enjoy the lighting choices it brings and the way it helps focus the drama.

The Alex Rider locations in Malta are absolutely spectacular - I've decided that a city break to Valetta is now compulsory ...

Wow - how long did you spend growing up in Malta, Tim?

That cafe looks absolutely fab, my kind of place. It's amazing - looking at Alex Rider I feel I just want to get a camera out, just about every place they go is so photogenic and inspiring to me!

I want to watch Beacon 23 because a) it was written by Hugh Howey (Silo) and b) Lena Headey.

Is it actually available on any UK service?

AppleTV+ it seems.