"The second season of Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Gay's " Westworld " often felt like it lacked focus as the writers figured out where to take their striking concept next. The second season of the similar "Fallout" (right down to the repeated Ramin Djawadi refrains) never lacks in confidence, but it does suffer from a similar diffusion of concept as characters are separated and sent on arcs that feel like they will never intersect."
"While it's arguable that we should just give "Fallout" a pass for being a show that demands attention more than most streaming originals, this season lacks urgency, circling ideas and character development but taking too long to commit to any of it. Now, to be fair, a quarter of the season wasn't screened for critics, and the show has already been renewed for a third season, so we've only seen part of the story."
"The end of the first season gave game fans a bit of a jolt by showing them the dilapidated skyline of New Vegas, a key location from the franchise, but don't expect the new season to spend a whole lot of time there, at least not in present day. If there's a center to the season narratively, it's Lucy ( Ella Purnell) and Cooper Howard ( Walton Goggins) heading to Vegas to find lost family members."
Season two of Fallout presents ambitious, confident production values and musical callbacks to Ramin Djawadi, but the storytelling feels diffuse as characters are separated into arcs that seldom intersect. The first half loses momentum through frequent jumps into the pre-fallout past to explain character histories, which slows urgency and delays meaningful commitments to character development. A quarter of episodes were not screened and the series has been renewed, so parts of the narrative remain unseen. Narratively the season centers on Lucy and Cooper Howard traveling to New Vegas to find lost family; Lucy seeks her father Hank, a vault betrayer.
Read at Roger Ebert
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