'Fallout' an awesome, sometimes gruesome trip into America's wild future

Much has been written about Quentin Tarantino’s, um, predilection for feet scenes, to the point where there’s a Reddit thread titled, “The Tarantino Foot Fetish Timeline” and a YouTube video called “All Feet Scenes in Quentin Tarantino Movies,” and folks, it’s nearly 18 minutes long. The reason I bring this up in a review of the eight-part Prime Video series “Fallout” is that the show also has something of a fixation with feet — but in this boisterous adaptation of the iconic role-playing video game series, the visuals are visceral and wince-inducing.

There are a number of scenes in which various characters sustain serious foot injuries — in one case, losing a foot altogether. Not that the violence, which is often played for gruesome laughs, is solely concentrated to areas below the knees. There are stabbings and slashings and beatings and shootings and bombings and oh yeah, watch out for that sea-dwelling monster who would very much like to consume you.

With “Westworld” (and real-life) partners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy taking the reins and Nolan directing the first three episodes, “Fallout” is a clever and volatile cocktail consisting of social commentary, over-the-top action sequences, quirky dialogue and a steady stream of surprising twists, set against the backdrop of the obligatory dystopian Future.

In a storyline that takes place within the video game’s universe but is original and separate, “Fallout” is set 219 years after a nuclear war that destroyed most of the planet. We also get flashbacks to a couple of key periods along the timeline — including the world just before that war, which looks like the future as envisioned in a 1950s movie, e.g., the fashions and cars and TVs and radios are mid-20th century in appearance, but the Los Angeles skyline is “Jetsons”-like, and there are talking robot servants.

In “present day,” thousands of Americans live in a series of numbered luxury fallout shelters, which on the surface (or should we say, below the surface) appear to be utopian communities where everyone follows the rules and knows their roles, and conflict is almost non-existent. Nobody knows exactly what’s happening above ground, but the hope is that radiation levels soon will fall to a level where the Vault dwellers can return to the surface and rebuild the world.

In Vault 33, Kyle MacLachlan’s Hank is the benevolent Overseer in charge of the community, and Hank’s daughter Lucy (Ella Purnell from “Yellowjackets”) is “an active contributor to the well-being of my community,” as she puts it, who is trained in a number of skills and specializes in teaching “American history with a focus on ethics.” Lucy loves life in Vault 33 and she’s looking forward to her wedding day.

And then, just like that, everything changes. We’ll say no more.

For the first time in Lucy’s life, she exits the Vault, with no idea of what awaits on the surface. (We’ll also leave the nature of her mission for you to discover.) Oh, Lucy! It’s the Wild West gone Mad Max up there — a wretched wasteland populated by scavengers, traders, hunters, paramilitary groups and mutant creatures. (To say cockroaches have thrived is an understatement).

In addition to the Lucy storyline, we get two other main threads: one involving The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a legendary bounty hunter who walks and talks and thinks like a human but is essentially a zombie and has survived for more than two centuries, and the other focusing on Maximus (Aaron Moten), a soldier-in-training who is a member of the militaristic “Brotherhood of Steel.” (The brilliant supporting cast includes Leslie Uggams, Sarita Choudhury, Mosés Arias, Frances Turner and Michael Emerson.)

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The three storylines often interconnect, and while Lucy is the primary protagonist who is pure of heart — she reacts to just about everything by saying, “Okey dokey!” and believes in abiding by the Golden Rule — nearly every other major character in “Fallout” could be a villain, or could be a hero, or might be a little bit of both, depending on the circumstances. Meanwhile, Lucy is going to have to wise up, suck it up and toughen up.

Throughout Lucy’s mission, “Fallout” delivers as an action series, a character study and a deep dive into the nature of family and trust. The graphic scenes of violence are often counterbalanced by needle drops of songs from the middle of the 20th century, e.g., “Orange Colored Sky” by Nat King Cole, “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes” by Perry Como, “Sixteen Tons” by Tennessee Ernie Ford, and “We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)” by The Ink Spots. The production design is nomination-worthy, whether we’re in the Vaults or above ground, and the blending of VFX and practical effects is seamless. “Fallout” is a wild ride, with Ella Purnell absolutely killing it as a sweet soul who must discover her inner badass.