Nobody needed Fallout season 2 to hew closely to any of the pre-existing video games. In fact, the first season broke away almost entirely, telling a brand new story with brand new characters within the limitless sandbox that was available. Given the stinger at the end of season 1, it seemed that showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet were priming an adaptation of the “New Vegas” entry in the franchise. The magic of the series is that this new season is a faithful recreation of the game, for better and worse, while still trekking its own path.

Now that the show has found its footing and its characters are more thoroughly oriented into the wasteland, season 2 is free to deepen our understandings of the main characters. Most of the six episodes screened for review see the main trio of Lucy (Ella Purnell), the Ghoul/Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins), and Maximus (Aaron Motem) split up and going on their own adventures, with occasional, perfunctory check-ins with the tertiary characters from last season.

Lucy and the Ghoul start out the season on the road to New Vegas as they search for Lucy’s father Hank (Kyle MacLachlan). What Hank is doing in Vegas is best not spoiled, but it has to do with legendary entrepreneur Robert House (Justin Theroux), a mysterious CEO of RobCo Industries. We see through the occasional flashback that he was somehow involved in Vault Tec’s plans to jumpstart the apocalypse, and crossed paths with Cooper Howard. Meanwhile, Maximus, now a relative bigwig within the Brotherhood of Steel, continues to scour the wasteland for a relic which could completely change the outlook of how the apocalypse’s survivors live.

As in the games, Fallout season 2 works best when it explores the American mindset around survival and community, though one wishes it would push these ideas closer to the front. Lucy continues to be the plucky optimist who believes that helping those in need is what makes you a good person. There’s a great, if underutilized, push and pull between her and the Ghoul, who’s seen the worst of humanity since the bombs fell. Both Goggins and Purnell continue to be the show’s secret weapons, as they try to stick to their convictions and their distinct outlooks on humanity. Purnell’s expressive eyes do some heavy lifting, always shocked by every new horror she faces. Goggins plays the Ghoul as perpetually tired, but his flashback scenes reveal new layers as he uncovers more and more of the behind-the-scenes workings of corporate America.

The show follows “New Vegas” once it introduces the different factions warring on the outskirts of the city, and they continue to reinforce that deconstruction of America. There’s the New California Republic, a small but determined post of lawmen hoping to bring order to the wasteland. There’s the Legion, a large group of psychopaths who fashion themselves after the Roman army, right down to their forms of punishment: crucifixion and slavery. And then there’s the Brotherhood of Steel, who appear as protectors but want to purify and eliminate anyone who doesn’t serve as the American ideal.

We still check in with Vaults 31, 32, and 33, and though these moments are as thematically rich as the above-ground material, the characters aren’t as interesting as their counterparts. Consider the plight of Norm (Moisés Arias) in Vault 33, who un-freezes the members of the vault’s cryogenic program and is tasked with not just orienting the newcomers to the new world, but managing the vault’s dwindling resources. Fallout‘s take on the Vault life, and how people can be so willingly experimented on and manipulated by corporate interests, is great in theory, but it feels more like an obligation from Robertson-Dworet and Wagner, and less like an essential piece of the puzzle.

As in the previous installment, season 2 retains Fallout‘s penchant for dark humor, action, and unexpected violence. The six episodes introduce more of the beloved creatures, weapons, and gadgets from the games without feeling like meager fan service. Of course, there’s still the technically impressive dedication to visual effects, costumes, and production design. There are a number of thoughtful ideas at play in the second go-around, but they don’t add up to enough of a satisfying whole. It’s possible that Prime Video has grander plans for the “New Vegas” portion of Fallout‘s story, and while season 2 has plenty of enjoyable highlights, I can’t help but wish that there was more meat on the bones.

Fallout season 2 premieres on Prime Video on December 16, with subsequent episodes released weekly until February 4, 2026.