So I watched the whole thing, I had a day off today (didn't time it like that) and I thought I'd share my opinions on it. I took a few notes thoughout but I'll give a TDLR then I'll go for spoilers to discuss it. As a prefix, I went in with low expectations.
TDLR: it's actually alright, the one thing that might bother me most is a few lore issues
Spoilers: To set this out, three things I have to state:
Fallout 2: 2241
Fallout New Vegas: 2281
This TV show Fallout: 2296
Ok now the timeline is set up I can state this, THEY NUKED SHADY SANDS AFTER 2277. NCR are practically gone, they either joined the Brotherhood, joined Vault 4 which is a Amazon made Vault along with 33, 32 and 31 or exist as a remnant faction. They were the raiders in the first episode that infiltrated 32 to get to the MC's Vault 33 to get her dad who turns out, an ORIGINAL vault tec employee and HE was the one that nuked Shady Sands...because his wife (MC's mom) found out NCR existed so they don't need to be in the vaults anymore. This was the BIG thing that stuck out to me as a "WTF they did this? This can't be cannon!?' moment. Oh and the show confirmed Vault-Tec started the great war, they arranged it in co-operation with Robco, Big MT, REPCONN and West-Tek. And the end of this show (which is setting up for a season 2) implied a House Wins ending for Fallout New Vegas
The good: Set design was on point, I can't really complain about that as they portrayed power Armour well. One of the main characters, the ghoul Cooper (best character) because he fought in them during the battle for anchorage KNEW their weakpoint so in the last episode took out several Brotherhood. The OST is still good and enjoyed seeing before the war and the action scenes were good and very gory.
The bad: Lore wise, it's a mess. Not just the whole 'a bad dad nuked Shady Sands' and no explanation for it other than 'he's a Vault-Tec employee', a lot of things were inconsistent. The West Coast Brotherhood having the same Vertibirds as the East coast and an airship not to mention the West Coast recruiting openly. The main 'bad woman' is over 200 years old but no explanation for it really, oh and shes the original creatir of Cold Fusion, that's the Macguffin everyone is working around (it was on an Enclave scientist which also Enclave exist on the MAINLAND WEST both Brotherhood and NCR wiped them out) and in the end, the Brotherhood now have access to cold fusion. The lore is such a mess to a long term gamer. Also apparently there's a serum now that halts Ghouls going feral, that's new. And no mention of any other vaults most critically Vault 15 which Shady Sands was built around.
The ugly: let's talk about how woke it is, to be honest it isn't that woke. The biggest woke character might be the 'main villain' who made to be the sympathetic villian as it was actually the MC's father fault. You might say the evil capitalists colluding with Vault-Tec not just to start the Great War (which goes against House's lore in Fallout NV) but the experiments in the vaults but that's a stretch as Cooper's wife who's Black, she's the cunt that proposes that idea in the meeting, so not painting diversity in a good light as the new villain in Vault 33 is also diverse. Maybe Knight Titus who was such an unlikeable dick was hating on white guys but he barely lasted one scene so meh.
Honestly, the best people were the white guys, the MC's brother using his own intellect investigates the truth behind their vault on their own and it's heavily implied either him or Betty the new Black overseer posioned all the raiders in revenge. Cooper as it showed prewar him discovering the truth behind Vault-Tec and as a Ghoul the guy everyone is scared to fuck with as he demonstrates his skills.
The main two, Lucy the Vault dweller and Maximus the Scribe are pretty incompetent. Lucy is just TOO naive for the wastelands and suffers everytime for it and Maximus is more aware of his surroundings but isn't the most competent or making the best decisions.
So that's my notes for Fallout series, I know it's weird, it ain't too woke, is actually alright but the one part it doesn't make sense is the lore timeline. This has to be a seperate TV universe is my only conclusion. Feel free to ask about any aspects of the show and I'll try answer as best I can.
While what you wrote about the show doesn't sound bad, I can't be bothered to get invested in giving these companies a second of my time. Also, this reeks of the First Season Netflix Syndrome.
Basically, they know they can't go full woke in the first season so they lure people in with something decent, and then in the second/third season they go full woke.
We've seen this happen so many times now that pattern recognition should tell us that this is what they're doing here. It's not like Amazon stopped magically being woke, or that major companies are actually trying to make money now.
While some shows go full woke on the first season, others will wait a season or two before heading in that direction, and that's likely what's going to happen here.
Essentially, they don't go woke with Mary sues or the minorities being the good guys.
The REAL issue is that because Bethesda are saying it's cannon, it's an attack and a delegitimization of ALL Fallout lore not exclusively made by Bethesda. It's what Disney did to Star Wars only less overtly woke pandering.
Ehhh, I wouldn't be so quick to say it's less overtly woke. Keep in mind that The Force Awakens didn't seem to be too far off from how you described the first season of the Fallout series in terms of wokeness. That is to say, there weren't overt woke red flags everywhere, but enough to get people murmuring.
It was only after producing more content and erasing past lore did we start to see just how pandering and how woke Star Wars would become under Disney.
I get the feeling the first season of Fallout might be the same way... with the more woke elements coming in the latter seasons after they capture a sizable enough audience.
I don't doubt that that being a high probability. Unfortunately it seems a running theme of Western studios bottling a later seasons instead of improving upon the first...
That's true... if the studios had the intention of producing content to actually make money from consumers, then they absolutely would be gunning to improve upon the initial release of a product. But unfortunately they are being shadow-financed by DEI propagators, so until that changes, everything they do will be focused on spreading "The Message" rather than trying to simply make money from loyal customers.