After the great year for video game-inspired movies and TV shows we had in 2023, it seemed like it was actually safe to say that we had entered an era in which “bad” video game adaptations are a far less frequent occasion. As far as I am concerned, the release of the new series adaptation of Fallout has made it official.
Based on a series of popular video games set in a post-nuclear dystopia, the Amazon Prime original TV show has impressed experienced gamers, non-gaming audiences, and critics alike with its imaginative vision of a post-apocalyptic society, clever writing, and strong performances. If you have already used your Amazon Prime subscription to journey through all eight available episodes and you just can’t wait until the confirmed second season, we have selected a few TV shows like Fallout that might get your Pip-Boy cackling.
The Last Of Us (2023-Present)
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey
What it's about: Decades after a mysterious virus brings about the fall of civilization, a grizzled survivor is tasked with guarding a teenage girl who may hold the secret to a cure.
Why it is a show worth watching if you like Fallout: Fallout is only the latest example of a TV series based on a post-apocalyptic video game and one especially notable example is co-developer Craig Mazin’s HBO series, The Last of Us, which Fallout also relates to in the way a zombie-esque illness is revealed to be major plot detail.
How to watch The Last of Us
Twisted Metal (2023-Present)
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz
What it's about: A drifter is hired to drive across what is left of a war-torn United States to deliver a mysterious package.
Why it is a show worth watching if you like Fallout: Another recent TV show based on a post-apocalyptic video game is Twisted Metal — based on a popular series of PlayStation games that, like the Fallout games, began in the ‘90s — which is more tonally similar to Fallout than The Last of Us, due to its comical approach to the source material.
How to watch Twisted Metal
Miracle Workers: End Times (2023)
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Geraldine Viswanathan
What it's about: In a barren, desolate wasteland, two brutal warriors get married and try to have a normal life.
Why it is a show worth watching if you like Fallout: Yet another recent TV series with a nuclear, post-apocalyptic setting and a humorous tone is the fourth season of TBS’ comedic anthology series, Miracle Workers — subtitled End Times — which sees Radcliffe and Viswanathan adopt spot-on Mad Max-style personas.
How to watch Miracle Workers: End Times
The Last Man On Earth (2015-2018)
Starring: Will Forte, Kristen Schaal
What it's about: Years after the breakout of a deadly virus, an average man becomes the last human alive… or so he thinks.
Why it is a show worth watching if you like Fallout: Yet another TV series with a post-apocalyptic setting and a humorous tone is Fox’s The Last Man on Earth — not to be confused with a Vincent Price-led, 1964 adaptation of I am Legend — which was also created by Forte and was cancelled before it could finish its story, unfortunately.
How to watch The Last Man on Earth
- Stream The Last Man On Earth on Hulu
- Buy The Last Man On Earth on Amazon
- Buy The Last Man On Earth on DVD on Amazon
The 100 (2014-2020)
Starring: Eliza Taylor, Bob Morley
What it's about: Years after a nuclear war, a group of survivors explore planet Earth, which is now inhabited by disparate groups of people contending with a fight for supremacy, mutants, and other bizarre dangers.
Why it is a show worth watching if you like Fallout: Let’s get back to more serious post-apocalyptic TV shows, such as The CW’s The 100, which is not based on a video game, but its plot boasts quite a few similarities to Fallout — save the fact that the returning survivors took refuge in space, not underground.
How to watch The 100
Silo (2023-Present)
Starring: Rebecca Ferguson, Rashida Jones
What it's about: In the future, an engineer and others begin to suspect that the leaders of their protective underground community are not being completely honest about their surroundings.
Why it is a show worth watching if you like Fallout: Based on a popular series of books by Hugh Howery, Silo does follow a group of survivors taking refuge from an uninhabitable, dystopian environment beneath the surface and, like Fallout, follows a group of survivors who question the truth behind their society.
How to watch Silo
Westworld (2016-2022)
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden
What it's about: In a dystopian society, wealthy people are allowed the chance to live out their deepest desires in a fabricated society resembling the Old West and inhabited by human-like machines.
Why it is a show worth watching if you like Fallout: Before signing on as executive producers of Fallout, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy co-developed HBO’s Westworld — a reimagining of Michael Crichton’s technophobic 1973 film that also cleverly combines post-apocalyptic and sci-fi themes with old school Western elements.
How to watch Westworld
Scavengers Reign (2023)
Starring: Sunita Mani, Wunmi Mosaku
What it's about: The crew of a damaged space freighter struggles to survive when they are left stranded on a desolate planet.
Why it is a show worth watching if you like Fallout: While not exactly categorized as “post-apocalyptic,” the animated series, Scavengers Reign, is a thriller very much in the same vein as Fallout in the captivating and creative way it conceives its strange and dangerous setting.
How to watch Scavengers Reign
The Man In The High Castle (2015-2019)
Starring: Alexa Davalos, Rufus Sewell
What it's about: A young woman makes a discovery that could liberate the United States from control by the Nazi Regime.
Why it is a show worth watching if you like Fallout: In addition to being a futuristic story, Fallout is also an alternative history tale (imagining a world dominated by a ‘50s-style aesthetic and technology without microprocessors), similar to how The Man in the High Castle — based on the novel by Phillip K. Dick — takes place in a version of early 1960s America if the Axis Powers prevailed in World War II.
How to watch The Man in the High Castle
Yellowjackets (2021-Present)
Starring: Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress
What it's about: A group of women who played soccer together in high school recall the horrifying events that took place when a place crash left their team stranded in the Canadian wilderness.
Why it is a show worth watching if you like Fallout: While Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson’s Showtime original hit is not a dystopian alternative history drama based on a video game, the Yellowjackets cast does include Ella Purnell as a woman who must contend with survivors of an unforgiving, dog-eat-dog world, much like her Fallout character, Lucy MacLean.
How to watch Yellowjackets
- Stream Yellowjackets (Season 1) on Netflix
- Stream Yellowjackets on Paramount+ with Showtime add-on
- Buy Yellowjackets on Amazon
- Buy Yellowjackets on Blu-ray on Amazon
These shows should be enough to help you survive the wait for Fallout Season 2.
