We are less than a week away from the finale of Fallout season 2, which has been a pretty excellent season start to finish, matching or even sometimes surpassing season 1. This week, there were some big reveals about where the show is headed and how it connects to existing lore (remember, Bethesda has declared this canon) and the finale seems like it may be impossible to wrap things up. But that’s what season 3 is for.
Ahead of that finale, you may want to catch up on Fallout season 1, at least to see what all the fuss is about. But if you want to watch it for free, without say, piracy, Amazon Prime Video has now given everyone a way to do this.
Across many international Prime Video YouTube accounts, Amazon has made the first season of Fallout free to watch in its entirety. The spread is a bit odd, as the main one I’m seeing cited is Prime Video Philippines, which has every episode, as do a few other regional accounts. The US account, meanwhile, only has the first two episodes. I was concerned that this meant the others might be in a different language or region-locked, but that’s not the case. The Philippines account, for instance, appears to let you watch the entire season just as you would on Amazon itself.
This is not all that uncommon a practice as a way to promote big series, the idea being that if you like season 1 for free, you may sign up and actually pay for season 2. It has been over a year and a half since season 1 aired, so if you’re waiting for season 2 to go on YouTube, it’s going to be a while. Honestly, I don’t think that will ever happen. It’s also not clear how long Amazon will let Fallout stay online, if this is permanent or just for a limited time.
If you’re here and haven’t watched the show, you may not be familiar with the original games or concept, so here’s a synopsis:
“Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. Two-hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind—and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.”
In addition to being one of the highest-scoring video game adaptations ever (a 95% Rotten Tomatoes critic and audience score across both seasons), it’s probably one of the better post-apocalyptic shows, period, outside of whatever knowledge you may or may not have of the game, which no doubt few of those TV critics have. Absolutely check out season 1 when it’s free, and I think you’ll be itching for season 2 after that.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.