TV Time: Fallout, Tokyo Vice, Curb Your Enthusiasm

It’s been too long since I have reviewed some of the more recent TV seasons I’ve watched! Today, I’ll go over three new shows, share my thoughts and feelings, and come up with a single numerical grade that represents just how good (or bad) said shows are. Because, what’s more fun than rating things on a scale of 1-10?

Is the new season of Fallout better than the games it based off of? (I don’t know the answer to this one actually — I’ve never played them! But I can review the show!) Are the two seasons of Tokyo Vice worth watching if you’re looking for a crime drama? Just how funny is the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm? Read on to find out!

Fallout (Season 1)

Amazon Prime, 8 Episodes

Fallout, Amazon’s newest hit show, is based off of a series of video games with the same name. As someone who’s never played any of the games, I can’t comment on how loyal the show is to its source material. However, as a TV show, it succeeds at being a solid post-apocalyptic action adventure that also includes both science fiction and black comedy elements. 

If you want to get an idea of what Fallout is like, picture a series that’s a combination of the shows Silo and The Last of Us with the tone of a movie like Starship Troopers. Fallout manages to be an extremely violent show that still maintains a fun, less serious tone due to successful comedic elements.

The story of Fallout isn’t the most unique. I think many viewers will be able to tell pretty much exactly where things are going plot-wise, and “twists” aren’t the most surprising if you’ve seen shows or films similar to this one before. It feels sort of like a basic video game post-apocalyptic adventure story. It’s not bad, or poorly done, but it’s definitely not something original in that way.

If I had to point out Fallout’s biggest strength, it’s pretty easily the performances of the shows cast, particularly those delivered by Walton Goggins and Lucy MacLean. Goggins, who was great in Justified and The Shield, excels in his role, playing two versions of the same character, a man changed into a monster over time. MacLean, meanwhile, plays our protagonist, a vault-dweller with moral sensibilities. I hadn’t seen her in anything before, but she’s great here. 

Fallout might not be prestige TV (or even great TV), but it isn’t really trying to be. All eight episodes were released at once, which was definitely a wise decision by Amazon as this is an extremely bingeable show. If you’re looking for a violent, fun thrill ride, Fallout might be exactly what you’re hunting for.

Grade: 7.5/10

Tokyo Vice (Seasons 1 & 2)

HBO Max, 18 Episodes Total

Tokyo Vice is a crime drama that follows an American newspaper reporter named Jake who attempts to take down the yakuza with his investigative prowess. We also get plenty of insight into the workings of the newspaper where Jake’s employed, the Tokyo Police Department, and different yakuza gangs.

Of course, there’s a good bit of personal drama mixed in as well. This drama usually revolves around Jake, another foreigner working at a hostess club named Samantha, and/or Sato, a bad boy member of the yakuza who’s not purely evil like the shows villainous yakuza boss, Tozawa. I found some of the character moments of the show to be more fun than the parts of the show dealing with taking down Tozawa (which was a lot of Season 2).

The scenes with yakuza violence (of which there seem to be increasingly more as we go) and investigating the crime boss to bring him down venture into the cliché sort of action-investigative story that I wish Tokyo Vice had managed to not become. Plotlines become pretty farfetched after a while, and there’s also a particularly unbelievable romance (with no chemistry or logical sense) between Jake and his Season 2 love interest.

Despite these complaints, Tokyo Vice is still a pretty good show. It’s well made. The acting is first-rate. I was never bored with the show, which always moves at a pretty fast pace. The villain might be too ridiculously evil for my liking, but a lot of the characters with smaller roles, like Jake’s fellow reporters at the newspaper, I really enjoyed.

Quality-wise, Tokyo Vice falls somewhere between the more A-tier TV typical to HBO and a more B-tier show like Jack Ryan. The show hasn’t yet been renewed for a third season, but two seasons actually feels like the perfect amount of time to spend with these characters, and all of our main storylines are pretty resolved by the end of Season 2.

Grade: 7/10

Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season 12)

HBO, 10 Episodes

Out of all the genres for TV and movies, the comedy genre is the one in which I am the most particular. It’s been thought by more than one person that I just dislike all comedies, but that’s not really the case. The main issue for me is that I have a low tolerance for jokes that don’t land for me — they just take me out of the show or movie.

Of course, since (even when done really well) comedy doesn’t land nearly all the time, I’m usually out of luck when it comes to finding comedies I enjoy. I tend to be more attracted to black comedies or movies/shows where they might have comedic elements, but the whole point isn’t just to make people laugh. Things like Coen Brothers movies or (some) Wes Anderson movies, I really like.

Well, Curb Your Enthusiasm is most certainly purely comedy. As with most comedies, not all of the jokes land. The show also definitely doesn’t shy away from being crude or ridiculous, and this works to varying degrees of success.

I think that when scenes or bits do work though, Curb Your Enthusiasm has some of the funniest moments on TV. When they don’t work, the show is simply fine. I’ve seen some earlier episodes of the show, and this season stands out as being (on average) funnier than the average episode of an earlier season.

For me personally, this is one of the rare comedy seasons of television I’ve been able to get all the way through in recent years, and that’s saying a lot.

Grade: 6.5/10

Note for those more curious about my personal comedy tastes: Two films that I do consider to be funny nearly totally throughout (that are strictly comedies) are Meet the Parents and Galaxy Quest. My favorite season of a comedy TV show is the first (and only) season of Freaks and Geeks.