Cain appreciated the performances and storytelling, but singled out how the show nailed the Fallout “vibe” as its biggest achievement. “I was just looking at all the props,” he said of one scene. “I realized after a few minutes went by that I had not followed the dialogue at all, because I was so engrossed by it visually.”
On a more sour note, Cain took time to address the way fans of the series can behave poorly online, particularly regarding any perceived rivalry between Fallout entries developed by Bethesda (3, 4, and 76), and those from Interplay, Black Isle, and Obsidian (1, 2, and New Vegas). Cain spoke positively of Todd Howard, and said that “Some of the stuff you [series fans] say online is so off.” See also: the debate about whether the show somehow overrode or ignored the events of those non-Bethesda games, which has since been denied by a senior developer at the studio.
I think people are taking the wrong takeaway from this. It is okay to dislike the show, it’s okay to criticize it. There is a difference between not liking a final production and declaring that the people who made it are terrible.
This might seem like an obvious distinction, but I’ve ridden this ride before. Different factions of fans declaring themselves more “loyal” or “correct”- some of them hating everything new and getting nasty about the new creators, and other factions blindly loving all the new things. Each faction declaring the other as fake fans and trying to banish them. It is perfectly fine to not like some things, to express it, and to discuss it back and forth. The smug dismissal that fans have of other fans who have a polar opinion of specific productions in a franchise is exhausting.
Tim Cain seems from his channel and his many talks like somebody who tries to think in this multifaceted way. Unfortunately many people clip his words and run off on tangents against his bigger ideas.