Tried to post once, think the post got eaten by the forum, so here goes again.
Watched the first episode. It is meh. Not sure I will be watching further. Perhaps if I get bored and there's nothing else around.
Good:
Music is old timey, and there's at least one classic that any fallout fan'll appreciate in the first episode.
Many of references to fallout things. Some are kinda memberberryish, but there are also many shots that would make a perfectly fine painting of a fallout world.
Bad:
Continuity of shots is not great. Positioning isn't always consistent between cuts, which can be distracting. In at least one case, an item that was at least partially destroyed significantly earlier in the episode is awkwardly whole again later. This mostly just appears to be sloppy.
Terrible:
The characters.
The plot.
There's no good way to discuss these without spoilers, so off to a spoiler, shall we?
Spoiler
Show
The characters basically use a template based on the Star Wars sequel. There are three characters who have stories viewed from their perspective, and that will theoretically overlap later in the show, though they do not in the pilot. First, we have the blank slate female character who is generically good at everything, has no hobbies or notable defining traits, and is loved by all. She will receive the most screen time, and will be hereafter referred to as Lady Boring. Second we have the soldier archetype who is treated as kind of dumb, but means well, and is really too kind hearted to be a soldier. This character is also cast as Black, because I guess awful stereotyping isn't dead yet, and they wanted a Finn clone real bad. Lastly, we have the action heroesque white guy who shoots his way into and out of everything while wisecracking.
I kind of hate this template. It's really, really light on any actual personality and background. Characters mostly do not have much in the way of families, and when they do, it's solely for the purpose of fridging them. They don't have hobbies, nor are they terribly unique. They're just...their role, and that's pretty much it. Soldier guy doesn't even get much in the way of a backstory. He was a kid once, and thought soldiers looked cool, and also some unexplained bad thing happened to him. That's it.
Anyways, on to discussing the plot. Lady Boring is, despite being universally loved by everyone, especially her daddy, who is the vault overseer, unable to find a mate. She proposes that she be selected for the triannual exchange with the neighboring vault to be given a random hubbie. Because everyone loves her, everyone enthusiastically agrees immediately. Daddyseer tells her this is great, they do it all the time, and he himself came from this vault.
The connected vaults thing is mildly unusual, but since each vault historically has had one notable oddity to it, I cannot fault them for this. Two connected vaults swapping people on some wild system can absolutely be the designated experiment for them.
Everyone from vault is welcomed, old times are discussed, trade deals are made, a wedding party is had. All is well...except these are not actually their fellow vault dwellers, but raiders acting as them for...reasons. How did they get in? Why does daddyseer not recognize that this is a wholly different group of people than the family he grew up with? Don't know. Instead, watch as invaders all telepathically decide to go murderhobo at the same time. Fortunately, the six invaders are killed off by Lady Boring, but oh no, the six are now thirty because reasons.
So, the leader of the other vault//the raider chief is basically the Joker, and she monologues about how choices are important and define everything. So, daddyseer has to make a choice. He must choose to save Lady Boring, or the rest of the vault, which is like five people. He chooses her, of course. Joker Raider responds to this by letting the rest of the people go because....I guess choices do not matter after all or something. Instead she laughs manically in front of random explosions before kidnapping Daddyseer so the rest of the plot can happen. The rest of the vault is left alone by the raiders and everything basically goes back to normal.
We switch to the B plot, in which soldier boy is established as a soldier. Thanks to the obvious need to spend half of this time watching power armor shots in slow motion, and the rest of the time observing latrine duty, very little progress is made here. He is still a soldier.
In the C plot, cool guy is established as having been a nice, kind hearted guy who cares about others, and also as a person who kills for the fun of it, and who'll cheerfully murder people who helped him basically for the lulz. Still probably the most interesting character to watch.
Basically all of the charming goofiness of vault-tec instructional videos or salespeople is not to be found. This is sort of disappointing. Fallout is a retro futuristic pulpy story, not a sad period piece.