Anyone who knows me knows the nuclear apocalypse is an obsession of mine. Thanks to the “Fallout” series, the tongue-and-cheek view of the end of the world has made all of the tomfoolery that is American politics a bit more palatable. After all, if you don’t believe in rapture but admit that humanity is on track for total collapse, at least to do so with a smile and a song makes the medicine go down easier.
Ah, but doomsayer I am not. It’s just another form of morbid amusement, right along cringefest favorites like “Jersey Shore” and “The Office.” Only in my mind, rather than laugh at buffoonery in action, I laugh at its eradication, along with exploitative capitalism, national barriers, political parties, even the Internet. This week has been a boon for such entertainment, from terse drama to Technicolor candy-coated goodness. This week in the interwebs, the nuke is king.
Only one of these entries is new, mind you, but with the vast array of information that await for a limited time only, delayed diffusion can be excused just this once. On the human thriller side we have “Jericho,” the ill-fated CBS drama about a small Kansas town reeling in the wake of several precision nuclear attacks in major U.S. cities. Taking a page from Pat Frank’s “Alas, Babylon,” a 1950’s melodrama about a similar situation in Florida, the show is heavy on human emotion and the frayed bonds on civilization once infrastructure collapses and hold-outs are forced to fend for themselves.
In many way the show is like “Lost,” in that every episode tends to inch along a larger narrative while focusing on an in the moment problem which would arise in the event of a plane crash on a desert island, or in this case, the end of the world in the Midwest. The show offers a bit for everyone in that respect: it has been alternately a medical procedural, a handyman’s show for any number of repairs and innovations with household goods, and even at times a demonstration of bartering as seen on shows like “Pawn Stars,” albeit with loaded weapons.
The show, which ran from 2006 to 2008, was created by Stephen Chbosky, who wrote “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” the first major release on the MTV Books imprint. The irony here is without that book, MTV might have given up on the print game, but instead had two best-sellers last year under Snooki’s name. Alas, babylon.
At the opposite end, with children in mind, we have Cartoon Network’s “Adventure Time.” Set in a distant future after the “Mushroom War,” the adventures of Jake the Dog and Finn the Human exist in a realm of candy kingdoms, icy realms of evil, and intense musicality. At times an adult viewer has to wonder how much your average kid would understand of the show’s humor, but one thing is for certain: when I have children, this will be the first show they watch.
While espousing a lot of your typical cartoon rhetoric, i.e. friendship is the most important thing, be nice to even the meanest of people, music is the best bonding tool of all, etc., the relationships on the show actually transcend melodrama and childishness and can make the most cynical of critics go, “Aw, shucks.” Seriously. Finally we have “Nuka-Break,” a polarizing YouTube series based on, that’s right, “Fallout.” This week Wayside Creations debuted the sixth and final episode of the first season, with an exclusive early premier through game culture site IGN. While already one of the better looking fan productions on the web, this vote of confidence from one of gaming’s biggest tastemakers means more funding and perhaps even a future endorsement from Bethesda Games. Dare I suggest that some of the show becomes canon? In one of the “New Vegas” downloadable content packages, “Gun Runner’s Arsenal,” a melee weapon in the form of a neon “Nuka-Break” sign already made its way to players, so the future may hold bright opportunities for these superfans.
The season finale continues a hilarious storyline of the bumbling, overweight Vault Dweller Twig, his ghoul buddy Ben and the beautiful runaway slave Scarlet as they traverse the Mojave Wasteland in search of an ice cold Nuka Cola, the franchise’s stand-in for Coke. Each episode so far has left a gaping cliffhanger, but the questions left open in this episode don’t have the weight other have carried previously. Probably because the creators have milked the wait for this final episode for months to the point where most people have forgotten the show. The web giveth, the web taketh away.
Basically I have been a slave to Netflix and YouTube all week with an onslaught of post-apocalyptic kicks and thought you should read about it. I’m done now. Bye. No, really, go home.
— Jake Lane is a graduate in creative writing. He can be reached at [email protected].
