When the first season of Fallout premiered in 2024, the postapocalyptic TV series came as a pleasant surprise. Sure, the rise of good video game adaptations was already well underway by then, and Fallout had a lot of potential given the popularity of its eponymous franchise, which dates back to the late ’90s. But even Prime Video—which released the first season in a single, eight-episode drop—didn’t seem to anticipate the show’s tremendous success. Just one week after its arrival, the series was renewed for a second run. In December, the Emmy-nominated show returned amid heightened expectations—and it raised its stakes,...