Now that we’ve seen two seasons and 16 episodes of the Fallout TV show, it’s safe to say that Bethesda and the TV makers at Kilter Films made a brilliant choice. They decided to make the show’s story fit right into the official timeline of the Fallout games. This means everything happening on screen is part of the game’s history.

Fallout was practically made for this kind of show. Each game in the series usually tells its own story, only loosely tied together by big events or a quick character appearance. The way the world is set up, with separate underground vaults and a ruined United States, helps this. Every vault is different, and even though there are bigger groups trying to take over, each area often feels like its own little world of trouble. Still, the show creators could have easily made it a separate story in a different universe, or set it in the game world but avoided the places, times, and people already in the games.

As I said, the people who made the show did the right thing by not doing that. But it was probably the harder path to take. For one, it means there’s more established story details to keep track of, which can be tricky. It also means the show has to work within a tighter set of rules. Plus, these games often have many different endings, and the show has to somehow respect all of them. The risk was that they might mess up the game world itself, which fans love. And the most dedicated fans, who should be cheering the loudest, could also become a difficult group to please.

The first season already walked this line carefully. It revealed new things about Vault-Tec’s past that change how you might think about the games. It also showed the destruction of a well-loved place from the first two games, happening off-screen. But the second season goes even further. It’s bolder and more ambitious right from the start. We knew this would happen when the end of the first season hinted at New Vegas. If you’re going to that city and the story takes place after the game, you have to acknowledge what many consider Fallout’s best story.

At first, it seemed like the second season might have a bit of trouble connecting all the story pieces from the first. For example, Knight Maximus (played by Aaron Morten) is separated from the other main characters and feels like he’s on a side mission, even though the people he’s with are interesting and well-developed. The show has a fantastic cast and looks great too.

This quality keeps you hooked through the first few episodes. New Vegas itself doesn’t really show up until a few episodes in, which I’ll playfully call the ‘House Edge’ part. The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) and Lucy (Ella Purnell) slowly make their way there over several episodes. When they finally arrived, I felt that worry the showrunners might have had: a slight disappointment in how a favorite game location was shown. It looked familiar, but not quite right.

But you have to trust the process. As the season goes on, all the choices the creators made start to make sense. By the end, your mind is racing with all the new possibilities and potential this season has opened up. You’re also thinking about what all the new information about the Fallout story means.

You can also tell that the show is looking at the games with fresh eyes. For instance, Robert House is one of the best characters the games have ever created. So, no matter how the New Vegas game ended, who wouldn’t want to see more of him? The story is built in a way that leads to this. There are a few decisions like this, and they feel genuinely honest.

This is where I think the show’s decision to be part of the game’s story and its choice of what to focus on really shines. Even when the show feels a little shaky, it’s doing things that only make me more interested in, more fond of, and more dedicated to the Fallout world. The risks it’s taking have made me an even bigger fan, not less.

In the end, I didn’t feel this season was quite as strong as the first. I can easily see it being remembered as a ‘bridge’ between the first season and whatever comes next. But I still felt that familiar excitement – my mind buzzing with thoughts about what all of this means. For the show, for the next game, and for the Fallout series as a whole. Any show or spin-off that can make you feel that way is a winner.