After the second episode I am unsure if Maximus is a weird creeper with delusions of grandeur or simply a different variety of naive. I do not get good vibes from the guy.
I've been pretty universally thrilled with the effects, especially for a TV show, and all of the little touches that are from the games fold well enough into the world as they've shown it that I am not offended. There were a couple of times where it felt like they held up a sign hat said "hey, this is from a video game", but in those instances I think it has worked well enough for the show that they're making. They were moments that set the tone rather than broke it in service of making a nod.
So, I'm up to Episode 7.
Initially, I hated Maximus. I found him irritating and stupid. But I think your "a different kind of naive" is pretty much it. This guy's been raised in a different kind of cult by people who are essentially abusive as a doctrine, and who perpetuate a cycle of abuse. Maximus is both a victim of this and a perpetrator, and this is confirmed later by Thaddeus' comments on how he basically beat up Maximus because he was tired of being beaten up himself, and this was a chance to shift the target to the new guy. So, it ends up with this messed up power dynamic all built around abuse, with people gaining power to lord it over others and make them feel the pain that the abuser themselves felt, and on and on it goes. My sense is that encountering Lucy and stepping outside the Brotherhood for a while, being on his own, we may see that change, at least for Maximus.
When I first thought "I can't stand this guy" I was on Ep. 3. Now by Ep. 7, I'm starting to warm to him. I could see where this turns into a genuine character arc, assuming the show gets additional seasons (it'd be a bit abrupt if we see it fully realized in one and a half more episodes -- I'm only halfway done with 7).
There are a ton of bits for longtime fans of the series. My personal fav thus far is the way that Stimpaks work. Jab one in yourself and hey, presto, you're healed. How? Doesn't matter. You're just better. I joke with my wife (who is herself a doctor) that a lot of her patients who show up with complaints about colds and such are basically looking for a Stimpak when the problem is only fixed by the passage of time.
--EDIT--
Something else I've noticed in watching is how deft the production team is at creating a sense of space, and how I recognize these techniques from watching Stargate SG-1 (another show featuring a lot of hallways and tunnels). The "vaults" are, I suspect, only a few individual set pieces which get re-dressed or angled to create a sense of space and to differentiate portions.
There's a shot in Ep. 7 when Norm is walking to another vault and if you pay attention, you can pretty much tell that the vault hallway he's headed towards is actually just a backdrop. He never actually reaches it or walks thru it. The shot cuts before he gets there, then shows him walking around the corner of another tighter corridor (to indicate it's the same one we just watched him walk towards). It's vintage SG-1 stuff, and a really smart use of sets when you're trying to watch your budget.
