Episode Guide
Episode 1 -| Review Score – 2/5 Episode 2 -| Review Score – 2/5 Episode 3 -| Review Score – 2/5 Episode 4 -| Review Score – 2.5/5 Episode 5 -| Review Score – 2/5 Episode 6 -| Review Score – 2/5 Episode 7 -| Review Score – 1.5/5 Episode 8 -| Review Score – 2/5 Resident Evil is not a difficult story to adapt. Our protagonist tries to escape a mansion in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Resi 2 and 3 then upped the stakes, adding Nemesis and the wider world of Raccoon City to play with. This is before the later games added new elements to mixed reception from fans. Some working well (the family and move to first person in Resi 7) and some not so well (Resident Evil 6). Along the way though, Resident Evil has been adapted numerous times and it’s actually impressive how often Hollywood have attempted (and failed) to translate this formula across to the big and small screen. However, Netflix’s newest series, Resident Evil, may actually be the worst attempt at adapting this hugely popular IP. Familiar in name alone, Resident Evil is essentially teen dystopian drama, split across two different timelines sporting a bunch of one-dimensional characters and a story that begins poorly before spiraling out of control, with a story that become more farfetched as the episodes progress. This is full of contrivances, stupid character actions and a distinct lack of logic. If this didn’t have the Resident Evil name attached to it, you’d be hard-pressed to believe this is the same source material. The plot itself is split between a “Before” in 2022, and “After”, in 2036. A post apocalyptic event has wiped out a good chunk of the population, while our protagonist across both storylines is Jade Wesker, daughter to Albert Wesker. In 2036 Jade is on the hunt for a cure to the “Zero” plague (yep, another zombie show that refuses to call its undead inhabitants zombies) and ends up on quite the fetch quest, leading her to the south coast of England, the North of France and eventually back to her family as everything collides into a dramatic final chapter. The 2022 plot is where the meat of the story lies though, as we follow Jade and her sister Billie as they arrive in New Raccoon City with their father, Albert Wesker. Set in South Africa, Jade immediately comments how white their neighbourhood is. Not just from its inhabitants’ skin colour but from everything else too; white house, white picket fences, white interiors, you name it. Anyway, Billie and Jade decide to break into the unguarded Umbrella lab one night, where their father works. It’s here Billie ends up bitten by a mutated dog. With time running out, Billie decides to go back to school, party and generally engage in teen drama clichés, as you do. As this storyline develops, they uncover secrets involving their father, leading back to 1998’s original Raccoon City and big steps away from the mythos and lore of the game series. In essence, Resident Evil feels like someone read the wiki page for the games and decided to use that as loose guidelines for their own story. Unfortunately, Resident Evil is the next in a long line of IPs that have been distorted by modern writers to fit their own sensibilities. A good example of this is Evelyn, the CEO of Umbrella Corp. Every single episode we’re told through expository dialogue that she has a wife back home. Nothing wrong with that of course, but it seems like such an odd choice to continue mentioning this when we get such limited information about Billie, Jade and the other characters’ history. But then one quick glance at IMDB will tell you that 6 of the 7 writers involved in this project have barely penned a screenplay for a big project before. And boy does the bad writing rear its ugly head every chance it gets. Most of the characters are bland and poorly developed, there’s an abundance of deus ex machina and contrivances used to get characters out of sticky situations, and to make matters worse the worldbuilding is not very good at all. Part of the blame lies with the way this has been spliced together. The two timelines do not work and neither really complement the other. Neither storyline is particularly interesting, and even worse, everything is baited for a second season too. Under any other name, this may have been a passable to below average teen horror drama. Parading around the Resident Evil name whilst simultaneously doing absolutely nothing to honour the source material makes this a terrible adaptation. In fact, I’d rather watch the Milla jovovich movies again than watch another season of this. Save yourself the trouble and play the games instead.
