New Netflix adaptation does not stand out

“Who asked for this?” has become an internet shorthand for “This show or movie wasn’t really for me.” It’s not a great way to interact with art. And it assumes that there must be a pre-sold audience. That may be understandable in the age of franchises and IP-driven storytelling, but it’s not an interesting critique. Resident Evil on Netflixhowever, is a strange project. It effectively reboots a successful movie franchise and comes on the heels of another Resident Evil movie reboot, not to mention the streamer’s own Resident Evil animated series. It’s also based on the popular, decades-old video game of the same name, which uses that interactive franchise for much of its backstory.

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In short, there’s a lot to live up to, and it feels like it was made very specifically for existing fans.

Instead of asking “Who asked for this?” we might ask, “How does this stand out from the pack?” or “How does this justify its own existence?” Unfortunately, the answer is that this is not the case. At just eight episodes, Netflix’s Resident Evil feels surprisingly bloated, without offering the absurd fun of previous films or a satisfying addition to the zombie genre.

Read on for our Resident Evil review. And if you want to watch the show, you can watch it on Netflix from the link below.

Between 2022 and 2037, Resident Evil bounces back and forth, exploring the development of a deadly virus and the ensuing dystopian zombie apocalypse. Sisters Jade and Billie Wesker live in New Racoon City, a gated community for the employees of the Umbrella Corporation. Their father is a scientist crucial to Umbrella’s top-secret operations.

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The girls become suspicious of their father’s work and discover the more sinister side of the company and its human experimentation.

In the future, we see an elderly Jade studying Umbrella’s fallout and unleashing a virus. By then, it has wiped out much of humanity and turned humans into killer zombies. Jade studies the virus, looking for a cure. She is part of a group that evades the Umbrella Corporation, which continues its own science and keeps a firm grip on society as a kind of self-proclaimed central government.

You can watch the Resident Evil trailer below:

Resident Evil adaptations certainly have their opponents, despite coming from one of the most successful video game franchises of all time.

The highest Rotten Tomatoes score for a Resident Evil movie is 36%. That’s for the last movie in the previous franchise starring Milla Jovovich. Still, those movies have their fans too, and it’s not hard to see why.

The films in the six-part saga, while varying in quality, are certainly enjoyable. Jovovich is fantastic as the star, and there is an anarchic sense of chaos over them. Excessive action and horror elements make them compulsively watchable.

Even the 2021 Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City reboot offers a 90s-infused gore-fest that’s pretty funny, albeit no real improvement over its predecessors.

So Netflix’s Resident Evil certainly doesn’t have a clean slate to start with, even if the competition offers a lot of room for improvement.

Nothing new here: Resident Evil review

Let’s start with what works in Resident Evil on Netflix. Where it really shines is in the acting. Ella Balinska, who starred in 2019 Charlie’s Angels, is more than ready to lead this ensemble. Jade is a compelling heroine, and Balinska nails every part of the role: the science nerd, the doting mother, the hard-core action star, and everything in between. Lance Reddick is another standout as the Wesker Patriarch. And he has plenty to do, especially in the second half of the season.

However, it is not enough.

Some of the cool video game aesthetics and gory practicalities — a couple of mean chainsaw scenes in particular stand out — generally don’t quite make up for some flat visuals. This show could really use more craziness, be it the surreal excesses of previous films or just a more outspoken horror approach. It’s no different from other dystopian shows as it is.

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Resident Evil also just has to go to the extreme. The show’s alternate timeline isn’t much. There’s a focus on what went wrong in New Racoon City, but it feels like an unnecessary backstory. An evil corporation with a view to population control went too far. Excellent! What else do you need? There’s certainly potential for a compelling backstory, but Resident Evil doesn’t offer it. Instead, it slows everything down. Past and present events don’t match up very well thematically either, so the whole format seems arbitrary.

At best, it distracts from how slowly the story progresses in both timelines. Halfway through, the pace finally picks up. However, it’s hard not to long for a shortened, expanded version of this story. The upside is that if Resident Evil returns for season 2, it will finally get to the heart of the matter and could improve significantly. That’s not much to go on though.

On the other hand, those looking for video game Easter Eggs are sure to find them, and maybe that’s the big takeaway. If you’re a die-hard fan of the games, this show can cause a very specific itch.

To anyone else, Resident Evil feels as good as a generic deja vu.