Hubby’s Review: Resident Evil (Netflix), Series, Season 1, 2022
Short Review
What I liked more: the 2036 post apocalyptic portions, Lance Reddick’s and Turlough Convery performance , better than expected visual effects, enjoyable action, nice mystery element
What I liked less: cutting between two eras almost at random, filler scenes of rambling dialogue, some inconsistent performances, occasional obvious production errors.
Recommendation: Check it out if you have time to spare
Long review
It is 2022 and Netflix seems committed to adapting more video games for their streaming service. Castlevania, League of Legends, Cuphead, DOTA and with more on the way like Cyberpunk and Assassin’s Creed as of this writing. Part of this slew includes their live action adaptation of RESIDENT EVIL as a series; season one out now with 8 episodes. While divisive among the fanbase, and certainly having its fair share of issues, I enjoyed it and eagerly await season 2.
Even with my surface level familiarity of the games, I know that calling Netflix’s RESIDENT EVIL an “adaptation”might be giving it too much credit. It takes familiar concepts, creatures and names from the game but applies it to a story that has nothing to do with the games. Perhaps “loosely based on” would be a better way to describe its relationship to the video games.
The series follows the character of Jade Wesker and tells 2 parallel narratives cutting between the the year 2036 in the midst of a global zombie virus apocalypse, and 2022 showing the events that supposedly lead up to said apocalypse. In 2036, adult Jade (played by Charlie’s Angels 2019’s Ella Balinska) is hunted by the sinister Umbrella Corporation as she traverses the dystopian wasteland of scavengers, rudimentarily walled cities, and dangerous creatures, to return home. It seems that somebody high up in Umbrella’s hierarchy has a vested interest in Jade. Meanwhile in 2022, young Jade and her sister Billie (Siena Agudong), along with their dad Albert Wesker (John Wick’s Lance Reddick) move to “New Raccoon City”: a sleek sterile company town that just oozes a “tries too hard to be modern and new age” vibe. Of course the town hides a dark secret and perhaps an even darker secret lurks closer to home than the Wesker sisters realise.
Personally I liked the 2036 portion of the series more. It plays to my love of post apocalyptic science fiction, fleshing out a world that has gone to hell, where communities live in fear of not just undead monsters, but crazy cults, and warring factions; where the Umbrella Corporation rules over crowded colonies and continues to expand its control over the human race under the excuse of helping the survivors of the T-Virus outbreak. The visual effects, sets and cinematography are surprisingly good for a series, looking almost movie level in quality.
The 2022 portion is more of a mystery story and it is certainly slow moving. While the actors for 2036 do a decent job with their roles (special shout out to Turlough Convery who plays the rotund Umbrella executive Baxter, he is hilarious!) , the 2022 portion ones do not seem as convincing. The only stand out performance is Lance Reddick as Albert. He is such a joy to watch on screen and really immersed in the role.
The way the series cuts between the two portions can be a bit hard to follow. At times the transition feels so random and with a quick cut. No clever camera techniques, no thematic relevance between scenes.
There is a part of me that feels the production should have just focused on the post apocalyptic portion and go all in on that. Nonetheless, I liked RESIDENT EVIL. It has little to do with the games, but so did the Paul WS Anderson movies that came before. I do hope that the story is able to continue or at least have a proper conclusion as this first season does not really resolve much. It feels more like a season long setup for season 2.
I do recommend the series only if you have the time to spare.
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