What is wrong with people? I knew that the new Netflix show based on the Resident Evil games had been divisive in a Marmite type of way (either loving it or hating it) but it's a disgrace that the show is currently sitting on a 3.9/10 on IMDB. Is it perfect? Not at all, I certainly had a small handful of issues with it, is it bad though? terrible even? Definitely not, and that is coming from someone who both adores the game series and loves great TV.
The show takes place across two different timelines, both of which tell essential stories. In 2022, Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick - John Wick series) moves to the South African town of New Raccoon City with his two fourteen year old twin daughters, Billie (Siena Agudong - Fast & Furious 9) and Jade (Tamara Smart - A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting). Everyone in the town works for the Umbrella Corporation, a company who publicly state they have hopes of curing all the ills of the world. Unknown to all but select employees however is that the company has had a shady past, most notably the development of a biological weapon named the T-Virus which had the power to reanimate the dead. One night Jade and Billie sneak into Umbrella HQ to uncover evidence of animal testing they believe is taking place there. While they do uncover this, they also accidently release a test subject, a dog infected with the T-virus, which proceeds to bite a chunk out of Billie's shoulder before it is stopped. Wesker covers up this incident, but it appears that Billie may now be infected.
Fourteen years after the world ended, in 2036, an older Jade (Ella Balinska - Forspoken video game) monitors the zombies that have reduced the world to ruin for signs that the T-virus has mutated, but a chance encounter brings an elite squad of Umbrella soldiers, led by the eccentric Richard Baxter (Turlough Convery) down upon her, prepared to capture her at any cost.
I loved this show, as I stated in my intro, I just do not understand why it has gotten so much flack. The two different timelines are intelligently mixed together, most of the eight episodes take place roughly 50/50 in the past and present, often working with each other to shed light on what has happened. The past segment initially seemed like a traditional zombie outbreak story, Billie and Jade trying their best to hide her infection, Albert doing his own covert work at Umbrella HQ. The sterile white buildings and pristine people of New Raccoon City contrast sharply with the filthy clothes and wastelands of the present day sections. I expected the past would chart how the zombie apocalypse started, but instead it had the somewhat odd choice of showing the build up to an outbreak, but not the outbreak itself.
Due to the two storylines both being captivating I was always impatient to progress both stories. I had feared two teenage girls being protagonists wouldn't make these past sections engaging. Even more so I was surprised to see an Albert Wesker who not only has kids, but barely acts like the character from the video games. Especially odd considering the care made to fit this show into the canonical timeline of the convoluted game series. This is all explained away though, I figure at least some of the criticisms were from people who didn't stick with the show for the later revelations. Reddick was fantastic as Wesker, he manages intimidating behaviour effortlessly, and he is painted here as less a villain as an anti-hero, someone who has done some terrible things, but believes in what he does, and genuinely cares about his daughters. The real antagonist of the show is Evelyn Marcus (Paola Núnez - The Purge TV series), sadly she is a one dimensional villain who revels in being evil for evil's sake. She was by far the weakest character in the show, even if she did kind of feel like a Resident Evil antagonist you would expect. That isn't the fault of the actor though, when she finally gets to do something other than just be evil she gives a strong and believable performance.
The series felt very faithful to the series, while it canonically doesn't quite fit (the world didn't end in 2022 in the games), it still manages to make the events of at least Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Resident Evil 5 canonical within the TV show's universe, with the cover up of the original Raccoon City being a key plot point. On the monster front, the biggest change are the zombies. In the show they are of the running variety, and are typically covered in at least a few large boils. There are a heck of a lot of them though, especially towards the later episodes. Elsewhere, the arrival of a gigantic mutant caterpillar in the first episode 'Welcome to New Raccoon City' cemented my immediate love of the show, you get plenty of the iconic 'lickers' as well as a giant spider in third episode 'The Light', and even the very iconic sack wearing, chainsaw wielding Ganado in episode four 'The Turn'. The show is jammed full of nods to fans of the games, including mention of past characters, someone saying they are 'the master of lock picking', the weapons characters use, and even a flashback scene that shows Wesker in his classic leather jacket.
It isn't all perfect however, as I mentioned Evelyn is mostly a wafer thin character, and there are also some casting issues. I thought Billie and Jade were good characters, yet they blatantly do not look as young as fourteen, I don't know why they couldn't have been given older ages. Then there is one key character who seemed to be played by an actor with an entirely different ethnicity in the present day sections compared to the past ones, that became a bit distracting. That is about it however, I thought the quality of the filmmaking was far greater than I had been led to believe, there was obviously a large budget here. Some characters become a little goofy, but on the whole I had few complaints.
With the more action focussed and violent present day sections balanced against the far more drama flavoured sections in the past I was always enjoying what was happening, I found it impossible to get bored. Does it all pull together for the finale however? Frustratingly both the past and present sections end on big cliffhangers. I say frustrating because the show is a Netflix one, a company who are happy to drop even well received shows at the drop of a hat. I can only hope that a second season is commissioned as there is a lot that still needs to be resolved, but I don't have very high hopes that will happen. Sadly, I think this will go a way of The Mist, a fantastic show that was critically panned and which ended its only season on a huge cliffhanger.
I say that not only should you give Resident Evil a chance, but that you watch it to its conclusion before passing judgement. The show is faithful to the games, tells a good story on its own, is well directed, with good special effects, plenty of monsters, a mostly good cast, and deserves far better than the flack it has received. Resident Evil can currently be streamed on Netflix.
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