Capcom’s long-running Resident Evil video game series that began in 1996 amassed an extensive and complex history throughout dozens of games in the last twenty-six years. It’s since inspired various tie-in merchandise, novels, comics, animation, and multiple adaptations, including Paul W.S. Anderson’s loosely inspired big-budget action-horror franchise. Netflix’s “Resident Evil” series exists at the crossroads of Anderson’s action-horror films and the video games’ horror roots, presenting an original action-horror spectacle that goes big on franchise lore while working as an entry point for newcomers.
“Resident Evil” follows two timelines. In 2022, teens Jade (Tamara Smart) and Billie (Siena Agudong) adjust to their new home and high school in New Racoon City, South Africa. Their workaholic dad, Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick), spends most of his time at the Umbrella lab working on a new drug in response to the events that decimated the old Racoon City. In 2036, an adult Jade Wesker (Ella Balinska) remains haunted by her past while fighting for survival in an apocalyptic world overrun by monsters.
Showrunner Andrew Dabb (“Supernatural”) hinges the inaugural season’s overarching mystery on the gap between timelines and, foremost, its characters. In the present day, Jade and Billie couldn’t be any closer as bonded sisters or further apart in personality. Jade is the more assertive extrovert, whereas Billie is the guarded introvert with an empathetic streak that gets her in trouble. It’s not just the perils of high school they band together to navigate but the unique circumstances of their upbringing by the world’s leading biochemist at a morally questionable corporation. This timeline largely shapes the future and includes the inciting event, but Dabb keeps the details and reveals close to the chest.
Whereas 2022 is far more character-driven and story-focused, the 2036 timeline emphasizes horror-action thrills. While the adult Jade is still shrouded in mystery, it’s all overshadowed by the bombastic set pieces, fight choreography, and high-octane survival horror as her personal mission whisks her through various harrowing encounters with infected, seedy Umbrella ambassadors and monsters large and small.
It’s the latter where “Resident Evil” shines the brightest, especially for the biggest video games fans. There’s no shortage of fantastical and ferocious creatures plucked straight from the games’ canon. How each gets incorporated ranges from entertaining fan service to thrilling deep cuts that’ll surprise and delight you. The series inserts these monsters in such an accessible way that working knowledge of the lore isn’t necessary; it works just as well as an insanely packed creature feature showcase. If you want a nonstop, unpredictable action-horror series that delivers the kitchen sink of monster encounters, this is for you.
However, this adaptation can’t escape the campiness that haunted the initial video games, and it can lead to some strange tonal whiplash. Some aspects of this series want to be taken seriously, while others go full throttle on silliness. When it works, it’s an absolute blast. When it doesn’t, it works against the series. Evelyn Marcus (Paola Nuñez) serves as the season’s villain, an Umbrella boss with a heart of ice. But the season waits too long to offer any insight into Evelyn and her true villainess capabilities, rendering Nuñez’s scene-chewing performance as nothing more than a mustache-twirling caricature rather than an actual threat. One pivotal scene late-season finally casts this villain in a menacing light, but it comes too late. Balinska deftly handles the physically demanding aspect of her role, demonstrating her action mettle, but struggles with some of the emotional demands of her character.
If there’s one star performance among the pack this season, it’s Lance Reddick’s surprising take on franchise mainstay Albert Wesker. Of course, Wesker holds some shocking secrets crucial to this season, but Reddick’s range with the character impresses. This Wesker does bear the commanding presence and dangerous authority fans would expect, but it’s infectious when Reddick really cuts loose.
RESIDENT EVIL. ELLA BALINKSA as JADE, ELLA BALINSKA as JADE in RESIDENT EVIL. MARCOS CRUZ/NETFLIX © 2022
The two converging timelines work in driving the plot forward and prolonging the answers, but it can create pacing struggles in places. Overall, Dabb delivers a compulsive inaugural season full of monster mayhem, impressive scale and spectacle, and a compelling set of characters in the Wesker family. Devout video game fans will find a surprising breadth of Easter eggs and deep cut nods; there’s a clear reverence for the video game franchise with an earnest desire to evolve something new from that. Still, newcomers will find themselves at home in this wildly unpredictable world that flings a breathless variety of creatures at Jade.
Even when uneven, the monster showcase and action-horror thrills make “Resident Evil” a brisk and entertaining romp that leaves you hoping for more.
Netflix’s “Resident Evil” television series will debut globally on July 14, 2022.
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