Resident Evil

Netflix's video game adaptation attempts something more narratively ambitious with dual timelines pre- and post-apocalypse. A recap of “Welcome to New ...

In a show of real bravado, the episode cuts to black with her in midair. At first, Wesker seems a bit outmatched by his family situation: Jade, the more confrontational of the two sisters, resists everything about their move, while Billie (who shares both her first name and a general sense of style with the current musical superstar) struggles with a checkered past related to her anger issues, which Jade seems determined to goad her into expressing more directly. As bad as it looks out there, there’s a surprising current of domesticity when Jade video-chats with her family, promising them she’ll be careful out there and head back home soon — a far cry from the hopelessness of the movies. It’s their loss: Umbrella unceremoniously lays waste to the entire group, with their head honcho (who looks a bit like a young Peter Jackson, though not quite Dead Alive-era young) cornering Jade. She’s forced to go the Full Jovovich: She leaps off an impossibly high ledge into a sea of zombies below. She has the dutiful vibe of 12 Monkeys-style sample-collecting on a dead surface, keeping her ear quite literally to the ground to stay aware of her surroundings. But most of those movies take place in some wasteland, to the point where the show beginning in 2036, “14 years after the end,” feels reassuringly familiar.

After a popular game and seven live-action movies (including a reboot last year), "Resident Evil" makes the seemingly inevitable migration to Netflix as a ...

Not that there's much reason to sweat the details or worry too much about the longevity of anyone other than her. That might be true strictly for Netflix's purposes in terms of connecting with fans. Balinska is a solid enough lead taking into account the confining nature of the writing, as Milla Jovovich could probably attest after her half-dozen action-laden outings.

Netflix's "Resident Evil" takes on the video game franchise, but many of the human characters lack bite.

Since half the show is future-set, there are some twists later on — mostly “Who is still alive in 2036 and how did they survive?” — but the disparate zombie parts do not make a cohesive zombie whole. The “Resident Evil” franchise has been around for more than 25 years, launching as a horror game in the mid ’90s that terrified players with its grotesque monsters and haunting world. Netflix’s “ Resident Evil” series is no different, infusing its take on the undead with multiple timelines, teen drama and a sci-fi pharmaceutical company bent on world domination.

A still from the Netflix series "Resident Evil." He might seem like a nice-guy dad, but Albert Wesker is a mad scientist to the core. Credit: Netflix ...

But remember: The show already goes out of its way to build a story that's faithful to the events of the past. In all the ways that matter, though, the Netflix series is mindful of the world-building that preceded its arrival. It's important to remember, too: The last time gamers had any contact at all with Albert Wesker was in 2009's Resident Evil 5, which was set in the same year it came out. There's also a masked, chainsaw-wielding baddie who bears a striking resemblance to one of the threats players encounter in Resident Evil 4, but he serves a different purpose here and it's clearly not meant to be the same character. None of this is to say that the Netflix story is fully set within the same universe as all the games. There's even a "master of unlocking" gag, which plays with a widely mocked moment from the original Resident Evil. Totally different context on the show, but that's what makes it fun. But it's not subtle about referencing a fictional history that seems to tie in with the events of the games. The very first Resident Evil game is set in the fictional Midwestern town of Raccoon City, and the first Zero outbreak happened there in 1998. The giant centipede Zero that appears in the opening episode is almost identical to one that appears in a boss fight from the game Resident Evil 0. What I would say is there's nothing in the show's story so far making it utterly clear that Game Wesker and TV Wesker are separate people. The 2022 timeline introduces us to Albert, Jade, and Billie just as they're settling into New Raccoon City, a well-appointed company town established in South Africa, not too far from the capital city of Cape Town. But against all odds, the eight-episode live-action series from Andrew Dabb, a veteran of The CW's Supernatural story team, tells a riveting story about shady corporate maneuvering, the end of the world, and none other than Albert Wesker himself.

Adeline Rudolph is a talented and charismatic performer who you might recognize as Agatha from the Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

You can find Adeline on Instagram @adelinerudo. She has close to 600k followers and more than 70 posts. Starring opposite Ella Balinska (adult Jade Wesker) in 2036, Adeline is excellent as Billie, although I won’t say much about that version of the character to avoid spoiler territory! Adeline Rudolph is a talented and charismatic performer who you might recognize as Agatha from the Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. In her latest role, the 27-year-old actress portrays the adult version of Billie Wesker in Netflix’s live-action Resident Evil series.

"Resident Evil," the Netflix series, is based on the Capcom game of the same name. The narrative takes place in 2022 and 2036. In 2036, an adult Jade ...

Although it is not very clear, she works for a rival company to Umbrella Corporation. The character has appeared in the live-action films “Resident Evil: Retribution” (where she was portrayed by Li Bingbing) and “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” (where she was portrayed by Lily Gao). Bea runs away and conveniently finds Jade. Billie finds the mother and the daughter. But that is when the earth starts to rumble, and the gigantic crocodile appears before her with the intention of killing everyone in its vicinity. Albert and Bert prepare an explosive device, but they realize that someone has to ignite the fuse. While trying to escape, Billie hallucinates and is brought back to normalcy by Bert. Simon and Jade find Albert. Bert brings Billie to the rest of the group. She is on the shores of the place where the monstrous crocodile is attacking Umbrella. She took a lifeboat and got there all by herself. In the meantime, Evelyn’s assistant injects Billie with something, and she starts to act up again. After some initial hesitation, she does so by bolting into one of the back alleys of New Raccoon City. In 2036, Jade and Billie (Adeline Rudolph) stand in front of the horde of zombies that Jade has attracted to the makeshift Umbrella camp. After trading barbs, Billie asks Evelyn if she can help her with her disease, and she says that she’s the only one who can. In the flashback, Roth brings Billie to Evelyn, and, after seeing her bite mark, she realizes that she was the one who got bit by the dog on that fateful night. A shot of the gigantic crocodile that Jade’s aquatic crew is dragging around with an anchor line indicates that Jade has used that technology on a bigger reptile. In 2022, we see young Jade (Tamara Smart) and her “twin” sister Billie (Siena Agudong) moving into New Raccoon City with their father, Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick). As the two girls, Jade and Billie, settle into their new environment, their father, Albert starts his work at the Umbrella Corporation where he gets involved in the development of a drug called Joy.

Wondering how 'Resident Evil' the show is connected to the 'Resident Evil' video games? Here are the answers to your burning questions.

This saga concludes with Mia and Rosemary escaping with Chris Redfield. There is also a post-credits scene with a teenaged Rosemary that’s set in 2037, which is the only part of the games that takes place after the TV series, which, as a reminder, takes place in 2022 (after all the games), and 2036 (after all the games, but before this post-credits scene). And that’s it. Three years after the events of Biohazard, Ethan, Mia, and their daughter Rosemary have been relocated to Europe to start a new life. The events of Resident Evil Zero then lead directly into the first Resident Evil. Set in July of 1998, Raccoon City Police Department’s S.T.A.R.S. team is sent to the Spencer mansion to investigate the disappearance of another team. There’s a lot of fighting and an Antartica trip, but the game ends with Steve sacrificing himself for Claire, Claire reuniting with her brother, and Albert Wesker stealing Steve’s corpse for experimentation. In 2012, he partners with Division of Security Operations (DSO) agent and Raccoon City survivor Sherry Birkin, aka the impregnated little girl from Resident Evil 2. Confusingly, this story doesn’t start with the first Resident Evil game. Claire Redfield is back, and she’s still looking for her brother Chris. She’s captured by Umbrella and placed in a Rockfort Island prison somewhere in the Southern Ocean. Surprise, surprise — there’s an outbreak of the T-virus in these close quarters. It takes place after all the games, including Resident Evil: Village. This is with the exception of a single cutscene in Village, which takes place in 2037. It starts with Resident Evil Zero, which was released in 2002 and takes place in July of 1998. Over the years, we’ve seen dozens of iterations of Resident Evil. There were the Milla Jovovich movies that barely followed the games, Welcome to Raccoon City, the mainline games, the spinoff titles, the anime, and the animated movies. They have a big, broad, awesome plan for the franchise that I don’t know all of, but I know enough of to be excited about. That is exactly what Netflix is delivering with Resident Evil, the streaming giant’s new take on an old property.

Now that Resident Evil 4 Remake is on the way, it's worth looking at how Capcom set high standards for how video game remakes should be handled.

Looking at the teaser trailer alone, it appears that Capcom will be making significant changes to Resident Evil 4, given the darker tone prevalent in the teaser. However, despite the heavy criticism, Capcom claims that Resident Evil 3 Remake still exceeded the studio's sales expectations. While Capcom was able to successfully remake the first two Resident Evil games, its streak was broken by the Resident Evil 3 Remake. It is worth noting that similar to the Resident Evil 2 Remake, the remake of Resident Evil 3 is also considered a re-imagining, given that it is not a shot-for-shot recreation of the original. Unfortunately, instead of adding new elements similar to Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2, Capcom cut iconic locations and moments in Resident Evil 3 Remake, such as the Clock Tower and Brad's death under the hands of Nemesis. Despite not being 100% faithful to the original game, reception for Resident Evil 2 Remake was positive, especially since the changes Capcom implemented resulted in players having a fresh experience of the game. Enter 2019's Resident Evil 2 Remake, which Capcom approached differently than Resident Evil Remake. Instead of doing a shot-for-shot recreation of Resident Evil 2, Capcom introduced significant changes in the Resident Evil 2 Remake by expanding the roles of other characters such as Robert Kendo and Marvin Branagh.

Ahead of the show's premiere on Netflix, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with Andrew Dabb to break down the Resident Evil series. Dabb specifically opened up ...

Given the series is set within the games' mythology, one could hope that Ada's appearance could also lead to season 2 featuring Leon, be it in a flashback between the two characters or in one of the two main timelines. She has also made her way to the screen with adaptations of the franchise, being played by Li Bingbing in Jovovich's Resident Evil: Retribution and Lily Gao in last year's Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City during the film's mid-credits scene. With the show grounded in the games' mythology, Netflix's Resident Evil season 2 is set to feature one major video game character.

If you've already finished the first eight episodes in this series, chances are you're dying for more. No need to conduct an elaborate plot that somehow ...

Dabb explained that the goal of Season 1 was to introduce audiences to these new characters and let audiences take in Resident Evil’s lore through their eyes. What you’ll start to see more and more as the gap is shortening, is you start to understand how the Jade from the present day, who is very different than Jade in the future, how she became that person — how the Billie from the present day became that person.” Resident Evil has yet to be renewed for another season. It also gives this team the ability to play with the narrative fabric of this saga. During an interview with Decider, showrunner Andrew Dabb revealed, “We’re in the process right now of figuring out the story for Season 2.” This is the story of a girl who was bitten by a dog and almost cursed the whole world.

Albert Wesker returns from the dead in Netflix's 'Resident Evil' series. Showrunner Andrew Dabb and star Lance Reddick explain how.

Twins Jade and Billie are shocked when they find out that their father Albert is a clone after Bert pretends to be him and gets unusually violent over Olive Garden’s unlimited breadsticks. The diabolical scientist actually cloned himself in a bunker in the Arklay mountains, creating Albert, Bert and Alby, who are much nicer versions of him. The second thing is, this show is very much about parents and children, whether it’s Albert and his daughters, or Jade and her daughter, but also the original Wesker and his children because they were raised by him.” There’s just one problem: Wesker died in 2009 after a fight that ended with him falling into a volcano and being hit with an explosion on top of that. Someone like Albert, he would argue he’s not like his dad at all. “He doesn’t want to change the world; he wants to take over the world.

In contemporary zombie movies, there's a heavily cribbed script for how to address (and fail to dress) a zombie-inflicted wound. Typically, a victim either ...

Three days may not seem like an especially long time to go from wounded and worried to impulsive and violent, but Resident Evil does a skillful job of teasing out the dread, whether it’s for the fate of the near-strangers left in the tunnels, who we may never see again, or for Billie, who looks like she knows full well not to believe her sister’s insistence that everything will ultimately be okay. • A previous T-virus mishap is said to have occurred in “Old” Raccoon City; hence the New Raccoon City near Capetown where the 2022 characters live. When the writing for Evelyn does aim to at least make her not seem like an obvious villain, it’s just warmed-over careless-disruptor shtick: “It’s not about the stock price … it’s about changing the world.” (And it follows her laughing off the Joy pill’s potential for mind control with “Who hasn’t popped a Xanny and gone hunting for Louboutins?”) Shouldn’t she be placing greater emphasis on the supposedly ultra-low risk of overdosing on Joy, feigning concern rather than dismissing it with cutesy lines? The younger Jade hasn’t quite reached this conclusion yet, but she’s watching in horror as Billie continues to succumb to her illness (and the show offers Billie’s POV through blood-soaked, vomit-heavy hallucinations/premonitions). Jade neg-nags her hacker pal Simon for more files on Umbrella’s misdeeds, but the company has updated its security. Typically, a victim either gets publicly bitten, which results in either a quick self-sacrifice or frantic arguments between those who want to off them right away and those who want to momentarily spare them; or, drawing out the latter, a victim hides their bite, hoping that it won’t actually affect them, until it’s too late. And despite their place further down the apocalyptic timeline, the family that Jade meets and travels with does have some capacity for denial.

Lance Reddick (Albert Wesker) · Paola Nuñez (Evelyn Marcus) · Turlough Convery (Richard Baxter) · Ella Balinska (Jade Wesker) · Tamara Smart (Young Jade) · Adeline ...

But none of this means anything if you don’t watch the show and the only way to do that is by have an active Netflix subscription. If the stars properly align, he will talk about For Love Of The Game being the best baseball movie of all time. Connor Gosatti’s inclusion on the Resident Evil cast is perhaps the young actor’s biggest break yet. Smart first found success with the children’s fantasy drama series The Worst Witch in 2017, on which she took on the role of Enid Nightshade for the show’s four-season run. Portrayed by Siena Agudong, the younger version of Billie finds herself at odds with just about anyone and everyone in her path. Although her name may not be as recognizable as some of the other members of the Resident Evil cast, Balinska has proven she’s an up-and-coming star that needs to be followed. Since then, Rudolph has been featured on the podcast series Listening In, on which she voices a character named Sienna. Over the years, Convery has also found success on shows like Poldark, Les Misérables, Temple, Killing Eve, and Sanditon. In that same stretch of time, the Irish actor has popped up in a variety of movies ranging from Steven Spielberg’s 2018 adaptation of Ready Player One to Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical Academy Award winner Belfast in 2021. A prominent fixture of The Wire cast throughout the show’s five-season run, Reddick has long been one of the most prolific and interesting actors on TV, being able to play characters with a tremendous amount of range. The daughter of Albert Wesker is a hardened researcher who could very well be humanity's final chance at survival. But you won’t be seeing the return of Milla Jovovich’s Alice on this version of the Resident Evil cast since the show is taking a different direction than Paul W.S. Anderson’s successful film franchise of the same name. He has also played key roles in the Destiny and Horizon video game series the past decade.

Leon and Ashley's remade adventure is one many have undertaken - The remake of Resident Evil 2 has smashed another sales m...

The remade Resident Evil 2 set a new benchmark for remakes in the industry, with its slick visuals and enhanced gameplay. The remake of Resident Evil 2 has smashed another sales milestone, with an impressive 10 million units sold across all platforms, since its initial release back in 2019. To put that in perspective, the Resident Evil 2 remake is now in the same territory as the original Resident Evil 4, perhaps the most beloved title in the series, which has the benefit of having been on the market since 2005.

Remakes are historically risky business, especially in the horror genre. However, sales show that Capcom somehow found a winning formula with Resident Evil ...

Capcom Division 1, the studio responsible for the Resident Evil 2 remake, took some time to celebrate on social media. By comparison, Resident Evil 7 took five years to only ship 10 million units. On Wednesday, Capcom announced that the Resident Evil 2 remake has sold over 10 million copies worldwide since its launch on Jan. 24, 2019.

Back in 2019, Capcom released the remake of Resident Evil 2, knocking the socks off of players around the world with the cutting-edge use of its RE Engine.

Either way, 10 million copies in 3 years for a single-player horror game is quite wild. Between stellar character performances all-around, excellent and exhilarating combat, and updated puzzles, Resident Evil 2 remake did more than its fair share to earn a high-scoring review, as well as plenty of Shacknews Awards in that same year. Capcom has even kept the goodness going with upgraded versions of Resident Evil 7 and the RE2 and RE3 remakes on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, although these upgrades were offered for free to existing owners of the games.

Brief, welcome glimpses of silliness from Lance Reddick and some wild gory moments hint at what could have been if this Netflix series were more willing to ...

That 2022 versus 2036 divide is probably Resident Evil’s greatest challenge, given that it locks the series’s characters into paths that deny viewers the pleasure of narrative immersion and legitimate surprise. The series is better when it steps out from under the Umbrella instead of staying under it. As is often the case with an established property, showrunner, executive producer, and writer Andrew Dabb is tasked with finding a balance between what Resident Evil was and what it could be, and to do so, he puts a spin on established components. Of course!) The heroes are still women, but instead of Milla Jovovich’s often-cloned Alice or Kaya Scodelario’s Claire Redfield, they’re high-schoolers Jade Wesker (Smart) and Billie Wesker (Agudong), who in 2022 move to New Raccoon City with their father, Albert Wesker (Reddick), who works for Umbrella. And while the apocalypse that is integral to the whole Resident Evil universe is only starting to go down in 2022, it’s fully underway in 2036, when we see an adult Jade (Ella Balinska) traveling around and collecting data on the zombies to try and find some kind of reversal, cure, or immunity. There is a moment in the Netflix series adaptation of Resident Evil when Lance Reddick suddenly morphs into an action hero. Mid-fight, Reddick looks directly at the camera, which is aligned with the girls, and sends them and us an exaggerated wink and a goofy grin.

For a while there, it seemed like we had perhaps broken the video game adaptation curse, thanks in part to Netflix itself, home of brilliant projects like ...

Without getting into spoilers, you might imagine that the past storyline and the future storyline would converge, but the series ends with the clear indication that both of these separate time tracks are going to continue, and it’s just a litany of annoying cliffhangers that demand a second season. One major problem with Resident Evil is how it ends, with zero resolution and boldly confident it’s going to get a second season pickup to continue storylines. He’s great as Wesker for the first stretch of the show, but then after a late plot turn, really has the chance to expand his range and answer questions Resident Evil fans have had about why this version of the character exists at all. She feels like the most game-true character to me, lest we forget how bonkers most of the mainline Resident Evil games actually are. If the show focused purely on the “origin of the outbreak” storyline with the teens, there would have effectively been…zero zombies in a Resident Evil show. The tone of this show is just all over the place, threading in pop culture references like Elon Musk, Spongebob Squarepants and uh, Zootopia porn.

The world of 'Resident Evil' has gotten decidedly weirder, with Zootopia porn referenced in the new Netflix series.

The game series it is based upon never went near any of these subjects, and, again, is primarily focused on the Umbrella Corporation and horrific villains like Albert Wesker. Now, we’re in a new age and Resi is on Netflix. In case you were ever curious, Zootopia porn is now canon in Resident Evil.

“My sister's dead. She died when I was 14.” That's what Jade tells her Umbrella pursuer-turned-cellmate (Turlough Convery) around the midpoint of the ...

I don’t think that’s what anyone had in mind with the Brotherhood here (I wouldn’t be surprised if the creators of this show were as attentive to the older movies as writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson was to the old video games, which is to say: not especially), but it’s a cool parallel. The show has flipped from showing Billie marked for death in 2022 while mentioning that she’s alive in 2036 to showing her surviving in 2022 and mentioning that she’s dead in 2036. It also demonstrates the ruthlessness of this enterprise, which makes it feel worthy of its predecessors: In less than an hour, this Irish fellow goes from mildly annoying side-character antagonist to genuine comic relief to gun-toting badass mowing down zombies in a particularly shamelessly fan-pleasing sequence. In other words, this is a bit of Resident Evil Classic, adding in the concept of a T-virus that has evolved enough to create a zombie queen, which Jade decapitates with a chainsaw. It may also be a way of testing Jade, who can’t very well claim to believe her sister will be putting others in danger if she’s also insisting that nothing crazy will happen to her at the fateful three-day mark. (Sharp characterization here: Jade is the type of girl who will openly disdain a social gathering and have a much better time at said gathering than her sister.) But Billie insists, noting that their dad claimed that they did not need to quarantine.

We know him, we're scared of him, and we love him. Albert Wesker is a beloved villain from the Resident Evil games, but which film appearance is the best?

Dateability: The other problem with this version of Wesker is that he only appears as a hologram, and nobody really likes long-distance dating. He might not be the most faithful adaptation of the character, but he's just too endearing and likable to not rank this high! Dateability: Let's say that all of the obvious red flags weren't there — this Wesker could be a great boyfriend. "Resident Evil" works best when it manages to combine goofiness with genuine terror (don't lie and say you don't find the design of Lady Dimitrescu kind of funny). Oh, and he's also partially responsible for this truly wonderful moment in YouTube history. He only appeared in one scene, in a boardroom meeting, sporting the most realistic hairline that any Wesker has had to date. It's for this reason and many more that Wesker continues to crop up in the "Resident Evil" franchise. Physical menace: Maybe this is a sign that I'm one of /Film's resident zoomers, but I can't take this Wesker seriously. Physical menace: Before he was "killed" at William Birkin's lab, he had the stature of any random buff guy at the gym. Dare I say that he might be one of those guys who has a photo on his Tinder profile of him holding a fish? This Wesker just got bored — that's basically the gist of his betrayal, and it's both hilarious and really stupid. Of course, this isn't without good reason — Wesker is a great villain and is still compelling to this day. In "Resident Evil 7: Biohazard," it's revealed that his research into the T-virus culminated in the creation of the Albert-01 Samurai Edge gun, a weapon that the player can acquire which is used to kill those infected with the E-series BOW virus.

There's a chance that a live-action Lady Dimitrescu may come to Netflix's 'Resident Evil.' Series showrunner Andrew Dabb spoke to Decider about the ...

The French actress and model has starred in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers and 2006’s Casino Royale. “But that being said, I’m sure there are actresses out there who would kill it that we’re not even thinking of. I would say it’s the No. 1 demand,” Dabb told Decider. “As the show moves forward, we will start to see more characters from the games show up. In an interview with Decider, showrunner Andrew Dabb revealed that he does know what we all want to see: yes, the writer’s room has talked about adding Lady Dimitrescu to this story, and yes, he has an actor in mind.

The last time we saw the sunglasses-wearing virologist he was seemingly killed off by the unique combination of Chris Redfield, an RPG, and a volcano in ...

The new series has multiple versions of the main Wesker. Spoilers for the Resident Evil Netflix series follow. The new Resident Evil Netflix series, however, has revealed exactly how he makes his return.

The first takes place in 2022, three months before all hell breaks loose at New Raccoon City, as the young Wesker sisters Jade (Tamara Smart) and Billie (Siena ...

Decades of film and television logic has trained us all to know that the image of a bleeding out protagonist before the credits role is not a sign of death, but of a new vengeance plot. Albert and Bert work together to make a bomb in the hopes it'll destroy the building and all of the contamination. Knowing that he would have to be the one to set it off, Albert decides to sacrifice himself to save his daughters and Bert. Albert writes something on a piece of paper, gives it to Jade, and tells her to find the woman on the paper. Once they get inside the terrorized corporation, they meet up with their dad and Bert, one of the many doppelgängers of Albert. Billie hasn't yet mutated, but unfortunately in all of the chaos, Billie goes feral once again and bites Simon. Unfortunately, Simon's mother Evelyn is the highly ambitious CEO of Umbrella corp, and is willing to protect the company and their research no matter what. As is the case with most Umbrella Corporation rollouts, things don't go as planned, and New Raccoon City, well, becomes a "Resident Evil" world. Marrying both commonly accepted plot points established in the games and a predictive look at where the stories could take them in the future, "Resident Evil" somehow managed to avoid following in the footsteps of the adaptations that came before it, and forged its own path.

Out of ammo - The live-action adaptations of the Resident Evil franchise have had a real rough time of it, huh? Paul W.S. ...

The callbacks to iconic moments from the games are certainly cool for veterans, but accomplish little more than muddy the waters for newcomers to the franchise. There’s enough here, in theory, to draw in newcomers while keeping long-time fans entertained, but unfortunately this Resident Evil squanders much of its potential and proves itself to be a convoluted mess that focuses too much on the family drama surrounding the Weskers and not enough on the franchise staple: the monsters. Indeed, for much of its runtime, Resident Evil feels very much like a young-adult drama wrapped up in the visual style of Capcom’s classic franchise. It’s a commendable attempt to break away from the core narrative of the game series in a way that makes sense for newcomers (mostly), but at the same time it tries desperately to please long-time fans of the franchise, ultimately failing to nail down its target audience. Zombies (known as ‘Zeroes’ here) understandably play a prominent role throughout, and we also get to see Zombie Dogs, Lickers, Giant Tarantulas, Dr. Salvador, and even a Tyrant. The problem, though, is that none of them are afforded any significant screen time. When Netflix announced its own take on Resident Evil via an eight-episode series, fans were understandably sceptical that the streaming juggernaut could pull off what Anderson and Roberts failed to do.

For six choppy hours, Netflix's "Resident Evil" series struggles to find its footing. Then Lance Reddick takes control. [Spoilers]

Surrender is the only option — and for “Resident Evil,” it’s also the best. “Resident Evil” is consistent in its attempts to convey substantial scale (be it the physical sets or CGI-monsters that fill them), and the finale refutes its bland title (“Revelations”) by opening up the goofy floodgates. Bert lets Reddick play a joyful new song, but to explain Bert, “Resident Evil” has to introduce a full band of Reddicks. To kick off Episode 7, we learn that Albert used to work at a lab in the Arklay Mountains with Bert and Alby. All three are clones of the original Albert Wesker, who made them to conduct secret research on his behalf. Second, and arguably more significant, is that Bert’s introduction tips “Resident Evil” over the edge. Bert has to pretend to be Albert — to be the dad he never got the chance to be — and suddenly he’s at an Olive Garden with Billie and Jade, shouting about breadsticks. The unnamed seabeast justifies its star turn by noshing on zombies, swatting helicopters out of the sky, and even befriending a little girl. The ending is actually fun, in part because “Resident Evil” lets its finest thespian off the leash, but also because it’s forced to serve the story its created, rather than any other ideas of what it should be. Albert’s big conflict throughout Season 1 is that Evelyn wants to rush a mood-boosting super-drug (lazily named “Joy”) to market, and he doesn’t think it’s ready. (Side note: I absolutely love that “Resident Evil” keeps with the films’ focus on female action stars and even doubles down by revolving around two sisters’ fractured relationship. Rather than tell one story well, it tells two stories poorly, and in a rebuttal to Jade’s quest to housebreak 6 billion zeroes, it’s clear the living and the dead can’t coexist. Up until the opening of Episode 7, Reddick plays Albert Wesker, Billie and Jade’s father who happens to be the top scientist at Umbrella. Working directly underneath the villainous CEO Evelyn Marcus (Paola Nuñez), Albert has been up to some shady shit. (For example, some zombies dive-bomb victims, piercing body armor and skin in a single bite, while others politely move aside when the hero’s only shield is a trashcan lid.)

Netflix's new Resident Evil series ties into the video games in some interesting ways, but like the rest of the series it's a tangled web.

Considering she’s a newborn in the main game, it’s possible the epilogue takes place around 2036 when the events of Netflix’s Resident Evil happen. Coincidentally, an art book for Resident Evil Village shows that Ada Wong was set to appear in an early version of the story, so it’s possible we could see some of those unused ideas play out in Netflix’s series. There are presumably three Wesker children alive in the Resident Evil universe, counting Jade and Billie as well as Jake Muller, one of the main characters of Resident Evil 6. This means that the clone Weskers and the real Wesker existed at the same time, but the real Wesker did indeed meet his end in a volcano. The references only go up so far as Resident Evil 5, however, as the show doesn’t mention any of the events in Resident Evil 6 and forward. The show also mentions the events in the original Raccoon City and the Arklay Mountains taking place in Resident Evil 1-3, as well as how officials covered up the whole thing.

While the video games have always been beloved and acclaimed, the Paul W. S. Anderson movie series starring his wife Mila Jovovich based on them are more ...

Most like Gossip Girl, these two adults also seem to have the composure and emotional maturity of teenagers. The issue with adapting Resident Evil is that many of the things that make the games good are impossible to translate to film, and the story was never one of the things that made these games so beloved. Making the leads of the show two teenage girls also makes the plot of the show pretty ridiculous, but not in a way that feels out of character for Resident Evil. If you’re a fan of the games, you probably know what happened to the original Raccoon City (zombie outbreak), and in the fiction of this version of the story, the discovery of this corporate coverup falls into the hands of two 14 year olds. In Gossip Girl, Serena and Dan’s parents dated when they were younger, and when the two teens meet in high school and hit it off, the two parents also get entangled in their own melodrama. Netflix’s Resident Evil is similarly campy, and that tone is enthusiastically embraced by Lance Riddick, who plays the longtime series villain Albert Wesker. In this show, he has two adopted daughters who come with him to New Raccoon City in South Africa, where he is working on a drug called Joy, that makes people happier. Resident Evil as a series has had a complicated relationship to the medium of film.

Will there be a 'Resident Evil' Season 2 on Netflix? Get answers to all the questions related to the thriller series.

Andrew Dabbsaid that the story for Season 2 of the series is in the making. Along with the story, the characters will also evolve into new and changed personalities. It depends on the showrunner, Andrew Dabb, and it seems like the cliff-hanger will have a good and long streaming life.

Arguably the best adaptation of the series we've seen thus far, will it be enough for Netflix to renew the series for a second season? Time will tell, but ...

With a Tyrant running loose on the streets of New Raccoon City, and Cape Town only an hour away, it’s not hard to see how an infection could spread rapidly. The first batch of filming took place between February 2021 and July 2021. Whether it can get the numbers it needs to secure a second season is yet to be seen, however. “When the rights to make these type of shows are sold or loaned out there should have to be some ground rules. Many of the fan reviews seem to cite this in their reviews. Time will tell, but ultimately we’re convinced Netflix will renew Resident Evil in the near future.

The finale of Netflix's Resident Evil featured the name drop for an iconic video game character. Here's why they will be important for season 2.

Additionally, with Ada's troubled history with the Umbrella Corporation in the games, convincing her to go to war with the company won't be hard for Jade and Billie to do in Resident Evil season 2. With Dabb also expressing a hope to explore more game elements in Resident Evil season 2, one can hold out hope Netflix gives the creatives the opportunity to continue building out the survival horror world. Though scrapped from appearing in Resident Evil Village, Ada would make her last canonical appearance in Resident Evil 6, where she is working to bring down rogue National Security Advisor Derek C. Simmons. The Resident Evil show also followed Jade 14 years in the future, in which humanity has been reduced to 300 million people after another devastating outbreak of the T-virus across the globe. However, one moment near the end of the season could indicate the future involvement of one more well-known Resident Evil character. The new Resident Evil series at Netflix delivered a number of surprises for fans of Capcom's video game franchise, including a name drop for a character that will be very important for a potential season 2.