Resident Evil, review of the new Netflix series. An accident that is not Umbrella’s fault

More than 35 years of history, dozens of video games and most importantly, a lifetime slot in the Horror Hall of Fame. That’s it resident Evil, the franchise born in 1996 by Capcom with Shinji Mikami at the helm. The great insignia – with permission from Alone in the Dark – of survival horror as we know it. But now is not the time to talk about any of your titles, but about the new Netflix series.

Over the years, the saga has received numerous film adaptations since its premiere. Between 2002 (Milla Jovovich’s Resident Evil) and 2021 (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City) we have seen up to 7 movies and an animated series (infinite darkness). And now, Netflix returns to the fray with a risky betwhose story revolves around the figure of Albert Weskerone of the most popular villains in video game history.

• NOTE: this review is completely free of spoilersbeyond some basic elements present in the official trailer, the synopsis of the series and the first bars of it.

Between two waters

The series divides its story into two distinct arcs. The present is set in 2022at a time when the Umbrella corporation Finalize the details of its next star product: Alegría, a drink that promises to “change the world”, offering its consumers the possibility of palliating the ravages caused by depression, among other serious afflictions. As you can imagine, the real plan of the company goes far beyond conceiving a kind of drink of happiness, and is none other than exercising total control over the population.

Secondly, the future takes us to 2036. In this scenario, the world has been devastated and hordes of infected walkers roam the towns and cities, along with other common creatures from the games. We want to think that the fact that one of the compounds of the mentioned miraculous drink was the T-Virus It had nothing to do with it, but… Anyway, if there is one thing we can praise about the production, it is the commitment to jump between two time frames throughout the entire series. The idea is ambitious, the execution not so much. Because to be a reinvention, the feeling that it leaves us is that we have already done it many times.

The main problem of the series is the imbalance between the two arches; what happens in 2022 is much more interesting than practically everything we live in 2036, and that gives rise to an unbalanced set. That, and the subframes that go on too longdespite not contributing anything of interest to the universe of the franchise, as is the case of the adaptation of Jade and Billie, Wesker’s daughters, to their new life in New Raccoon Cityhis arrival at the institute, social relations and other problems that, honestly, nobody would miss if they had been ruled out.

In search of an identity

Recently, lance reddick (the actor who plays Albert Wesker) acknowledged that he doesn’t know the games, nor does he intend to. A fact that he does not surprise us, despite the fact that his work is one of the highlights of the series. After witnessing an outcome that we did not find exactly satisfactory, our main complaint is that we are not very clear about the objective of Andrew Dabb, responsible for the script; We don’t know what he wanted to do with a license like Resident Evil. On the one hand, the main idea was to reinvent it and get away from the titles that almost all of us have enjoyed at some point. On the other hand, easy winks and constant references are often used. A series of tributes that, if they had been treated with more respect, would have been really good, but…

And while we’re talking about Albert Weskerone of the main protagonists, we have to say that Reddick’s good work is not enough to palliate the inexplicable representation of the same. It is surprising that the quintessential villain of the franchise is not much firmer in his convictions, perhaps due to an attempt to humanize the character and plunge him into a constant moral dilemma. Once again, the idea is interesting on paper, but the difficulty in getting something like this to work, coupled with questionable execution, leaves it in no man’s land; It conveys neither fear nor pity.

On numerous occasions, the series makes clear its intention to seek that the new generations approach the franchise. The language often used, with references to the social networks of the moment and many common expressions among its users —can you imagine a senior officer of Umbrella talking about 4chan?—, as well as the tone of some subplots, close to the classic teen dramaThey are not the result of chance. In principle, there would be nothing wrong with all that… the problem is that we are talking about Resident Evil, and we would have liked that name to serve as something more than a mere commercial claim.

Resident Evil deserves better

If we value Resident Evil as a television product, we could say that this is one of those series that “goes well”, along the lines of movies; it’s entertaining, light —despite having to deal with those soporific subplots— and it offers the occasional good moment, especially in the first episodes (unfortunately, it goes from more to less). Yes, without bragging. However, we cannot turn a blind eye to its main problem: it is an adaptation of one of the most successful franchises of all time. And in that sense, the potential of the Capcom saga has been wasted. Again.

The license has never been known for the quality of its film adaptations, and the new series doesn’t improve on anything we’ve seen over the last 20 years. We believe that justice has not been done to a myth like Albert Wesker, nor to the Umbrella Corporation itself. Betting on reinvention and getting away from games seemed like an interesting idea, but it’s hard to get it right if you’re never able to forget about them and insist on accumulating endless winks and elements fan service pleasing to the eye, but empty inside. resident Evil and his fans they deserve much better.