RESIDENT EVOM SERIES

The world, we’re told, is now occupied by 6 billion zombies and just a few hundred thousand humans. In the 2036 section of the story, things get a little weirder and a little worse for Resident Evil. Instead, the 2022 part of the plot line falls prey to the series’ race toward the inevitable outbreak, giving us less high school drama in favor of boring Umbrella shenanigans, especially as the first season wears on. If this scene set the tone for the entire show, it might have made for a fun offshoot and addition to the Resident Evil universe, but it’s more the exception than the rule. It’s all of the ’90s bravado of video game Wesker focused into dad mode, instead of the usual nefarious and evil plots that game-Wesker got up to. Albert threatens to have the man not only fired from Umbrella, but blacklisted from ever working anywhere again, turning the flow of the meeting around so completely even the principal sits back to let him do his thing. Reddick’s Wesker shows up, flexes his power and importance to Umbrella and terrifies the other parent into dropping the issue completely. One of the series’ best scenes comes early on when Albert has to bail Billie out after some trouble at school. Reddick is great as an overworked-genius father who can’t pull himself away from work long enough to be a parent, and teens Jade and Billie are fun as sisters with very different personalities trying to fit in at a new school.

RESIDENT EVOM SERIES

In its most entertaining moments, it’s a straightforward Netflix teen series - some of the platform’s most reliably enjoyable content, though never its best - with some light horror elements thrown on top. The earlier timeline is what works best for Resident Evil. The show’s second time period takes place in 2036, after the world has become overrun with zombies that first appeared in New Raccoon City. The first is in 2022, when, at 14 (this version played by Tamara Smart), she and her twin sister, Billie (Siena Agudong), and their dad, Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick), one of the most important antagonists in the Resident Evil franchise, move to New Raccoon City for his continued work with the shady Umbrella Corporation. Netflix’s Resident Evil series follows Jade Wesker (Ella Balinska) across two different time periods. However, the biggest surprise about Netflix’s new Resident Evil series from creator Andrew Dabb ( Supernatural) is its careful devotion to the series’ weird, and often tampered with, canon - and just how boring the show is as a result. The long-running series, which started as a video game in 1996, has an elastic world that has successfully hosted everything from zombies and sea monsters to secret agents and powerful psychics without ever worrying too much about complex explanations. Resident Evil can be just about anything.

Resident evom