Better Call Leon: A review of Netflix's "Resident Evil" series
The worst thing that ever happened to Capcom's iconic franchise: even worse than Paul W.S. Anderson's fifth movie and sixth game.
There is no doubt that Resident Evil is not only a living franchise, but also a great one in its own way. The story of the resistance began in 1996: the start of the Walking Dead frenzy was the leak of a virus from the Umbrella Corporation laboratory in Raccoon City. Infected people were rapidly losing their human form and successfully replenished the zombie population of the city. Since then, games, reboots, movies, anime, comics, and anything else the geeky soul desires have come off the horror conveyor belt. A side effect of performance is the amplitude of success: Resident Evil, more than any other pop-cultural substance, knows the ups and downs.
In a logical way, the ubiquitous Netflix also wanted to touch the glory of the brainchild of the Japanese corporation Capcom: the anime series Infinite Darkness (not outstanding, but bearable) came out on streaming a year ago, now it has come to a kind of continuation and simultaneously a reboot of the universe.
The chronology of the new "Resident Evil" breaks down into two timelines: survival after the apocalypse in 2036 and the beginning of the end in 2022. In the world of the future, the environment dictates the conditions: scientist and daredevil Jade (Ella Balinska) tries to track mutations of the T-virus and identify new forms of communication among the infected to make life easier for the remaining population of the planet. Not all experiments go according to plan, here and there trying to bite the licks, and moreover, Umbrella puts sticks in the wheels. What the lady did not please the powerful corporation, the plot from the past is called to reveal: the schoolgirl Jade (Tamara Smart) and her twin sister Billie (Sienna Agudong) move to New Raccoon City, where their father Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick) works for a pharmaceutical company.
Retelling the plot of the reboot is like trying to explain in one paragraph what happened in Resident Evil over the last 25 years. It seems that this was the goal of the authors of the series - not only to tickle the fans' tender spots, but also to get new recruits into the army of fans. The chances of a successful blitzkrieg are next to nil.
In theory, the events selectively continue the story of the number games, but in practice the familiar names (the titular antagonist Wesker is not who he seems), characters and genre tools drown in helpless dramatics. The showrunner for the series was Andrew Doug, among others, who worked on the "Supernatural" machine for many years - a skill that paid off. Most of the time "Resident Evil" pretends to be a teen soap, where the logic of the collisions could be the envy of even "Pretty Little Liars". Eugenics experiments, family secrets in the basement, surrogate mothers, secret laboratories, chips under the skin, puppet people, school bullying and zombies - it seems that the main twists were spied on in fanfics, and the writers' paychecks went to marketing (which was indeed stunning). The rare flecks of action in the 2036 line briefly bring attention back to the screen, but fleeting sympathy for familiar monsters is shattered by yet another miraculous rescue of Jade. Deus ex machina is a genre privilege, but it's bad form to use the reception in every series.
By the end of the seventh episode, it begins to look like the show is occupying the noble niche of "so bad it's even good" projects, and the finale smacks of a familiar note of shameful pleasure. But, first of all, you have to go through seven hours of chaotic flailing to get to the denouement, and secondly, most likely, by this time the viewer becomes a victim of Stockholm syndrome and unwittingly looks for imaginary pluses (to which we can include the villainous head of Umbrella Evelyn, played by Paola Núñez).
Despite cliffhangers and clear plans for a sequel, Netflix is in no hurry to announce a second season because of the cold reception. After watching, fans of the series continue to wait for the remake of the fourth game, and casual viewers continue to look for other projects in the streaming catalog. "Resident Evil" once again confirms the rule: a new victory is always followed by a resounding failure. Incarnation 2022 managed to fall deeper than ever, so it's likely that an unprecedented franchise renaissance awaits us ahead.
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