‘Resident Evil’ on Netflix never fully breaks from the events of the games

Resident Evil on Netflix unexpectedly…nails it?

I know, I’m shocked too. There’s ample evidence across all of time and space that any attempt to adapt Capcom’s hit horror series for TV or film will produce middling popcorn action at best, and a painfully dull fun vacuum at worst. 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.

If that name isn’t familiar to you, keep reading. Resident Evil successfully wrestles one of the most inscrutable universes in video games into something coherent, so even if you’re not familiar with Wesker, Umbrella Corp., the T-virus, or anything else, most of the context you need is baked into each hour-long slice of TV. Still, it helps if you’re a knowledgeable fan going in.

Don’t stress about catching up if you’re not, though. You can watch and enjoy, and just not sweat any of the winks or nods. But you can also keep reading and catch up on the details it’s helpful to know about going in.

Resident Evil: How Netflix sets things up

Resident Evil tells a story that spans two timelines. In the year 2036, 14 years after “Zeroes” (aka zombies) emerged and whittled the planet’s human population down from billions to hundreds of millions, Jade Wesker (Ella Balinska) is a research scientist on a hunt for understanding. She wants to know what makes the Zeroes tick, and if the virus sustaining their desiccated human forms has evolved in the 14 years since the world ended.

They’re not zombies; they’re Zeroes.
Credit: Netflix

The other timeline shows us the pre-apocalypse of 2022, just three months before life as we know it fell apart. Jade (played by Tamara Smart) is a central player here as well, along with her biological twin sister Billie (Siena Agudong) and their dad, Albert (Lance Reddick). Yes, that’s Albert Wesker. We’ll get to him, not to worry. Suffice to say: Albert is a high-clearance scientist for Umbrella Corporation, a multinational company that’s tied up in everything from cosmetics to pharmaceuticals to sinister government work.

How the timelines intersect and inform one another is the key to Resident Evil‘s central mystery. 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.

That’s all you really need to know. But what more could you know that would enhance your appreciation for the ways the series engages with the game?

Where Resident Evil connects to the games

Let’s start with the setting. The “New Raccoon City” setting in the Netflix series is new for a reason. 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 incident was eventually contained in a massive cover-up after military forces, operating under the president’s orders, used heavy firepower to annihilate the small town and its entire, majority-infected population.

At least some of this happened in the world of Netflix’s Resident Evil. Raccoon City was the site of the original outbreak in 1998, caused by the Umbrella-created t-virus just like it was in the game. What’s more, a subsequent cover-up erased the city, its population, and any evidence of what happened.

None of this is to say that the Netflix story is fully set within the same universe as all the games. But it’s not subtle about referencing a fictional history that seems to tie in with the events of the games. Raccoon City is one example, but there are others. Like Wesker, for instance.

‘Resident Evil’ introduces us to Evelyn Marcus, the CEO of Umbrella Corp. and the daughter of company co-founder, Dr. James Marcus.
Credit: Netflix

As a central player in all eight of the Netflix episodes, there are lots of major spoilers tied to the Umbrella virologist Albert Wesker, who is portrayed by Lance Reddick, that make it difficult to share too many details here. 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.

That could simply be a product of the mystery. Reddick’s character is introduced up front as a genteel family man. Obsessed with work and somewhat absent from his daughters’ lives as a result, but nothing close to the villainous monster from the games. As subsequent episodes fill in more details, though, a different picture emerges. By the end of the season, the audience’s biggest revelation about Wesker is the sudden understanding that we’ve been asking the wrong questions.

I’ll leave it there. Read up on Albert Wesker’s history in the games. Get yourself up to speed on who he is, who he worked with and what he worked on at Umbrella, and when and how he died. The show doesn’t touch on most of the details you’ll collect, but it also doesn’t refute nearly as much as you might think.

Foreshadowing makes it clear enough early on that there’s more to Reddick’s Wesker than the man we initially meet. How the actual specifics do or don’t line up with the games is a big part of what makes the show’s slow-burn reveal so entertaining.

There are other links to the games that take us into the realm of spoilers, but what I’d say is Resident Evil mostly nails the tone of the series that inspired it. There are big action sequences, gratuitous helpings of gore, cheesy one-liners that all but wink directly into the camera, and a dark yet weirdly charming sense of humor.

Where Resident Evil steps away from the games

Here’s the thing: Resident Evil, the Netflix one, really doesn’t ever fully divorce itself from the games. The show could’ve done a better job of building tension into its scattered handful of horror moments — if there’s one note I’d want to send along ahead of Season 2, it’s “more scares, please” — but when it comes to the plot, this Netflix take is content to either pull directly from the source or at least not directly refute something that happened in the games.

This is more of a visual riff than it is a direct reference to ‘Resident Evil 4.’
Credit: Netflix

There are some purely visual nods that are more about pleasing fans than referencing a particular plot point. 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. 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.

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. In all the ways that matter, though, the Netflix series is mindful of the world-building that preceded its arrival. This is fundamentally a story about Albert Wesker and his family, and it leans heavily on the little we do know to unravel some of the enduring mysteries that surround the character.

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. So all the stuff on the show about Wesker having kids; or Umbrella being run by Evelyn Marcus (Paola Núñez), daughter of company co-founder James Marcus; or the Zeroes incident in Tijuana that is repeatedly referenced — all of those things happened in the years after 2009.

There is, of course, the pesky fact that we haven’t seen Wesker since 2009 because he died at the end of RE5 in a knock-down drag-out final boss fight. But remember: The show already goes out of its way to build a story that’s faithful to the events of the past. Without getting into spoilers, I’ll just say that goes as much for Wesker’s fate as it does for anything else.

The first season of Resident Evil is now available to stream on Netflix.