Netflix's Resident Evil Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

Downs...

5. It's An Incredibly Loose Adaptation

What's sure to be the most majorly divisive aspect of this new series is how shockingly different it feels, to the extent that at times it's barely identifiable as Resident Evil at all.

Yes, there are characters, names, and places that fans of the series will know - the Umbrella Corporation is still front and center raising hell, of course - but it'd be easy to believe that the episode's scripts were initially an original sci-fi series that was reworked into a Resident Evil show during the early stages of production.

Despite periodic Easter eggs and namedrops that will mean something to fans of the games, the bulk of the show feels like any other decently produced sci-fi action-horror series with a post-apocalyptic fringe.

While there is eventually an attempt to place the show within the context of the games, it ends up feeling half-baked and unsatisfying, as though showrunner Andrew Dabb (Supernatural) eventually realised he couldn't fully reconcile this story with the considerably sillier narrative of the games.

All in all any fans expecting numerous characters and iconic locations to get a thorough showing here will feel tremendously let down, because the series represents a rare case of a video game adaptation not indulging its fan-serving potential nearly enough.