Resident Evil: New series on Netflix flops massively – only Albert Wesker is convinced

Film and series adaptations of video games are no longer a rarity. The survival horror Resident Evil in particular has been used several times as the basis for films and series. This was also the case recently for the Netflix series “Resident Evil”, which has been broadcast on the streaming service since July 14. The first season is currently running with eight episodes and describes the lives of Albert Wesker’s twin daughters Billie and Jade, once in 2022 and 14 years later in 2036.

Resident Evil – The Netflix series is not for viewers

After almost a week, it turns out that the series is not popular with critics or viewers. On the Rotten Tomatoes website, the average tomatometer, i.e. the critic rating, is 51 percent, while the average audience score is a meager 25 percent. The Metacritic and IMDb websites are no better either. At Metacritic, Resident Evil has a meta score of 53 and a user score of just 1.9. Meanwhile, the IMDb rating is 3.6 out of 10 points.

In terms of viewership, the new Resident Evil series is still below Inifnite Darkness, another (animation) series in the franchise that dates from 2021. This achieves an average audience score of 39 percent, at least on Rotten Tomatoes, and still gets 5.7 out of 10 points on IMDB. In the new series of Resident Evil (buy now €49.95) so a lot must have gone wrong. A look at the comments on IMDb shows this and gives an approximate insight into the opinion of the viewers.

So many of the commentators don’t warm up to the main cast, apart from Lance Reddick, who plays Albert Wesker. The series is also more like a teen drama starring brats, says one user, for example. The assessment that Netflix has turned the hit Resident Evil video game franchise that viewers are used to into an annoying teen drama runs like a red thread through the comments section of IMDb.

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So much for criticism, but what is the Netflix series actually about? In Resident Evil, 14-year-old twins Billie and Jade move to New Raccoon City in 2022 with their adoptive father Albert Wesker. There, he takes on a leadership position at the Umbrella Corporation, while the twins investigate their father’s dark secrets that could destroy the world. 14 years later, after the T-Virus ravaged the earth and infected 6 billion people and animals, the Umbrella Corporation issues a manhunt for Jade, who is now struggling to survive.

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The series comes from the production springs of the Munich company Constantin Film, among others. Constantin Film has been producing films to match Resident Evil since 2002. There are now six films from the German production company that have grossed $1.2 billion so far. Of course, there are also a number of video games that – sometimes more, sometimes less – have contributed to the films. For example, Resident Evil Village has been available for more than a year.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, IMDB