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So I have just started watching the new Resident Evil Series on Netflix.
I'm only 2 episodes in, and I don't hate it....
That probably sounds overly negative, it's not bad, I'm just also not sure if it's good yet either.
In some places it looks like a slick, high budget, movie, and then, every now and again, it looks like a cheap TV show (there is one scene in particular in Episode 2 where the CGI is really ropey, whereas the CGI in other parts is seamless...)
It also feels like a teen-drama, or a CW teen drama like The 100, but with tons of gore which is weird...
Anyway, thoughts/musings/ramblings so far (2 episodes in):
Spoiler:
I was really hoping that Lance Reddick's Wesker was another Wesker, from Project W, rather than actually Albert Wesker. This would have been a nice twist, and would explain some of the storyline with the twins, but it looks as though this is supposed to be the Albert Wesker from the game franchise. I have no issue at all with the idea of Lance playing the character, it's more that this Albert Wesker doesn't seem to fit the game character at all. Oddly enough though it does fit in more with the Albert Wesker from the recent Welcome to Raccoon City movie (which I was not a fan of - such a shame, I felt they missed a good opportunity).
It's also hard to tell exactly when in the timeline the TV show is supposed to take place. Obviously the 2036 parts are fine, but having the story set in 2022 is confusing. Albert Wesker in the games died in 2009, so have they just changed the dates for the TV show, or is this still a different Albert Wesker from the games? Maybe this will get cleared up later in the show.
There's also the fact that New Raccoon City is now in South Africa? New Raccoon City was built after the original was destroyed which suggests that the TV show is set after the Raccoon City incident, but Umbrella in the TV show seem to have only just discovered the T-Virus? Which also means this probably is the game version of Albert Wesker after all, as he was instrumental in the development of the T-Virus - but in game canon that was in the 1970s....
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2022/07/15 11:53:33
I started watching it. I got about half way through episode 2 and then I was done. It does feel like a CW drama.
See, I love the 100. But thats because that show starts out as a teen drama and then immediately becomes survival horror and ptsd the show. The sudden tonal shift was amazing. That show is amazing.
This show... it's horrible.
The big caterpillar looked cool. Cool looking monsters for 5 minutes out of ever hour isn't enough to keep me going.
These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
Yeah, I absolutely love The 100, massively underrated show.
And the big caterpillar was fantastic, really nicely done, but then the CGI dog in episode 2 was terrible, especially when it actually didn't even need to be CGI......
I'm gonna carry on with it to see if it gets better, but your feelings pretty much match my own.
I'm also 2 episodes in. I think the editing is pretty haphazard at times. The constant jumps between the two timelines are jarring. I think the description of it as as CW drama is pretty spot-on right now for the 2022 story. The 2036 storyline doesn't seem to be going anywhere at all.
Wesker is the interesting character for me, but they're focussing too much on his daughters. I'm also not sure whether this is supposed to be the video game Wesker or not. I'm not sure the writers are too bothered about sticking strictly to canon from the games. I guess we'll find out soon enough. There are already hints that Wesker is pretty shady, even if he is protesting against the release of Joy. Sadly I don't think that's where the show is going to concentrate its time.
It's not quite bad enough for me to give up on yet, but it needs to get better quickly to keep my interest.
Watched it. What a teenage cringefest. I only like the Umbrella ladyboss because she looked like one too many cosmetic surgeries gone in. Now theres a scary looking woman!
"The larger point though, is that as players, we have more control over what the game looks and feels like than most of us are willing to use in order to solve our own problems"
This show suffers from a major case of tonal whiplash. One second we've got the standard teenage drama of Jade and Billie arguing over boys and parties, then we've got Billie telling her sister to abandon her if she succumbs to the horrible disease that's going to turn her into a psychopath. That's literally in the same scene, less than 30 seconds apart. Then we're cutting to some weird religious crazy man and a nonsensical prison break.
The future zombie scenes were ridiculous. Apparently the speed and ferocity of the zombies are entirely dependent on the plot requirements. They're still cutting between the two time periods at an infuriating rate, usually just as you think something interesting might be about to happen. Jade also doesn't even ask the Umbrella Corp guy about her sister at any point while they're detained together.
I'm genuinely confused how this got signed off by anyone in the first place. The future story is derivative as hell and the "current time" story is focussing on idiotic teen drama while the audience already knows the world is about to end in less than three months. Don't even get me started on the whole 72-hour virus thing. It's hard to feel any sympathy for the characters when they think they're in the clear because it's been 72 hours and five minutes and Billie's not a psycho yet.
As usual, it feels like Netflix had some other script they had and knew they wouldn't get enough views without a pre-existing audience so they got the rights to the IP/franchise and then cheaped out by using this garabage/generic script and threw it under the label of Resident Evil to try and farm views before people drop off from watching it. I get they're starved for content but this isn't going to stop their stock from tanking if garbage quantity is all they're doing in terms of output for content. Can you imagine watching ads in between episodes during this?
Grimskul wrote: As usual, it feels like Netflix had some other script they had and knew they wouldn't get enough views without a pre-existing audience so they got the rights to the IP/franchise and then cheaped out by using this garabage/generic script and threw it under the label of Resident Evil to try and farm views before people drop off from watching it. I get they're starved for content but this isn't going to stop their stock from tanking if garbage quantity is all they're doing in terms of output for content. Can you imagine watching ads in between episodes during this?
Had a similar thought myself.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
AduroT wrote: It better! The first season doesn’t even get around to telling you how the outbreak that ends the world starts!
Seriously? What the hell was the point of the season? It seemed like they were angling for Billie being patient zero but if that's not the case it just seems to make the entire first season some sort of weird misdirection.
AduroT wrote: It better! The first season doesn’t even get around to telling you how the outbreak that ends the world starts!
Seriously? What the hell was the point of the season? It seemed like they were angling for Billie being patient zero but if that's not the case it just seems to make the entire first season some sort of weird misdirection.
I hate defending the show, but the "Zeroes" are supposedly deaf and blind, but have an incredibly attuned sense of smell, so only detect her when she cuts her arm.
StraightSilver wrote: I hate defending the show, but the "Zeroes" are supposedly deaf and blind, but have an incredibly attuned sense of smell, so only detect her when she cuts her arm.
But yeah, that scene was incredibly stupid...
And also stand around waiting for their turn to attack. When that Zero was on top of her, there were about 6 just stood around smelling (was going to say watching, but they are blind... so yeah). They had detected her, they knew she was there as they had just chased her, but then 'no we need to left Jeff do it himself.'
Any how finished episode 2 last night... this might work if it was a comedy.
The objective of the game is to win. The point of the game is to have fun. The two should never be confused.
I don’t normally care for drama, much less teen drama, but setting it all in a too-perfect Umbrella factory town where everyone is superficially living it up wity nothing nothing but vicious greed and paranoia beneath the trendy veneer was a wonderfully creepy twist. Hormonal teenage protagonists who think they know everything and think all their whirlwind emotions are the most important thing in the world are usually played as soap opera. But here the concept becomes an eerily prophetic criticism of the cynical grown-up world.
I really enjoyed the crash cuts to Jade in 2036, which at first implies a contrast between her reckless teenage years and a more level-headed and focused adult ... only to bit-by-bit reveal that the intervening fourteen years may not have changed her in important ways. The world of 2036 is strange and fascinating, and we see many glimpses of its diversity. It is anything but a homogenous wasteland. As the prologue foretells, human self-loathing regarding climate change is itself just another form of hubris. It wasn’t within our grasp to destroy the world or even ourselves; just to shift things into unfamiliar configurations. Which ties in with the personal-level theme about how much (or little) control we have over ourselves as individuals.
Episode 5 was surprisingly weak, dragged down by a petty argument between the sisters bizarrely shot as a single, interminable scene. I really liked the younger actresses but they couldn’t carry this volume of tit-for-tat-for-tit-for ... you get the idea. Overall, I really enjoyed their characters and relationship and am glad the show portrayed them as realistically banal teenagers rather than precocious and wise-beyond-their years. Reflecting on what that age is actually like, I had a lot of sympathy for their confusion, frustration, arrogance, and short-sightedness. Again, this all beautifully married to the larger themes of the show, especially when contrasted to Reddick’s amazing portrayal of their competent, ambiguous father.
Fortunately, Episode 6 takes the show to extraordinary new heights thanks to some clever plot interweaving and becomes a showcase for Reddick’s jaw-dropping talent as a performer. The show finishes out by going over the top exactly as one would expect with the Resident Evil franchise, layering on increasingly memorable set pieces ranging from humor to horror to holy moly that’s a big crocodile! This kind of series sometimes stumbles with the ending but this one was emotionally and narratively fulfilling. While of course leaving some details to be filled in a second season ...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/07/19 03:45:25
I'm quite enjoying it, although it took me a little while in the first episode to figure out why Wesker didn't look right... and then I placed the voice, and realised that I'd never actually seen the guy who owns it.
I found it fairly boring TBH, and some of the scenes action scenes were awful.
But as someone else said above, and the Amazon series Night Sky has the same issue IMO, it's half a series.
Ex-Mantic Rules Committees: Kings of War, Warpath
"The Emperor is obviously not a dictator, he's a couch." Starbuck: "Why can't we use the starboard launch bays?"
Engineer: "Because it's a gift shop!"
Thrown me into the I liked it crowd, it makes good use of the corporate mystery and biopunk nonsense the RE franchise is loved for, which is what elevates it above standard zombie dramas.
Sure it is far from perfect,
Spoiler:
but it has a giant zombie crocodile so it is actually perfect.
Have watched the first 5 episdoes and really enjoyed.
I like the dialogue and the two timelines - they have plenty of proper RE monsters.
Jade 0 nice she got called out as a whiny B, but didn' seem to change her. I like the bad guys...alot.
I AM A MARINE PLAYER
"Unimaginably ancient xenos artefact somewhere on the planet, hive fleet poised above our heads, hidden 'stealer broods making an early start....and now a bloody Chaos cult crawling out of the woodwork just in case we were bored. Welcome to my world, Ciaphas."
Inquisitor Amberley Vail, Ordo Xenos
"I will admit that some Primachs like Russ or Horus could have a chance against an unarmed 12 year old novice but, a full Battle Sister??!! One to one? In close combat? Perhaps three Primarchs fighting together... but just one Primarch?" da001
Are you sure you just didn't want another season of the Walking dead?
