To the surprise of no one, Netflix canceled its Resident Evil series only a month after its release on the platform. According to Deadline, the streaming service will not renew the series for a second season.
The Resident Evil series is based on the very popular video game franchise of the same name. Despite the video game franchise being critically acclaimed, the series adaptation did not see the same success. This live-action series adaptation has an atrocious 3.9 star IMDb rating, and a 55% and 27% score from critics and audiences, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes.
Additionally, the show did not perform well by the streaming service’s standards. It had a hot debut, squeezing in 2nd place on the streamer’s Top 10 during its first week. It moved down to 3rd place in its second week, but it quickly was out of the top 10 the week after that.
The show had a little bit of promise, with its main antagonist Albert Wesker being played by the fantastic Lance Reddick. Obviously, his performance was not enough to save the terrible writing and the series as a whole.
But was the series really THAT bad? We can take a look at fan reviews on IMDb to answer our question. (IMDb reviews are not always reliable, but they’re fun to read.)
A good number of people find that the show was turned into a teenage soap opera, straying away from the tone of the original video games.
“Netflix is insane to release something like this,” one review said. “They turned a sci-fi show about zombies into a High school soap-opera for 12yr old girls.”
“The show could have been outstanding, but unfortunately this is another in a series of missed opportunities,” another review commented. “They could have simply transferred the story and characters to the screen, but instead they chose to make a soap opera for teenagers.”
Others say that this series seems like a cash grab, and is unfaithful to the source material.
“The only thing this show has in common with the games is the name… this a crappy cash grab to lure fans of the game like me in.”
“I’m something of a fan of the Resident Evil franchise, so I was excited to see a new series, bearing the name. Regrettably, for me, the name is all I could see, that’s in keeping, with the franchise. Not only could I see none of the series’ well-known characters but the storyline itself, seems to share only a passing semblance, with the original story.”
In other news, what in the hell is this? This video below shows a weird line from the actual show:
For those looking for context 💀 pic.twitter.com/IWCyBgh9Ge
— Toshin (@KingToshin) August 27, 2022
Did she really admit to reading Zootopia p*rn? WTF?
Other POP! stories you might like:
Capcom faces lawsuit for unauthorized use of stock photos in Resident Evil & Devil May Cry
Jovovich summarizes “Resident Evil” films in 2 minutes