Against my better judgment, I’m a major Resident Evil fan. I’ve stuck with the survival horror-cum-action series since the early 2000s and have followed it through its darkest,boulder-punching days. I’ve never not enjoyed the series even when most of the world turned its back on it—whether ridiculous or genuinely chilling, Resident Evil has always had something for me, and it’s been a delight to see the franchise receive an uptick in popularity since Resident Evil 7. Perhaps unsurprising for most, Capcom has a difficult time maintaining this momentum.
Netflix’s Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness is Capcom’s latest foray into on-screen adaptation for their most beloved survival horror franchise. The show is something of a follow-up to 2008’s Resident Evil: Degeneration, which is wedged in the extensive Resident Evil timeline between series darling Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, typically seen as the genesis of a great decline in the franchise’s acclaim. Just like Degeneration, Infinite Darkness stars two of the franchise’s most notable characters: Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie police officer turned U.S. federal agent, and Claire Redfield, Chris Redfield’s younger sister and a member of TerraSave, a global humanitarian aid non-profit. Infinite Darkness concerns their separate journeys uncovering a White House conspiracy from an inside and outside perspective, which of course eventually converge.
