The Witcher

I've never read “The Witcher”, and I've never seen the original Polish film or series, so I was coming to this latest adaptation with a clean slate. The quality of the episodes varied, I was most impressed with the third episode with Striga and least impressed with the sixth, featuring the dragon hunters. As for the cast, there was a lot of variety, some of the characters were really great and I was curious to see how they would turn out, others were incredibly annoying and I didn't care how they ended up. Henry Cavill as Geralt could have pushed the envelope less and not emulate Ben Affleck’s Batman. Yennefer was the most divisive character for me personally, you root for her for a minute, then you want to hit her over the head with a gin bottle. I liked the temporal representation of the story, where in the first few episodes you slowly figure out what the storylines were. As a result, the first season of The Witcher is somewhere between three and four stars for me, but I'll give it a raise in this case. If a second season is made, it would definitely be better to cut down on the talking and increase the action. (12/22/2019)

Before the end of the year, Netflix awarded us another series of the year event (and there were a hell of a lot of them this year!) and while I have minor reservations, it's definitely a spectacular fantasy extravaganza and the new successor to Game of Thrones. I'm not a connoisseur of the books and I've never played the game so, I'm unfamiliar with the sources and I agree that the plot is convoluted and at times confusing (especially the flashbacks, which don't feel like flashbacks and detracted from the experience a bit), but the rest of it is without reservation. Henry Cavill as Geralt is excellent, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer is almost perfect, and I enjoyed Marigold, who puts a smile on my face with her singing. The action is very captivating (the duel with the Striga is nicely horrific), although there could have been definitely more monsters. The fights with humans have fine cinematography and the brutality is spot on. The atmosphere is properly fantasy historical, and I like that Mages, Elves, Dryads and similar groups are featured. I really enjoyed the series and it's probably because I have a soft spot for such unknown worlds. I hope that with more seasons the story will become more coherent and make more sense. 8/10. (12/26/2019)

I’m not sure if it is any good to start watching this series without having any previous relationship to The Witcher. Moreover, it is not good either to have read all of the books, played all of the games and hope that this series won’t disappoint you. It is something in between, but as for me as a fan of this universe, it didn’t disappoint. Of course I found a few unclear or illogical points of which you can find a lot more the deeper your relationship to this series is. Still, it is a quite good fantasy piece for which I’m glad because there are currently very few of those, and I’m really glad for every hope that appears in this respect. Netflix didn’t film this series in a bad way, it just did it in its own way. Henry Cavill whom everyone was uncertain about as a main character eventually played his role with flying colors. He really reminds me of the Witcher from the game series. I would say that the story isn’t as good but let’s be honest, with that many characters and unclear story line, the same problem occurred with Game of Thrones as well. We had to wait for the following seasons to see it became a legendary series. And I think that it would be similar with The Witcher. Moreover, in The Witcher you can count on greatly filmed action scenes which are a delight to your eyes. For now I rate it with 5 stars. To hell with it, I was simply thrilled! (12/25/2019)

Mixed feelings. At times a dark romp, an atmospheric chivalric epic, a visually captivating show. At times a confusing mess of characters, cardboard sets and boring side-quests in the script. A viewer unfamiliar with the source material will sometimes be terribly confused, or even completely unable to grasp the new characters and locations. Praise for the imaginative concept of separate mini-episodes, which in many ways are not very related and yet in individual details systematically bring each character to the point where their fates intersect at expected moments, even in unpredictable situations. The first bold episode, which, by the way, is the only one that offers absolutely every reason the viewer should give Witcher a chance, is followed by others where those unfamiliar with the source material already feel a certain decline in the way the story is presented and conceived. The action in Blaviken in the opening episode remains by far the best moment of the entire season. (02/09/2020)

In the world of South Park, they'd probably say: “They killed Witcher, you bastards!” More specifically, Lauren Schimdt ground Sapkowski into disposable paper and wiped her ass with it. I found the first season excellent, event though it’s been criticized as confusing. Its interweaving of storylines was easy to navigate, and although it visibly suffered from a small budget, it did a good job of promoting the fantasy genre. The budget obviously swelled in season 2 – Kaer Morhen looked beautiful, all honour – but the writers from season 1 must have been eaten by some brux during the filming and they messed it up as much as they could. When Lauren's pros were outdone in terms of the script's engagingness and narrative richness by the CD Projekt enthusiasts in the excellent third The Witcher game, I don't think the girl could put it past her. And a little side note: sorry, but proud elven warriors can't be played by black boys with boyz-n-the-hood haircuts, just not really. This forcefully pushed political correctness is turning the world upside down. (01/18/2022)