[Netflix][Series] Witcher (2019)

[kuhla]

imdb - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5180504/

I have watched 3 episodes so far. I want to say it is good but I enjoyed the games so I know there is a bias. I think the first episode felt a little clunky but it's finding its rhythm now. I keep worrying they are going to try to follow in the footsteps of game of thrones too much and try to go "too big". Swordplay has felt pretty meaty. Music has been ok. Henry Cavill is doing a pretty good job with the mannerisms and voice of Geralt but I actually would not mind a little less accuracy and a little less growling. One other factor is I know this is an adaptation of the books (which I have not read) and not the games so I cannot say anything about how accurate this adaptation is.

[Malaphax]

I've watched 4 episodes so far. 

This feels very accurate to the books (at least the ones I've read) and less so to the games.  I also have some severe bias because I've played all 3 games and read at least 2 books, so it's hard to give this a fair review.  I'm surprised they decided to start the show with an anthology/short story compilation - the first books are like that which does give some decent backstory to the main characters, but also feels a little bit aimless.  I'm also surprised they're playing fairly heavily with timelines, they're dropping enough clues for people who are paying attention but I'm curious if a casual audience would find that annoying or confusing; they haven't gone full westworld but it's an interesting choice. 

I actually think Cavil's performance is fine, he understands that Geralt leans in to the stereotype of witcher's having no emotions, but you can see on his face that he is affected by emotion, the gruff voice is a bit overdone but not terrible.  I think most of the acting and casting has been fine, but I was really taken aback by Triss, I'm curious how much they'll use of that storyline. 

Overall I'd say this is a strong first season, and from what I can guess they're using the first season as a way to ease people into the universe before pushing on the bigger plots with Ciri and the Wild Hunt.  I'm genuinely curious how they'll do the Wild Hunt because I really liked what they did with that in the Witcher 3.

[Jedi2155]

Having neither played the games nor read any book, with pretty much zero background, I'd say I've fairly enjoyed the series so far. Got me looking more into it as a result. It wasn't until the 3rd episode when it became apparent that the timelines were not synced up though.

[kuhla]

4 hours ago, Jedi2155 said:

It wasn't until the 3rd episode when it became apparent that the timelines were not synced up though.

yeah that caught me a little by surprise too but then I realized they can make that work by having them all line up later

[Malaphax]

Having played the games, and read some of the books, they decided to go in some new directions with the new season.  Most of my thoughts are spoiler filled so I'll just drop them below. 

Spoiler

The acting was mostly fine this go around.  In fact, I like the actor they have playing Vesemir and the guy who they have playing Dijkstra is perfect.  That being said they decided to completely make some shit up, some of which is utter shite.  I think the show was pretty clearly impacted by Covid with some sets and CGI looking pretty rough, but the writing is honestly what's bringing down the show more than anything. 
I think the show is still interesting but this season felt like a step down from the first in nearly every way. 

The entire plot line of Yennifer missing her powers was not only pointless but also really crap from a character standpoint - she basically ends up as Ciri's adopted mother.  It's hard to go from "I'm willing to sacrifice a random child for my powers" to "jk, I'll do anything to protect her" without getting whiplash.  Also, Yennifer was hyped up as a very powerful mage to basically ends up useless this entire season, which was supposedly because she's mostly absent from this part of the story in the books - I think I would have preferred her being mostly absent instead...

Glad to see they're showing more infighting and politics with the sorcerers.  They're all pretty nasty people and I think that part was well done. 

The entire plot line with Fringilla was really hard to take seriously.  The stuff with the Elves felt weird as well, I know they needed to set them up as rebels/fighters against humans but it seemed a bit hamfisted. 

I really dislike what they did with all the witchers, especially Vesemir's motivations.  They killed off Eskel mostly as a way to screw with people familiar to the source material.  Vesemir's drive to start producing witchers again makes sense, but the idea of turning Ciri into one makes zero sense.  Even logically, if her blood is the key ingredient why would you attempt to modify her with the trial of the grasses, wouldn't that potentially fuck up her elder blood's ability to be used for creating witchers?  Also, Vesemir seems totally willing to kill Ciri which makes zero sense from his character's motivation - if she's dead he can't create more witchers, let alone the potential political and magical consequences that would happen.  Seems exceptionally braindead, plus it shits on the original character and his love for his wards. 
Then there's the TV problem of using fodder to make various monsters/battles seem like higher stakes, but that ended up making all the unnamed witchers seem like absolute chumps, when they're supposed to be nearly superhuman combatants. 

The "villain" of the deathless mother is some weird amalgam of the crones/baba yaga knockoff and a maguffin plot device.  They call her a "demon" which I don't think they make reference to in the books or games, and she's supposed to be from the conjunction, and after being "sealed away" she's still capable of immense acts of power and corrupting multiple mages? Also I'm still not sure about where her magical hut is, at one point it's implied to be in an almost different plane or potentially under the ruins of an elven temple, but then Geralt and Yen teleport there and suddenly make it out without any sort of magic? Wut?  The first season had the druid's area which was a sort of demi-plane or magically hidden area, but they made a point of showing that.  There was also Stregebor's tower, but again that was shown as it's own demi-plane inside the real tower. 

The Emir reveal is supposed to be a big deal, but anyone who has played witcher 3 knows about it.  I think it's a bigger deal in the books, since they also hide his appearance while he's cursed for a time.  It also ends up making Ciri basically double royalty, she's next in line to the throne of Nilfgaard and also rightfully owns Cintra, which is oddly sort of accurate to some of the various real world royal families.  I'm hoping any additional Nilfgaard storyline gets better because this season's B plot was incredibly uninteresting. 

They're clearly starting to move towards the wild hunt storyline, and I'm curious how they'll do that.  I really want to see how they portray the Aen Elle - in the games they were huge, and I kinda liked that different depiction of elves and an easy way to show that they're different from the normal Aen Seidhe elves that are on this sphere. 

 

[kuhla]

Spoiler-free.

Finished this season and mostly enjoyed it.

Even though there were definitely some real issues (weird power level differences between characters, inconsistencies, etc. ) I found it easy to just let it go.

For some reason this season seemed like it dramatically expanded the world and that did appeal to me.

[Jedi2155]

Since I never played the Witcher, the ending was quite a shock for me. I mostly enjoyed it but felt it was generally a step down. Kind of like Altered Carbon Season 2 but without a change of casts.

[Jedi2155]