#The witcher review series#

Or maybe good? I consider myself a fan of the franchise, and I’m not even sure which factions are against Nilfgaard, or why one of the sorceresses is … fighting against other nations, or something to that effect? I have always found the political side of the storylines incomprehensible, especially as the show does little to identify which city or place a scene takes place within. Even now, I cannot tell you why the Nilfgaard Empire, one of the many nations involved in some kind of ongoing war, is bad. Not everyone the story throws a bone to, however, is as exciting to follow. Ciri is perhaps the only character aside from Geralt I enjoyed my time with. Everyone, from every realm, wants her power-both her royal title and her innate abilities, which could destroy the world. Most of the season is dedicated to Ciri trying to discover her true self and powers. The Witcher stumbles back into the kind of storytelling that dragged down too much of Season One.Īs much as this is Geralt’s show, The Witcher is also willing to cede the floor to other perspectives. While the CGI monsters still aren’t anything to write home about, the make-up effects are extraordinary, the sets intricate and beautiful – all heightened by extraordinary cinematography.

And that 1990s Xena feel that made up half of the homunculus that was Season One is no more, thanks to a much higher quality production.

It finds a chronology of events, setting them out as such for the viewer to offer a much clearer sense of grounding. Thankfully, the second season has smoothed out those pages. While politics exist beneath the surface, they never overwhelm The Witcher’s focus on Geralt and his adventures.

#The witcher review series#

What was left was a mish-mash that failed to grasp what makes The Witcher as a series so engrossing: a mostly straight-forward story, with an endearing main character, fascinating monsters, and a dark edge to its familiar plot. That first season felt like the creators had torn pages from the shorter stories and bigger epics, scrunched them into a large ball and thrown it at a production machine. Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.

Despite Henry Cavill’s superb interpretation of the titular Witcher, Geralt of Rivia-somehow balancing gritty warrior, gentle partner and comedic grump-over the course of the first season’s eight episodes, the show suffered from inexplicable character explanation, as well as time and location jumps, with little earmarking to make such transitions comprehensible to the average viewer. It ended up strange and bloated, something that could never stand up to the mountainous Game of Thrones it so badly wanted to match, and as hyped-up and highly watched as Netflix claimed it to be. Perhaps daunted by GoT’s large shadow, however, the first season stumbled more often than not. The Witcher’s abundance of swearing, nudity, sex, violence, and complicated political machinations leave little doubt that the success of Game of Thrones loomed like a mountain over the scrappy village that Netflix was building for the series. The Witcher is a strange beast: A show that is at once a nod to late-1990s, young adult fantasy adventure shows-think Xena: Warrior Princess or Hercules-and a drama that demands to be taken seriously.