Netflix's The Witcher - General Discussion Thread

[Iceman]

 

[Pennywise]

 

[BlackFox]

Hope the trailer is good, excited for season 3 still.......................even though we know whats coming but at least I hope Cavill can go out on a high, not a fan of the season being split into two parts but I guess that builds hype, just hope the first part doesnt annoy everyone so much they never release the second half, but this is Netflix so.....

 

[Erik Lensherr]

 

[BlackFox]

No Kanye in the trailer is a big step up.

 

[Bobber]

No Kanye in the trailer is a big step up.

Someone should absolutely be crucified for the way they've butchered that Radiohead song, though.

 

[BlackFox]

Someone should absolutely be crucified for the way they've butchered that Radiohead song, though.

Trying to intimidate Radiohead is never going to go well for you, true.

 

[BlackFox]

First song released from series 3:

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

All you people not watching this show are the smart ones. I'm onto episode 4 and I like it even less than Season 2.

• Geralt is a bit player
• triples down on what didn't make Season 2 work
• the writers are utterly enraptured by all these side plots and side characters for their dull Great Value version of Game of Thrones
• lack of tension and too much exposition
• not a single episode has been as good as the first episode of Season 2 which Season 2 had that going for it at least
• I don't care if it's a 1:1 adaptation like some of you, there's lots of works out there from Wizard of Oz to The Prestige that were not yet were awesome, it just has to be good as its own thing. Or passble, and this is not so far.
• When I make it to episode 5 and if it's more of the same, I'm outta here. Donezo.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Episode 5 is the first decent/good episode and not only because Geralt finally has screentime: it is a special event ‘bottle episode’ told in an unusual fashion like some of Season 1. Is it as good as episode 1 of Season 2? No. Getting this show away from its usual hackneyed format for an episode was a good idea because I’ve grown to dislike that format.

Episode 4 also had a couple decent parts in that normal format though not in totality what I’d consider a good episode. Anyway they narrowly saved me from dropping out before the season was over. Narrowly.

 

[Erik20]

Seems this has no buzz at all. I'm not even seeing reviews on YouTube pop up. I guess it also says a lot that we're not hearing Netflix brag about views like they often do.

It's their own fault. They took out all the fun of season 1, and turned the show into a B version of Game of Thrones.

I'm only on episode 3, but all I have to say for now is Robbie Amell is awful... he's doing a weird voice and can barely speak with an English accent.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I know its only the first half and not a complete season, but this was definitely the weakest season yet and honestly if I wasn't such a completionist I probably wouldn't even finish it.

They have completely sidelined Geralt so far this season which I wouldn't mind as much if they actually had some engaging world building/storytelling going on but that just isn't the case.

I'm still very much invested in the journey of the main trio and a few of the side characters like Dijkstra and Stregobor who have been portrayed wonderfully by Graham McTavish and Lars Mikkelsen.

The rest I care very little about right now in this show.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I only watched the first episode so far but was it just me or did it seem quite...cheap?

Season 2 looked better that's for sure.

 

[BlackFox]

Yeah can see why Cavill dumped this. I kind of enjoyed episode 1 and 5 but the rest is a step down from season 1 and 2, and considering how most feel about them thats not great. Netflix really half-***ed the whole thing and now its a watered down, meak and almost family friendly Witcher series as perhaps they knew they were in trouble tried to appeal to a wider audience and so far at least, failed miserably. Its sad to see what this has become, was hoping for improvement each season but Netflix didnt really have a clue what to do with this and neither did the people they put in charge.

Just feels like they let down the cast which is bye and large pretty decent and entertaining to watch but nobody can save this now it seems. Apathy will probably kill it off completely. Its my least favourite book and while that is not an excuse for this it might be part of the reason this feels a little dull but I have zero hope for Baptism or Tower will be done justice now.

The trailer for the second part of the season at least looks marginally better and more entertaining but I'm not sure it will be enough to save the entire season now. Some of the sets and CGi look as cheap and plastic as you can get. This is meant to be a ravaged and war torn continent, it just often looks like a group of people in a field on a picnic, the world feels so empty. Where's the savagery, down trodding masses, the pain and suffering of war, the bleak out look that every faction is fighting against. Netflix just couldnt be bothered.

 

[Erik20]

I could barely finish this, and it wasn't even the whole season... too much politics, and the cast is way too big. 3 seasons in, and I can't tell you the names of characters besides Geralt's friends. I don't even know what exactly is going on. (Might be because the show can't really hold my attention)

I'm only going to watch part 2 because I want to see what they're going to do with the Cavill leaving situation. I'm probably done with the show after that. (Unless future seasons get amazing reviews)

 

[BlackFox]

Everyone buzzing for part 2 now.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

These trailer makers make the show seem like 100 times more tense and suspenseful than the actual show is.

Gizmodo - The Witcher Is Ready to Make Ciri Its Main Character After Season 3
The Witcher co-executive producer Tomek Baginski: "I think this was very exciting to do, but especially for Freya. This is also the book [Time of Contempt] where Ciri – let’s be blunt about this – becomes the main character of the saga, because this is how it was done in the books, and watching Ciri evolve, and watching Freya evolve as an actress in this season, was incredible, just incredible."

 

[Erik20]

These trailer makers make the show seem like 100 times more tense and suspenseful than the actual show is.

Gizmodo - The Witcher Is Ready to Make Ciri Its Main Character After Season 3
The Witcher co-executive producer Tomek Baginski: "I think this was very exciting to do, but especially for Freya. This is also the book [Time of Contempt] where Ciri – let’s be blunt about this – becomes the main character of the saga, because this is how it was done in the books, and watching Ciri evolve, and watching Freya evolve as an actress in this season, was incredible, just incredible."

I'm just now reading this, and after watching the last couple of episodes, yeah it's obvious that Geralt isn't the main character anymore. He's barely in it... (I'm slightly exaggerating, but for a large part he's gone) It's not a great send-off for Henry unfortunately.

I thought it was "funny" when

Spoiler

Geralt was "dying," but Yen didn't seem to care at all. She even just casually mentioned that to another character. She was only thinking about Ciri.

That pretty much said it all.

The show is more about sorcerers in general, you could basically take Geralt out of the story and it wouldn't change that much. Also I don't know if they want me to root for the elves, seems that way, but I really don't like them.

I'm done with this show. I like Ciri, but that's not enough for me. I don't care about any of the other characters and storylines that are going on. I would say don't bother if you were planning on only watching this season for Henry Cavill.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Yeah, those last three episodes definitely didn't save this season, but at least I was able to finish it and now I have no reason whatsoever to watch anymore future seasons of this show.

It's sad because I really enjoyed those first two seasons, but between this and the disaster that was Blood Origin it just doesn't feel like these writers actually care about this show anymore.

I mean its just laughable at this point how many random people they keep introducing and worse of all is how they treated Geralt this season which I suspect will only get worse as it goes on.

I know not everyone on here loves Cavill, but he deserved so much better than this and honestly him killing monsters and bad guys is the main reason I was even interested in this in the first place.

We barely got any of that season which sucks but at least I have some other quality fantasy shows to look forward to in the future like HOTD and hopefully another season of Shadow and Bone.

 

[BlackFox]

I will give the final 3 episodes one thing that they were at least better than the first 5 but thats not saying a great deal when the bar was so low, not exactly season saving but at least entertaining and some good moments, mainly the action which for a tv show is pretty top tier, its just a shame the level of effort, time and care taken over these is not nearly applied to the other areas.

There are things I like this season but for every one of those there are two or three which drag it all down.

There are some decent casting choices but there are also some ones that make you question if some of the cast have ever acted before, granted they are not helped by a sloppy script and plot writing which is just all over the place and characters just show up in places without explanation or justification from where they were prior. A lot of them are killed off here now as well and a lot of them feel very rushed and badly thought out., except for one which was really well done but again this was the exception not the rule.

Having read the books I understand why Geralt feels like a backdrop at times to some, because he is. The main books are about Ciri more than him, he barely appears in one entire book, but this is the problem of mixing the main saga with the short stories and calling your show "The Witcher" people are going to assume its all about him slaying monsters, which is not really the main thing in the books but of course in the games it is.

Freya Allan and Anya Chalotra are both really good again and do much of the heavy lifting now as Jaskia was used less in this series too but everything will rest on their shoulders now moving forward, if this series even survives to see another day but the final moments of the last episode showed why Cavill will be sorely missed as he not only can carry out outstanding fights but also has a screen presence none of the others have, I dont envy Liam Hemsworth's task to fill his boots but good luck to him it might be interesting to see what he can do in the role but it feels like the knives will be out from the start, having said that this show has much bigger problems than Henry Cavill leaving, but thank you for his service at least in this show he gave it absolutely everything in the role.

The rest of the show is a bit of a mess though, the effects and whole look of the show seems a step down from season 2 somehow, with some still awful outfits and sets that look cheap and plastic straight from a Doctor Who set.

There's a lot of talk in the show about war and conflict but we are yet to see an actual battle at all a side from the small scraps Geralt gets in, the whole scale of the show feels tiny. Netflix makes the Witcher such a big thing in terms of advertising and amount of content it puts out with spin offs and anitmated stuff but doesnt seem to want to invest properly in terms of talent and production value in the actual show itself, such a weird way of going about the whole thing. You would think they would make an attempy to make the whole thing at least look good but nah, its half baked like the rest of it.

I could go on about other things I didnt like or just feel objectively bad such as the kings all being treated as comedy relief rather than actual leaders, (save Emhyr who at least feels like a leader and acts like one) but at this stage it kind of feels like flogging a dead horse.

I will end on a positive in that I did like Meng'er Zhang's Milva character and her banter with Geralt and Jaskier was entertaining at least, just a shame its going to be shortlived with Cavill and I do like the guys playing Pilippa and Djkstra those two were one of the few positives of the season but whether any of this is going to be good enough for season 4 it seems unlikely. Such a shame as to what this could have been if just a bit more time, care and money had been spent on the whole thing.

 

[Erik20]

I don't know what was going on with the fight scenes, but sometimes it looked great, then other times it's like watching people larping.

I agree that they probably shouldn't have called this "The Witcher," but yeah that name brings in the people of course.

You can tell by the lack of comments in this thread that the show lost all it's buzz after season 2. I miss the dumb fun of the first season... I wanted more of that.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

My Season 3 ratings

Episode 1:
Episode 2:
Episode 3:
Episode 4:
Episode 5: (bottle type of episode, only episode Cavill is an actual lead on)
Episode 6: (action episode)
Episode 7: (Ciri-focused episode)
Episode 8: (reverts back to crappy Episode 1-4 format)

lowest possible highest possible

When the show is about its dull ass generic overarching plot it’s at its worst, sidelining the star (Geralt/Cavill) and the episodic micro stories (like Star Trek: The Next Generation had) contributes to this malaise. In his place are way too many characters to not care about despite their screentime. The little they gave to Ciri isn’t enough, she’s barely qualifying as a main character which is mostly driven by her ‘special’ status while we’re shown tons of scenes she doesn’t participate in with unlikeable, at times inscrutable characters. They put the major trio of Ciri, Yen, and Geralt together only to keep splitting them off again and again which has not helped. A lot of the show is just hollow and shallow at this point.

 

[BlackFox]

I don't know what was going on with the fight scenes, but sometimes it looked great, then other times it's like watching people larping.

I agree that they probably shouldn't have called this "The Witcher," but yeah that name brings in the people of course.

You can tell by the lack of comments in this thread that the show lost all it's buzz after season 2. I miss the dumb fun of the first season... I wanted more of that.

Yeah this show tended to work best when the episodes were more one offs and self contained like season 1 and in particular the first episode of season 2 rather than the over arching story which they didnt seem to know really how to adapt so it turned in to a mess. The books are a little like that themselves with characters coming and going at times but thats not an excuse but more that this needed to be put in more capable hands to adapt.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Witcher Producer Blames Young American Audience For Viewership Decline
Producer Tomek Baginski had some choice words about discourse over the show’s simplified politics and low viewership

 

[Weather Witch]

Wouldn't it have been smarter to get Liam Hemsworth for this?