Thoughts On: The Witcher (Season 1)

Spoiler free!

Given the history of video game adaptations, The Witcher is much better than I would’ve thought. And yes, I consider the show to be an adaptation of the game series, not the books. Netflix’s gamble wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the amazing work done by CD Projekt Red on The Witcher games, specifically the third installment, which thrusted the series to international acclaim. I haven’t read the books so I can’t speak on them, but I will say the reason why I haven’t is because the author is quite an asshole who didn’t have faith in his own intellectual property. That’s definitely not something I want to support.

The story is told from the perspective of three characters; the Witcher Geralt of Rivia, the Sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg, and the young Princess Ciri. These characters live in a fantasy world not unlike Tolkien or Game of Thrones. The Witcher has always been driven by its characters, and I think two of the three here work well. The first big chunk of praise I’ll throw is at the beefcake himself Henry Cavill who nails Geralt. His presence and movement are all great, but what impresses me the most about Cavill’s performance is his voice. It sounds almost identical to the Geralt in the games. Low, gruff, and yet sardonic, as soon as I heard Cavill speak I knew he wasn’t going to disappoint. Yennefer, while pretty different and not as interesting as the game character, is still intriguing enough so that her segments don’t drag down the plot, and I can tell the actor Anya Chalotra is putting in a lot of effort. Ciri’s character, on the other hand, I don’t think was handled well. Even though the actor playing the role is eighteen, the writers wrote Ciri as a twelve of thirteen year old, which resulted in a lot of uninteresting “little kid confusion” segments. Her character was predictable and basic, and I feel as though if they had stuck with the source material and wrote Ciri as a woman in her late teens to early twenties, she would’ve been more interesting.

Note: I’m not someone who thumps the source material as if it’s the only way something can be interpreted. I’m cool with a character being rewritten as long as it’s good, but when another interpretation of a character or setting exists, it’s easy to draw comparisons for critical reasons.

As I noted before, the plot follows these three main characters at different moments in time, and as the season continues, the plot lines start to merge together. I’m a fan of this if for no other reason than it’s more creative than something linear, and it works here. However, the plot and arcs feel rushed. I think more time could’ve been devoted to the context of the world and characters, such as the backstory to the Witchers, the Conjunction of the Spheres, and why Ciri is the way she is. I have more understanding than the average Karen who’s never even heard of The Witcher, and if I was getting occasionally confused, I know Karen is. The plot is still ultimately satisfying though and the attempt at creating something that’s on such a large scale is appreciated. The world feels vibrant, alive with different types of people, species, monsters, magic, kingdoms, and factions. I just think more individualized attention, especially on Geralt, would’ve been nice. I also couldn’t help but feel like the world just didn’t capture the “feel” of The Witcher as much as I would’ve liked, which is a bit more Scandinavian than English.

The show has some good cinematic moments as well. I have to mention the violence and how brutal it is. The fights are choreographed beautifully, and the level of detail in how a sword slices someone’s head off is fucking awesome. 10/10 in the gore department. The environments are varied and beautiful, and I suspect the crew had to travel all over the world to make this first season. The nature of the plot also allows for some smart editing. An example of this would be Geralt about to start running towards or away from something, and just as the music starts to ramp up it cuts back to Ciri running instead, transitioning to a different part of the story without losing the intensity the previous scene had just built up. Without getting into spoiler territory, my favorite moment in the season was at the climax of the third episode when the story simultaneously switches between Geralt having a harrowing fight with a screeching monster while Yennefer makes eerily similar screams for a different, even more brutal reason. Assuming there will be a second season, I hope the editors can play with this style of editing even more.

While not surprisingly failing to compete with the arguable masterpiece that is The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, the TV series of the same first name is a decent take on the world and a solid eight episodes of dark fantasy story-telling. Netflix appears to be hoping that The Witcher will become the next Game of Thrones, and while I doubt the series will ever reach that level of cultural hype, I would advise anyone around me to check it out and see what they think.