"Toss a coin to your Witcher, O' Valley of Plenty, O' Valley of Plenty."
The Witcher stars Henry Cavill (Geralt of Rivia), Anya Chalotra (Yennefer), Freya Allen (Ciri), MYanna Buring (Tissaia), Joey Batey (Jaskier), and Jodhi May (Queen Calanthe) and premiered on Netflix December 20th, 2019.
I was curious to watch this show for all the buzz it was receiving. Not many video game to tv/movie adaptations have been successful in recent years, so to hear that most people liked the product that was put out influenced me enough to give it a try. I will confess and say that I’ve never played the game nor read the books before and have only heard about it through friends. To say that I was going into this blindfolded was an understatement.
First off, let me say that if you’re like me and haven’t played the game and are interested in watching the show, you certainly can. What I can tell you is that the show is sometimes hard to follow at points as it skips around in time. Also, it does not give a lot of exposition to viewers not familiar with the game. The exposition they do give is done well, but I think there honestly should have been more to help further build the world.
Henry Cavill as The Witcher (Geralt of Rivia), does a really good job here. Cavill, a noted gamer, played The Witcher video game long before the show was even thought of. When it was announced that Netflix was interested in developing the game and books into a show, Cavill said that he would have his agent call the developers often and lobby for him to play the part. Cavill genuinely wanted to honor the source material being a previous fan of the work, and because of that I think it’s one of the best roles I’ve seen him in. He completely immersed himself as Geralt and it pays off. Cavill's chemistry with Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) feels pretty natural as the two have plenty of intense scenes with one another. Joey Batey (Jaskier), added good comedic humor and his friendship with Geralt is done well. I think they had some of the best scenes together particularly for the humor that both characters bring but in different ways. Some of the CGI work on a few characters was a little weak in my opinion; however, I did like the scenery where the show was shot in (Central and Eastern Europe) in places like Hungary and Austria. The action scenes were also well directed and paired really well with some beautiful set designs. It’s something that Henry Cavill is known for since he played Superman for four films. It’s still pure awesomeness to see him cut down opponents and fight some pretty cool monsters in the show. So, in that aspect I give credit to Cavill and the directors/choreographers of those scenes.
The world building of the show is good at times. I’m always a big fan of being introduced to new stories and places but I think in this instance they could have given even more. That’s why I believe a 10-12 episode season would have been better suited for this show. Look at Game of Thrones for example: The Witcher draws similar parallels to that type of show and while the last two seasons of Thrones had only seven and six episodes, which I think was also a mistake, the first six seasons had 10 and they were very successful because of it. When the show moved to shorter length seasons, fans complained about how the show felt rushed and that it didn’t have enough time on each important character. Anyway, Game of Thrones rant aside, two more episodes which would’ve equated to about two more hours of show time could’ve helped flesh things out a lot in The Witcher in my opinion. A prime example of this were the motivation of the villains. I’m sure that’s going to be expanded upon more in the future but for right now I think with more time, it could’ve been easier to develop their intentions to make it more clear for viewers.
The score is a bright spot for me. Most people who read my reviews may know that I always love a good soundtrack and I this music fits the show well. Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli were the composers for this one so bravo to them they did some nice work with character themes, action music, and the title score.
This show is certainly an interesting point of conversation. There’s so much I want to learn and find out, and I think it certainly teased some future storylines for season two. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich said in an interview that the plot and story will be much easier to understand for the next installment. The multiple timelines going on at the same time are certainly a little confusing to figure out at times, so it’ll be intriguing to see if that continues or the story format changes. I can say that I enjoyed watching it and will certainly watch season two when it comes out in 2021. That’s not to say I had my problems with it, as I stated earlier. My expectations for season two are to elevate this story to a higher level. Hopefully more backstory and world building is in store, but for now all we can do is go back and speculate to what could be.
Score: 3.4 out of 5