It's getting a bit to f***ed up for me... :o
Some memorable moments:
Cheers for that ugly one reference from the books. I absolutely loved that moment.
Literally nothing makes sense anymore
The ending was ripped off from the The Fellowship of the Ring scene with Liv Tyler and the horses chase.
At this point the producers are just doing it for the memes. An indian Keira? And what in the actual fuck is that Margarita Laux-Antille? I mean, is actually described as one of the hottest sorcerer, only surpassed by Francesca Findabair. Did the writers and casting understood the fact that sorcerers ARE supposed to be beautiful and have a "close to perfect" superficial look? Because they seem to be really eager to find the most horrible actresses to play the most beautiful parts. Is riddiculous. The only decent sorcerer cast is Tissaia; and maaaaybe Sabrina Glevissig; but the rest not only they don't match AT ALL with their descriptions in books, comics and videogames, but they are also completely missing the mark on one of the key elements in all witches: their vanity and use of their looks to achieve their goals, tide wars or puppet rulers.
The sublplots are boring and, again, they don't add anything to the mix. Some scenes had a REEEALLY bad CGI. The fight choreographs are getting worse by the season. The forced "implicit thing" between Dandelion and Radovid (WTF - I mean, Dandelion was always a don-jon, but with WOMEN, not with everything that generates a shadow). I don't know, at this point every single thing they do deviating from the sources gets me angrier and hopeless for what's to come.
so even this show has succumbed to the lesbian gay shit I'm constantly bombarded with.
S1 was great. S2 okay... But S3 is a mess. Even worse, it's a tedious mess.
What's going on? Who knows. And who cares!
The cast are trying hard to act as if they care about the unnecessary scenes and story lines that can't be followed. It keeps jumping around from one boring location to another with boring formulaic scenes that don't move things along, people being killed etc for no reason, just characters and things happening that none cares about.
If you've read this far in my review you perhaps have the stamina to suffer the tedium. It's tedious.
Did I say it is not interesting? It really isn't.
Yen and Ciri's dynamic seemed a bit better in this episode.
I liked seeing Dijkstra and Philippa plotting.
Tissaia telling Yen she finally "became a mother" felt very forced. Yen hasn't earned that yet, though she should have.
Emhyr was a bit better this episode, but still way off what he should be. It's absolute insanity that Cahir is talking about "protecting" his secret. Emhyr literally revealed to an entire room of people/soldiers that Ciri was his daughter last season. Now they're actually acting as though it's a secret? There is literally a guard in the room with Cahir and Emhyr while they openly talk about it again in this episode. What the hell are these writers thinking?
Was very happy to see the 'basilisk' scene from the books appearing here, even if it wasn't executed super well. The scenes here definitely suffered from Ciri's actor being too old for the role, which is unfortunate. However, I did think Tissaia was perfect with Ciri! Sadly, it amplified just how off Yen and Ciri's relationship/dynamic has been. Ciri trying to lecture Yen is just so wrong to who these characters are supposed to be.
The end scene with the hunt chasing Ciri and Geralt coming to the rescue was pretty badly done. Didn't look pretty at all. Made no sense he just dispersed them with a couple of weak signs.
This episode had a lot of problems, but I think it was the best of the season so far.
Somehow the Witcher got better after season 2. That was mostly cringe. I’ve been enjoying most of s3 so far. Great exchange between Ciri and Yen in the wine cellar.
Ciri makes my brain break out in hives. She is AWFUL.
That last scene was a mix of ripping off the Arwen horse race scene in LOTR + crappy CGI + Ciri trying to speed up a horse by holding its head in a vice… I have a VERY strong feeling that actress doesn’t know how to ride a horse. Then: Geralt. Thank the LOTRd for small mercies… ;)
Ps. I used to dislike Yen but holy crap, she doesn’t NOT deserve Ciri’s attitude and snark!
Ps2. I give this show one more season at most. They won’t survive without Cavill. They are up ten different s**t creeks without a paddle OR a map, right now.
I want to comment just because of that ending scene. It was so piss poor. The close ups of the horse riding looked so fake and immediately after Geralt saves Ciri, the show jumpcuts to them hugging. So jarring.
Tissaia is turning into Le Chiffre.
The way that this was Henry Cavill's send off... I just...
No one will play Geralt better than him, period. And this is the final scene you give him? Criminal.
Love Anya Chalotra and Joey Batey as always.
I'm impressed by most of the scenes with the other actors and their subplots, particularly the mages, Redania & Nilfgaard, but Geralt is kind of lacking something this season. Wish they would've merged Game Geralt with Book Geralt better. Hope the story will lead somewhere interesting this season since it's building so well so far.
Definitely had some more enjoyable moments this episode but the quality overall is still leaving a lot to be desired. It's hard to put into words why. It's trying too hard to be something but it's falling flat for me. The last section felt jarfingly bad. From the poor CGI with Ciri on the horse to the sudden cut of them running to hug each other. Ehhhh.
(880-word review) This was the best episode so far. That doesn't mean it was incredible; don't get me mistaken. Still, it did feel better than the first two episodes. There was more smoothness to the moving and progression of the plotlines.
In typical fashion concerning this show (and in more ways than one, it seems, with the positive aspects), however, there was a bit of a catch with that: the slight lack of clarity and continuity with the scenes of Philippa and Eva/Rience and Lydia, and the ending.
A gap in Philippa and Eva's dialogue was seemingly present compared to the prior knowledge we've been given; same with Rience and Lydia's scene, as if you had missed something or things weren't made clear enough previously.
And the ending was abrupt, given that the last time Ciri was on screen, she contacted Geralt in the middle of town. Now, she's out in the middle of the woods, presumably for an evening ride considering her speed (like she's already running from what hasn't appeared yet) and because where would she go? Where WAS she going? To Geralt? How would she know his location? Yes, she asked, "Where are you?" But is that supposed to be enough information, even though there was nothing further/no answer? Better yet, how did HE know where SHE was at the end?
Both instances of slight discontinuity can potentially be "accounted for" by the assumption that they weren't an oversight but rather a scene or two was cut for some stellar reason – in which case, that's still, in and of itself, a bit of an oversight, if only by incompetence rather than purposely or not.
As an extension to the "necessary negative to counteract and taint a positive" complexity for the ages, Mr. "I asked for a private audience to protect your secret" Cahir, in his infinite and genius wisdom, said that in front of three no-name, no-dialogue, irrelevant guards behind him.
And yet, our White Flame, Emhyr, is a grander genius than our "strong for a scrawny little..." Cahir, as he so kindly revealed to us at the end of the second season by sharing his connection, albeit secret (but he's SO kind), with Ciri to Fringilla and Cahir: and a congregation of inferior soldiers.
But through the smooth moving and progression, a lingering problem for me, which is likely a combination of two things, is the onset of confusion linked to everything happening; there's too much going on at once (it feels that way at the very least), and while I can still unravel everything, it's the fact that things are confusing in the first place – that shouldn't be such an easy and prominent observation to make.
This could be more because of how it's written rather than the nature of this expansive world, with many characters; their motivations/desires, multiple groups; their internal conflicts, and so on. I'll wager two things: Games of Thrones, an apt comparison to make, probably had more layers and more going on – and that the novels of this show aren't as disorienting. Good storytelling can be so vast and detailed, in various ways, and at the same time, digestible, and not by the incompatible modernity of the dialogue in this show.
And the second but one-and-the-same (depending on how you look at it) problem is my engagement and investment in what's happening, aka the lack thereof. Hardly anything going on feels as entertaining as it should be. There's a severe lack of excitement.
None of the plotlines have captured me. Even the central one revolving around Ciri (including building up Ciri's character journey to greater focus and personal development, like meeting a particular character who'll impact her character arc significantly), especially when Geralt and Yennefer are involved, doesn't have me.
Complexity and nuance are noticeably prominent elements of this world, particularly in this season thus far. But it feels watered down, and even then, the execution of them comes across as lacking. Other shows with those similarities of expansiveness and the like are assumably better in the excitement department with the undeniable moments but also manage to make the subtle but sharp, slow but meticulous elements of politics (plenty of characters: ambitious goals, clashing, conniving, moving pieces, etc.) genuinely engaging, and riveting. That's almost borderline nonexistent here, and I doubt the source material is at fault.
The stuff with Yennefer and Ciri/Yennefer and Tissaia, second to what's going on in Redania: some actual 4D chess by Dijkstra instead of being the underdog (which supposedly isn't an accurate representation of his character – oh, wait, it wasn't done by him – but turning it into his advantage off the cuff was the breadcrumb of all breadcrumbs) were the highlights of this episode, admittedly with some struggle.
But the most significant takeaway from this episode was that Isturd, sorry, Istredd, is back to bring us his escapades of monotones, sorry, monoliths, and the primal inner beast thoroughness required to dare research such blood-curdling things: just horrifying. You can't even imagine how brave this deity of a man is. He's the lifeline of this show!
tl;dr: An improvement compared to the previous two episodes, yet with some questionable moments to boot, which relate to writing/clarity/continuity difficulties – nothing new for this show.
That's more like it. First really enoyable episode of the season for me.
Shout by tropoliteVIP 5BlockedParent2023-07-22T03:14:57Z
Third episode in and my thoughts are, how did the writers of this season believe they write better than the creator who wrote the books?!
This is such a waste of time now. Story goes nowhere and everywhere. I can see very clearly why Henry Cavill dropped this steaming pile crap down the toilet where it belongs and said, 'Nope, I'm done'. I'm done too.