I found the show enjoyable overall, but most certainly flawed. It adapts material from the first two books, taking a good amount of liberties in certain areas. Now, I was fine with them making changes, but felt some of them certainly were for the worse. To begin with, the timeline is completely messed up. They wanted to give the story a POV type of thing, following each of the 3 main characters separately, which had me confused for half of the show. There are jumps in time all the time. I genuinely believe that it would have been better if they had just had the story move chronologically.
The POV brings forth another issue, pacing. The most interesting parts to watch were certainly Geralt's, adapted straight from the book. They were adapted pretty well, though a bit rushed at times. It is understandable why they showed Yen and Ciri's stories, though I think that if they had their own separate episodes, the show would have fared better. It leaves a very disjointed feel to the whole story, moving between classic Geralt stories, the weird Yennefer ones and that of Ciri.
Speaking of Geralt, Henry Cavill is the perfect actor to play Geralt. Within a few episodes, he became my default version of the character. I experienced immense enjoyment just watching him be Geralt, there are a lot of subtleties he completely nails, while giving it his own flavour. My other favourite casting choice was Julian, Geralt's troubadour companion. The actor portrays his witty, cynical, comedic relief aspects lovingly well and he is a pretty darn good singer to boot.
The actress of Yennefer does a good job. They show her development from the start to the woman she becomes, which was interesting. There were some weird parts here. I will give it to this way of presenting the story, it makes the mage characters a lot more interesting from the start here.
Now, I have some more issues with Ciri. They missed what the execution in the books had, mainly the connection between Geralt and Ciri. They have the theme of destiny connecting them, but it feels more unsatisfying and contrived. They set up the hunt from her and her powers much earlier, I hope it doesn't lead to the show feeling repetitive later. I just wish they didn't feel so much like a plot device and more like a human being. She is a rowdy tomboy, they only hinted at this once.
Visually, the show looks good. Cinematography is fine, not outstanding, but fine. The CGI is mostly okay, but it has some horrible spots. Fight scenes are amazing, maybe overchoreographed at times, though that is nitpicky.
Loved the music for the show. I was surprised how good it was even. As a person that spent time with all 3 games, each one of which always had an outstanding soundtrack, I wondered how the show would live up to that. It did it excellently. The sound is different from that of the games, but feels very much like the Witcher. Particular fan of the theme of Yennefer and the Toss A Coin For Your Witcher.
All in all, The Witcher is a good show. The first 2 books are in a different format that the other books, being short story collections rather than novels. There was obviously an attempt to streamline the former into the latter to make it more serialised, yet I feel those 2 books make for great TV just the way they are. Episodic with hints of continuity. I have hope there will be improvements in the next season, so I am waiting eagerly.
Edit: As time has passed, I've grown to dislike the show somewhat more. As it is, it is enjoyable, though heavily flawed. It largely butchers the material from the first two books, even though it's arguably the best material to adapt for a TV series. I've changed my rating from a 7 to a 6 and edited out a few parts I don't agree with any more, but my thoughts are mostly the same, I've just realised I felt pressured to give it a higher score so I wouldn't be one of those "the books are better" people, but I think it is perfectly fair to criticise a show when it neither does anything particularly unique with its concept, nor does it do its source material justice.
Review by Martin SestrimskiBlockedParent2020-04-27T14:13:10Z— updated 2021-08-26T17:59:20Z
I found the show enjoyable overall, but most certainly flawed. It adapts material from the first two books, taking a good amount of liberties in certain areas. Now, I was fine with them making changes, but felt some of them certainly were for the worse. To begin with, the timeline is completely messed up. They wanted to give the story a POV type of thing, following each of the 3 main characters separately, which had me confused for half of the show. There are jumps in time all the time. I genuinely believe that it would have been better if they had just had the story move chronologically.
The POV brings forth another issue, pacing. The most interesting parts to watch were certainly Geralt's, adapted straight from the book. They were adapted pretty well, though a bit rushed at times. It is understandable why they showed Yen and Ciri's stories, though I think that if they had their own separate episodes, the show would have fared better. It leaves a very disjointed feel to the whole story, moving between classic Geralt stories, the weird Yennefer ones and that of Ciri.
Speaking of Geralt, Henry Cavill is the perfect actor to play Geralt. Within a few episodes, he became my default version of the character. I experienced immense enjoyment just watching him be Geralt, there are a lot of subtleties he completely nails, while giving it his own flavour. My other favourite casting choice was Julian, Geralt's troubadour companion. The actor portrays his witty, cynical, comedic relief aspects lovingly well and he is a pretty darn good singer to boot.
The actress of Yennefer does a good job. They show her development from the start to the woman she becomes, which was interesting. There were some weird parts here. I will give it to this way of presenting the story, it makes the mage characters a lot more interesting from the start here.
Now, I have some more issues with Ciri. They missed what the execution in the books had, mainly the connection between Geralt and Ciri. They have the theme of destiny connecting them, but it feels more unsatisfying and contrived. They set up the hunt from her and her powers much earlier, I hope it doesn't lead to the show feeling repetitive later. I just wish they didn't feel so much like a plot device and more like a human being. She is a rowdy tomboy, they only hinted at this once.
Visually, the show looks good. Cinematography is fine, not outstanding, but fine. The CGI is mostly okay, but it has some horrible spots. Fight scenes are amazing, maybe overchoreographed at times, though that is nitpicky.
Loved the music for the show. I was surprised how good it was even. As a person that spent time with all 3 games, each one of which always had an outstanding soundtrack, I wondered how the show would live up to that. It did it excellently. The sound is different from that of the games, but feels very much like the Witcher. Particular fan of the theme of Yennefer and the Toss A Coin For Your Witcher.
All in all, The Witcher is a good show. The first 2 books are in a different format that the other books, being short story collections rather than novels. There was obviously an attempt to streamline the former into the latter to make it more serialised, yet I feel those 2 books make for great TV just the way they are. Episodic with hints of continuity. I have hope there will be improvements in the next season, so I am waiting eagerly.
Edit: As time has passed, I've grown to dislike the show somewhat more. As it is, it is enjoyable, though heavily flawed. It largely butchers the material from the first two books, even though it's arguably the best material to adapt for a TV series. I've changed my rating from a 7 to a 6 and edited out a few parts I don't agree with any more, but my thoughts are mostly the same, I've just realised I felt pressured to give it a higher score so I wouldn't be one of those "the books are better" people, but I think it is perfectly fair to criticise a show when it neither does anything particularly unique with its concept, nor does it do its source material justice.