The Witcher

Well, I can pretend to be a man who is detached and sees that if I drank a shot at every mention of the word fate, I would die of alcohol poisoning after one episode. It could have been even better thought out in terms of working with time storylines, so that even the average viewer could understand before the third part that they were not parallel. It was certainly possible to have a better tempo and escalation of some parts, as well as the tonal consistency. But this is all "flaw by design". Sapkowski wrote a fantasy soap opera where horror, romance, a fairy tale and cruel parables about the world on the brink of destruction all eclectically meet. And to my great surprise, Netflix made a completely faithful (albeit deviating in detail and narrative storyline) adaptation, which is excellently cast, funny, exciting and romantic, appropriately crazy and engaging to me. You say that it doesn't have as much coherence and clarity as GoT and others? This is an Eastern and Central European tradition of melting pots of cultures, folklore and deep traditions. I've been missing this for years. A series that I will stay with and that I will dream about at night. This hasn’t happened to you? Well, you probably haven't read all the books ten times over and given yourself a nickname based on one of the characters. But thanks to the series, you also have a chance to get into it completely. Great job. I suppose the next series could raise the bar a bit higher, because it will no longer focus on various short stories, but rather on a novel pentalogy. (22/12/2019)

I've never read “The Witcher”, and I've never seen the original Polish film or series, so I was coming to this latest adaptation with a clean slate. The quality of the episodes varied, I was most impressed with the third episode with Striga and least impressed with the sixth, featuring the dragon hunters. As for the cast, there was a lot of variety, some of the characters were really great and I was curious to see how they would turn out, others were incredibly annoying and I didn't care how they ended up. Henry Cavill as Geralt could have pushed the envelope less and not emulate Ben Affleck’s Batman. Yennefer was the most divisive character for me personally, you root for her for a minute, then you want to hit her over the head with a gin bottle. I liked the temporal representation of the story, where in the first few episodes you slowly figure out what the storylines were. As a result, the first season of The Witcher is somewhere between three and four stars for me, but I'll give it a raise in this case. If a second season is made, it would definitely be better to cut down on the talking and increase the action. (22/12/2019)

Netflix hits the bull's eye again, providing an ointment against pangs of longing for Game of Thrones. I know Sapkowski’s original only from hearsay and I was saving it (for later), but it’s great fun like everyone promised. Swords and magic in all shapes and sizes (if only someone could film a good Conan at last) and with the perfect cast. Cavill plays a hardass mountain of a guy, roaring and muttering (I have been given an assignment to look like him, so beware of the side effects if you watch this with your better half), enjoying himself thoroughly. I did find it a bit hard to decide when the action was taking place (while I managed season 2 of Westworld with no problem), but in the end everything fell into place. The series finale gives you an appetite for more stories like this, so lay them on us. (27/12/2019)

I’m not sure if it is any good to start watching this series without having any previous relationship to The Witcher. Moreover, it is not good either to have read all of the books, played all of the games and hope that this series won’t disappoint you. It is something in between, but as for me as a fan of this universe, it didn’t disappoint. Of course I found a few unclear or illogical points of which you can find a lot more the deeper your relationship to this series is. Still, it is a quite good fantasy piece for which I’m glad because there are currently very few of those, and I’m really glad for every hope that appears in this respect. Netflix didn’t film this series in a bad way, it just did it in its own way. Henry Cavill whom everyone was uncertain about as a main character eventually played his role with flying colors. He really reminds me of the Witcher from the game series. I would say that the story isn’t as good but let’s be honest, with that many characters and unclear story line, the same problem occurred with Game of Thrones as well. We had to wait for the following seasons to see it became a legendary series. And I think that it would be similar with The Witcher. Moreover, in The Witcher you can count on greatly filmed action scenes which are a delight to your eyes. For now I rate it with 5 stars. To hell with it, I was simply thrilled! (25/12/2019)

Before the end of the year, Netflix awarded us another series of the year event (and there were a hell of a lot of them this year!) and while I have minor reservations, it's definitely a spectacular fantasy extravaganza and the new successor to Game of Thrones. I'm not a connoisseur of the books and I've never played the game so, I'm unfamiliar with the sources and I agree that the plot is convoluted and at times confusing (especially the flashbacks, which don't feel like flashbacks and detracted from the experience a bit), but the rest of it is without reservation. Henry Cavill as Geralt is excellent, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer is almost perfect, and I enjoyed Marigold, who puts a smile on my face with her singing. The action is very captivating (the duel with the Striga is nicely horrific), although there could have been definitely more monsters. The fights with humans have fine cinematography and the brutality is spot on. The atmosphere is properly fantasy historical, and I like that Mages, Elves, Dryads and similar groups are featured. I really enjoyed the series and it's probably because I have a soft spot for such unknown worlds. I hope that with more seasons the story will become more coherent and make more sense. 8/10. (26/12/2019)