The Witcher Review: A dark, silky adaptation set in a faraway fantasy world…

Of course, Culturedemandsgeeks didn’t know what to expect when we first heard of Netflix’s live-action The Witcher and was even less certain about the casting of its lead. Indeed, we had already played the brooding hero and button-bashed our way through the video games from CD Projekt Red, but never read the short stories and books by Andrzej Sapkowski (yes, shame on us for not engrossing our devious, little minds).

Would a live-action TV adaptation be a disaster?

Why not a film, leading to a franchise?

Would it be impossible to accept after spending so much time with these characters across all these games and stories?

Culturedemandsgeeks had a pretty firm version of who Geralt of Rivia was in our head already, and we weren’t certain we could shake that image away when Henry Cavill stars as Geralt of Rivia, the titular Witcher—a monster hunter and a magically created mutant riding across The Continent on his horse Roach, looking for work and bedding beautiful women.

Thankfully, we were wrong, but unfortunately, Netflix’s fantasy series The Witcher is getting mixed reviews from critics, but most agree that the adaptation is a fun adventure-filled romp filled with mages and magic, swords and sorcery, and F-bombs and nudity.

The series tells the tale of Geralt of Rivia, one of a rare breed of monster-hunters known as Witchers. These are mutated supernatural beings who roam the pseudo-medieval land divining the locations of monsters’ lairs and using their special powers to slay the variously fell beasts. Society shuns and hates them because they tend to bring death and misery wherever they go. As a result, Geralt is a mumbling grumpy man with a titular vocabulary of a wise-old warrior who likes nothing better than earn some coin, drink, screw and to F-bomb his way through the fantasy world, albeit a bizarrely charismatic one.

With us?

Good.

But poor Geralt, the muscular built Witcher that he is, becomes embroiled in a conflict between two bellicose human nations, Nilfgaardian Empire and Northern Kingdoms.

And we have Ciri (newcomer Freya Allan), the princess of Cintra, who is being protected by its Queen from the menacing Nilfgardians. She’s a waif, and because this is a fantasy series, she is a waif with unspecified special powers. At the end of the first episode, she’s told to go find ‘Geralt of Rivia’, and so her quest starts.

IMPORTANT CHARACTER:

Another important player is Yennefer der Venderberg (an excellent, wry Anya Chalotra) – a disfigured girl who is recruited by a sorceress for her powers, and then put through a training regime which is not dissimilar from Geralt’s. It turns her cold, cruel, and closed off from the world. But Anya’s portrayal of her character makes her loveable to the audience watching at home, and ‘oh boy’ does she love to use her magical powers.

While the first five episodes, YOU only start to see individual plotlines cross over, the showrunners do a lot of groundwork in setting these characters up. As a result, when Geralt and Yennefer actually meet, there’s wild and hideously dangerous energy that the show hasn’t had up until this point.

The audience has seen these characters in separate episodes, fleetingly teasing that these characters will eventually meet in the wicked world, they know their damage, and know that finding another point of connection in the world is a significant thing.

NEGATIVE POINTS:

Obviously, a series that Netflix has poured a lot of money into, you’d expect it to make sense?.

That’s when the show slightly slips apart because these three storylines crisscross each other in different timelines, and it leaves us, the viewer, wondering what the hell’s going on? These three storyline

The world of The Witcher is populated with memorable characters with not-so-memorable names.

Yet, The Witcher gets better with each and every episode that passes, and that its “monster of the week” format is a refreshing change from serialized dramatic television, and many of which are based explicitly on short stories from the books. Whether that’s a princess turned into a beast or a vengeful djinn who has cursed his best friend, the bard Dandelion (who primarily goes by Jaskier in the show).

Crucially, the show has a sense of humor.

It’s not all dark and dire.

Jaskier (Joey Batey) frequently plays the comedy relief, like a certain British comedian in Jack Whitehall-fashion, following Geralt around despite not being welcome, in order to turn Geralt’s exploits into song. When he meets the witcher for the first time, the bard tells him “I love the way you just sit in a corner and brood.”

FINAL THOUGHTS:

The show straddles the often-difficult balance between drawing in new audiences unfamiliar with the source material and satisfying the expectations of long-time fans of the book series and video game franchise. But the show is undeniably entertaining.

The Witcher‘s first episode is not good, but if you keep on the ‘path of enlightenment’ you’ll be rewarded with a great payoff by the end of the eight-episode run. Please bear-in-mind that this show is not capable of being the next ‘Game of Thrones’ so don’t get your fantasy hopes up!

Do we want more?

Yes, please. Bring on season 2.

3.5/5 STARS