“Toss a coin to your reviewer, cos he watches some stuff so you don’t have to” should be the theme song for my platform LOL however don’t get it twisted this isn’t one of those shows.
Based on the successful book series of the same name and more known because of the monumental video game series, The Witcher TV series has some big shoes to fill. The story follows Geralt of Rivia, a monster slaying mutant warrior who is tasked with protecting Ciri a princess with Elven blood who’s been prophesied to kick of an eternal war that could end the world. These 2 are linked by destiny as Geralt unknowingly demands her as a reward for his monster slaying services before she was even born. With Yennefer joining the team, a mixed elf sorceress, they traverse the vast lands evading Ciri’s various pursuers from getting a hold of her and using her for malicious purposes.
Henry Cavill is Geralt and his performance confirms he really spent time reading the books and playing the video games. The voice and tone he used is chilling and conveys his dauntless character. He does a great job especially in the action and battle choreography. Freya Allan plays Ciri, the innocent, youthful juvenile warrior sorceress. She does well in showcasing her adolescent stages as we follow her journey to being one of the most powerful people on the show. Anya Chalotra is really good. She goes from playing a discouraged, hideous, dungeon crawler to a beautiful, fearless and valiant sorceress named Yennefer. She shows the most range through the series. Joey Batey plays the travelling bard who befriends Geralt, Jaskier. He provides the humour of the show via his back-and-forth dialogue with Geralt and his lack of fighting prowess. We get some recurring cast members like MyAnna Buring as a chiefess sorceress Tissaia, Mahesh Jadu as Vilgefortz, Lars Mikkelson as Stregobor and Royce Piersson as Istred. All give decent performances.
The show shines in its action scenes. You can see a lot of the budget and time was pumped into the fight scenes. Henry carries his own. With minimal stunt doubles he embodies the character of Geralt, owning every sword swing, punch, kick, etc.
The camera angles especially during these fight scenes are superb. It uses this rotational technique to ensure we don’t miss any angle of the kills on display. Its brilliant. The sfx are at a high level although they do drop in quality in the latter seasons. The use of magic although pleasant on screen tends to be quite generic balls of energy or simple fire. Monster designs are gross as expected but also feel like empty show fillers with no substance or story behind them and to be quite frank there wasn’t enough encounters. They did include some practical monster effects which I did like. The costumes are elaborate, untamed and even cultured. The distinctive armour types allow for us to identify the different kingdoms which is a nice touch. I like the music very much. Inspired by medieval times and I believe medieval instruments were used they managed to add to the atmosphere going on to even release the hit single “Toss a coin to your Witcher”.
The story is where everything just fell apart. It was a big struggle. A total of 3 seasons and somehow, they found ways to confuse, baffle and mystify most if not all audiences. Even for a Witcher veteran like me who is very familiar with the games I wrestled with the peculiar style of writing and directing. Season 1 was infested with flashback scenes which had no transition tool to inform us this is a flashback. It really messed with the continuity. It focused on Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer’s origins of how they eventually came together. With big announcements from script writers admitting to their convoluted errors and promise to fix the issue in future seasons, we were met with more poor choices. Outside of the action, I struggled to keep engaged. We are tuned in to see this magically enhance monster hunter do what he does best, hunt monsters. Instead, we are met with this complex narrative which tries its best to involve us in the politics of kingdoms and also the discourse of mages. As viewers, we are so ambushed and force fed this stuff that we quickly tune out and get disinterested. I eventually only kept watching the show because of the fandom in me, as well as the urge to finish something I have started. The premise shouldn’t be this complicated. If they spent 1 or 2 seasons having Geralt travel from town to town taking on different bounties slaying monsters etc with mini story plot points whilst in the background building up this big bad enemy, he faces down the line they would have a successful show. Look at me showing off my writing skills whoop whoop!
I think somewhere during the process of production, in an attempt to be diverse and set apart from the rest the team lost their way. They nailed the feel, the look, the action and the dialogue, but the story, pacing and transitions, terrible. I’ll still say tune in… the action alone makes it worthwhile, although there isn’t enough for me. With Henry hanging up his swords and passing the mantle to Liam Hemsworth, they may have a new chance here to do a sly reboot and fix things going forward. Let’s hope they do the Wolf proud.
Which season did you like the best? Who was your favourite character? Did you play the games or read the books? You sad to see Henry leave? Do you think Liam can carry the mantle? React and comment below….
