The Witcher is getting a Netflix series

[Skorpionss]

I like the show too, and I think this is the only real issue I had with it. I think it's a big problem for people that have no prior knowledge about the witcher.

Beside that, the issues I had with the casting choices were negligible. I actually enjoyed most of the acting.

Do you think it would have been better if the first 5 episodes were all about Geralt and Yen and then in the last 3 there'd be only the Ciri parts, with a bit of Geralt and Yen at the end? I don't. I think it was good, and if it really took you more than 3-4 episodes to realize what was going on with the time jumps maybe you're just a bit slow eh?

[kail]

Its enjoyable, yes. But they tried to pull off some suprise time lapse that worked well in Westworld and even recently, Watchmen, but they are pacing it terribly here. I was somewhat confused at first as to what time periods certain scenes where taking place and that's coming from someone who played the hell out of W2/3. I can't imagine how confused the average audience is when watching this series. The politics could also be better explained for the the sake of the show but maybe they are just completly catering to the fans. The factions could have used far better introductions IMO.

Still as I said, enjoyable. Geralt's fight with the men in first episode and the striga where done very well. His fighting style is on point to what I'm used to seeing in the Witcher games, finesse with strength and smarts.

[Rampant Rabbit]

The creators of the show fkd up by choosing to film the entirety of the short stories and it resulted in an incomprehensible mess.
I love the books and I had high hopes for the show but sadly it turned out to be meh.

It can however be saved IF the authors recognize where the problems lie. The really important part of Sapkowski's work is the story of Ciri, not Geralt. And if they focus on her in the next seasons, the show can be saved. Even the first seasons episodes about her escape were thrilling, while Geralt and his monster slaying was mostly cringy.

I agree. The scenes with Ciri were much better in nearly every way, and I think that just shows that they are setting her up for a more prominent role in the coming season(s?).

- - - Updated - - -

Do you think it would have been better if the first 5 episodes were all about Geralt and Yen and then in the last 3 there'd be only the Ciri parts, with a bit of Geralt and Yen at the end? I don't. I think it was good, and if it really took you more than 3-4 episodes to realize what was going on with the time jumps maybe you're just a bit slow eh?

No, that wouldn't make it any better at all. The order in which the episodes appeared were not the issue. The problem was that it was often took a good while before I figured out when this episode was taking place, and what the hell was going on.

[Skorpionss]

Like I get what you guys are saying about Ciri's story being important, but I really hope they don't make Geralt a side character in future seasons lol... I'm in it for Geralt not for the side characters.

I do hope they have at least a couple of episodes of him and Ciri training and bonding in Kaer Morhen though. And I'm hopeful we get a cool Uncle Vesemir cast.

Maybe they can do something about Triss too, if not outright replacing the actress (and explaining it in-universe as her changing her appearance) at least dying her hair brighter (maybe not as bright as the games, but definitely brighter).

[Syegfryed]

the name of the series is ~~"the Witcher"~~, speaking for me, i do want to see more of Geralt, yes and not about others, and him being the protagonist, even when the plot do not revolve around his persona.

[Cynep]

I'm a 100% Slavic guy who had Witcher books on my bookshelf since '90s (Russian translation was praised by Sapkowski himself as high quality). Here's my opinion after watching entire season.

Season 1 is a solid 8/10, maybe 8 and a half. This rating is ignoring the unavoidable racial stuff I'll discuss later. The show is an adaptation of the books, so we all need to drop comparisons to the games completely, pretend games didn't exist.

Cavill is spot on, Anya is a great actress, Ciri is too old, but that's understandable - they needed a proven actress for this main character role. Yaskier is great. Tissaia is great. Cahir is menacing. Anna Shaffer is probably a miss for Triss, even ignoring her not being a redhead - she's a plain-looking woman in the show, sorry; not a beautiful sorceress. Yen is great, Triss is bleh. Other supporting actors are pretty much always believable, good job. Battle in the last episode shows magic, not just sorcerers being boring baseball pitchers with flaming balls, actual magic spells! great!

For drawbacks.

• Obviously Nilfgaardian ballsack armor (costume designer was rightfully sacked for it).
• Story is jumping back and forth in time without any indication it does that and to which time it jumps, very poor job.
• Important characters are idiots who never wear helmets in battle, a king is killed by a stray arrow to the head, where was his helmet?
• Calanthe acts inbetween a sheriff and an outlaw from a Western movie, not like a queen at all. (I blame writing more than the actress though)
• In some episode Calanthe and Yennefer give two unnecessary speeches about fate of women in the man's world; two most privileged persons in the world, a queen and a sorceress, cry about being oppressed... Where is a rant by a common soldier how he's going to die for his queen while women get to live on? Where is a working man crying how he's forced to bust his ass providing for his family while his wife is warm and cozy sitting at home with children? It spoils otherwise great portrayal of women being inherently strong in Witcher universe.

Now finally for the REAL problem: (for mods: /s start) There are african elves, but where are asian elves?! (/s end) No, seriously, this show indeed is racist, it discriminates against asian people, there are exactly 0 asians in Season 1.

To understand this, both sides of the racial debate need to understand a very serious and important fact: this is a cultural phenomenon endemic to Americas. For as long as word "Americas" existed, there were 3 groups of people: Native Americans, being slowly exterminated, European colonists conquering the land, and slaves bought in Africa and brought to America. For as long as USA existed, and in colonies before that, there were always Africans in America.

When my family and I were watching the spy action show Alias, we were literally LOL'ing at times when Marcus (a black-skinned CIA spy) goes to some operation in Prague, or Russia or even Pakistan, hundreds of "enemies" see him and no one says "OK this African-American guy is 100% a foreigner and 99% from USA. What is an obvious American doing here at our place? Could he possibly be a spy or something?" See, this thought cannot ever occur to someone from Americas, black people are the norm there. But for a European (except in the two former colonial empires), an African-American is automatically a foreigner from another continent, he stands out visually. That's why it's a problem for some people and not a problem for others: they belong to different cultures on Earth and have different perception.

To illustrate, I'll ask a direct question: when a normal (aka bigoted racist) Redanian or Temerian sees Chireadan and Fringilla standing side by side, who will he, a bigot, racially discriminate against: a person who looks like him except his ears, or a person with a completely different face shape, nose, hair and skin color? I'm an East European, my money is on Temerian uniting with Chireadan the elf against Fringilla the African-American. An American would say the opposite, because Fringilla looks normal in USA. (What, actress is British? Show is American, sod off)

TLDR: There were always Africans in America, don't blame Americans for being "racially blind", it's their cultural difference from East/Central Europe.

[Arrowstormen]

Ciri becomes more and more important as she gets older in the books, but I think wanting more Ciri at this point than we are already getting is kinda crazy. I think Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri are all important characters, and are a part of the central theme of family.

[Arrowstormen]

I still think the Conjunction of the Spheres means that nations being split between races makes little sense in this world. I can see why you might argue that since color seems a bigger difference than long ears, racism would work differently, but I don't think that is necessarily true. People unite against common enemies, and when humans arrived, elves and the other creatures that lived there already were literally aliens, and culture and history can easily matter as much as skin color, it's just that in our world, those things have correlated for evolutionary + geographic reasons.

[Tic Tacs]

Witcher killing monsters this is what I wanted.

Witcher with PTSD this is what I got.

[mickybrighteyes]

Africa is literally closer to europe than america? You can see Africa from Europe lol

How do you figure a landmass separated off by a body of water is closer than one connected via shared border on land?

[Jotaux]

the timejumps were, how do i put this, not well "shown". i watched with a friend that had no background on the witcher, and he didnt get the timejumps ... at all. and its ok if you want to hide them and then make a big deal out of the reveal for a "gotcha-moment", but they didnt do that either. it was more like "what? how? why? ... thats stupid!" moment.

I actually thought the time jump was well done, I much prefer this with decent clues than how westworld did it. I knew as soon as they showed the two royal siblings that had a daughter as kids in yen’s timeline that it was years before what we were seeing of Geralt. Then we saw that girls mother before she had a kid so it was obviously years before the third time period.

[Dwarfhamster]

I'm four episodes in and enjoying it very much.

[deenman]

I had so many doubts about Carvil as Geralt, but he is fantastic. reminds me of how I felt about Carl Urban as Dredd and how much HE proved me wrong.

I think the fact that Carvill is a fan himself is a huge boon, becasue he actualy seems to GET the character.

being a fan of a work is a nice bonus but it shouldnt rly be a challenge for a good actor,i may be remembering this wrong but i think charles dance never even read game of thrones and wile his portrayal of tywin wasnt 100% book accurate it was by far the highlight of the tv show

[mickybrighteyes]

Pardon me?

There is no body of water separating Asia from Europe. Asia and Europe make up the larger continental landmass that is Eurasia...




Yeah, Africa is close but Asia is actually ATTACHED...

edit:

I mean really, you need to make a few changes to your earlier statement to mean what you want and make the african nations 'closer' to specific western cultures of europe. It's just that the statement of Africa being closer than Asia... the landmasses.... is not exactly true.

[The Cheat]

I liked the series. A few minor nitpicks (Geralt never being shown with both swords on his back and inconsistency of which sword is used against which enemy, Triss's casting, and now the so-called "ballsack" Nilfgaard armor which I cannot un-see) and one major one (odd racial diversity castings in general) but overall I'm excited for a season 2.

Agree that Geralt could have used more screentime in relation to Yen.

It's worth noting that one critical event shown in the series means we will likely never see the games' lore adapted as we currently know it. Mousesack aka Ermion is actually killed off entirely even though he survives in the books. Maybe this gets retconned at some point in a future season, but based on how much was covered in this first season I would be shocked if we see the show go beyond the end of The Lady of the Lake (the final book in Ciri's arc).

[mickybrighteyes]

But I didnt mention Asia? I was referring to the whole spiel about America and African Americans

Then I mistook your post. But still, why would it matter then?

[Arrowstormen]

I liked the series. A few minor nitpicks (Geralt never being shown with both swords on his back and inconsistency of which sword is used against which enemy, Triss's casting, and now the so-called "ballsack" Nilfgaard armor which I cannot un-see) and one major one (odd racial diversity castings in general) but overall I'm excited for a season 2.

Agree that Geralt could have used more screentime in relation to Yen.

It's worth noting that one critical event shown in the series means we will likely never see the games' lore adapted as we currently know it. Mousesack aka Ermion is actually killed off entirely even though he survives in the books. Maybe this gets retconned at some point in a future season, but based on how much was covered in this first season I would be shocked if we see the show go beyond the end of The Lady of the Lake (the final book in Ciri's arc).

Not that I think we will see (or really need to see) any game stuff in the show, but I don't think that's hugely critical if they hypothetically were to adapt it (adapting an open world game as television story would require lots of changes anyway).

Somebody mentioned before that they thought the talk about sexism from powerful women odd, but at least in Yen's case, it makes perfect sense, and ties into the overall theme of the three main characters and their shared struggle. The Witcher is clearly based on pulpy detective stories, where the main character(s) are detectives, that are independent agents that can move seamlessly through all layers of society. They are "free" in a way, but they are also all, as she puts it, vessels for the needs of others. They have power over themselves, but no influence, and have no way to truly own anything or belong anywhere. They try to form a sort of make-shift family together, a bond that gives them some belonging, but their chaotic and free spirits makes it difficult for them to consistently stay together or endure each other's company (as seen by Yen and Geralt's complicated relationship status throughout, at least, the short stories).

[The Cheat]

Not that I think we will see (or really need to see) any game stuff in the show, but I don't think that's hugely critical if they hypothetically were to adapt it (adapting an open world game as television story would require lots of changes anyway).

I mean, maybe? But he does play a non-minor role even in the main story of TW3 especially given his history with the three main characters of the new TV series. It'd be a bit odd to re-tell that story and just insert some other character in his place.

[Biomega]

What a hot mess this is.

There's some great moments, but also some rather terrible structure underneath it all. The storytelling is pretty amateurish in the way it's put together, and the pacing is WAY off. For a show with only 8 episodes, they could have gotten a lot more done by narrowing their vision a little.

The casting is also very hit and miss. I'm surprised by how well Cavill fits as Geralt, but I suppose he's a veteran A-list actor so there's that. Then they make choices like the one for Triss, which comes across as just so ridiculously unlikable. Yeneffer is middle of the road, I think they could have done better, and the mopey look is getting a bit stale at times. Some of the randoms are TERRIBLE. I get they were trying for diversity, but there were a couple of actors clearly out of their depth (that elf guy in the djinn story?!) and some where it was so blatant they were hired as bodies, not actors (none of the dwarves in the dragon story speak except one). There's tons of times where the actors fumble about with terrible delivery - I know it's a comparison evoked so often it's become a meme, but GoT didn't have that problem. They had top notch casting even for randoms.

I'm totally fine with the racial diversity thing. Fringila works, and that she's not white like in the games just doesn't matter. Triss sucks because the actress doesn't make it work, not because she's of color. Some people seem upset about studios trying real hard to be more inclusive (not in main roles, of course, gotta have the good ol' white people for the IMPORTANT parts. Don't think we don't notice, Hollywood) but honestly it didn't take anything away from the experience for me. It might even have added some. I guess the striking lack of East Asian actors was a bit weird, though. If you're going for diversity, be, you know, actually diverse.

The CGI is pretty much embarrassingly bad throughout, perhaps with the exception of magic effects, which are decent enough. All the monsters look like they are from a show from 10 years ago, and there's really no excuse for that. That they can't get over the whole shambling drooling mook vibe that's been haunting movie monsters since the 1950s is a damn shame. There's very few exceptions. The spider thing at the very beginning of the show was decently done, but I suspect that they put more effort into it because it was trailer material. The rest are just... garbage.

This gets an eh from me. I expected more. It's not terrible, but I'm not sure that's enough anymore. Other networks/platforms have proven you can make good shows still (Watchmen for example was fantastic) and this just seems like they tried too hard to ape Game of Thrones and didn't really think about making it a good Witcher show. They made sure to put tits-'n-gore into everything (which I'm fine with, I love both tits AND gore), but a little bit more intelligence and cohesion (which I love MORE) would have gone a long way.

[endersblade]

I finished episode 2 today, and after seeing the rando they got to do Yennifer, I had to look up Triss, and about had a heart attack. They absolutely nailed Geralt and Ciri, and then...what happened? You can't tell me they couldn't find better people for Yen and Triss. It really feels like a forced diversity check. Fucking terrible.

I have nothing against the black elf. It didn't even register. It isn't that I am being racist against the actresses, it's that they are nothing like the characters they portray. If it had been reversed, they'd call it white washing. But using any other race to play a white character's role is perfectly ok? What the fuck is up with that backward logic?