Never really cared about witcher story in the games. The setting was good, and storytelling was engaging enough, but I can take or leave the actual writing. But I have to agree, the structure of the show was unnecessarily confusing. It's obvious they wanted to pander to the fans of the third game by bringing the main 3 characters together ASAP, but I think it would of been better off if Ciri was left for a later season. I've never bothered to read the books, and I remember very little of the first game's story, so I was genuine exited to see the early Geralt's stories. Should of given up on the notion in episode one, when they've completelly changed the Blaviken events.
But my main 3 issues were with Geralt's armor, medallion and Triss. The armor looks wrong and out of place, not even trying to be realistic. Medallion just looks cheap, lame and is never actually used as a magic detector. Yeah, I know it's a copyright thing, but they did not even try. And my problem with Triss is not that she is black, but that she is not a redhead. I take it as a personal insult. Also her character is of a motherly type, completely at odds to what we're used to. I always liked her more than Yen, and it hurts to see her like that.
I do have other minor issues, like the scrotum armor, Yen's backstory and aims/ambitions being simplified, how fugly Siri is, and Geralt being a rather incompetent witcher. Seriously, he looses his sword in every fucking fight against monsters. Oh, and potions were always a big part of witcher's job, but here they are barely mentioned and inconsistent as fuck. I'm pretty sure they simply wanted to use the black eyes for dramatic effect, but couldn't be bothered to properly explain that aspect.
Overall I had a rather unpleasant experience. Even when, about half way through, I tried to enjoy it as something separate, non-canon so to say, the issues kept creeping up. Season one should of been an introduction to the world, an opportunity to tell the stories rarely heard and lay down solid foundation for the crazy stuff to come. Instead it felt like what GoT would of been if season one followed John, Cersei and Daenerys, all the way to Joffrey’s death. Rushed for no reason and shallow.