This past weekend , Geralt of Rivia got moody , got on his horse cavalry , and “ hmmed ” his way onto Netflix for the first season of The Witcher . Whileour reviewgot into a few of the thing that worked or did n’t over the first five episodes , with the full time of year out , we took a spoiler - filled look at a few of our biggest likes and disfavour about the show ’s arrival .
We Loved…
That It Put an Episodic Focus Over One Big Arc
So many shows these days , especially ones on Netflix , have their season ’s storytelling thrust towards building one specific tale over the line of its run . Everything ’s in armed service of it , so that if you ’re bingewatching , it all flirt out like one , butt - numbingly lengthed movie . So there ’s something weirdly refreshful to see The Witcher take a unlike saddlery , and give us something that really , properly palpate occasional . It ’s almost alien these day , but there ’s a well chunk of Witcher episodes that you could just put on with zero circumstance or congeal up , and watch at random because of their focus on humble , specific tarradiddle within its world .
https://gizmodo.com/the-witcher-takes-way-too-damn-long-to-get-interesting-1840543767
Sure , it does have a chief arc — Ciri ’s quest to encounter Geralt — but it ’s in the background ( to a fault , as we ’ll get to ) for much of the show as we hop around Geralt ’s monster hunt adventures . This not only gives The Witcher some much - needed “ Monster of the Week”-style mixture , but it mean the show also gets to adapt some of the more beloved unretentive stories from Andrzej Sapkowski ’s anthologies that kicked off this universe in the first place .
He’s got horses in the back, etc.Photo: Netflix
The Creepy, Yet Casual, Monsters
That “ Monster of the Week ” vibe also means we get to see a few coolheaded beast from the books get a glare over the season . From the Golden Dragon to the Striga , to Yennefer and Geralt ’s almost fatal skirmish with a Djinn , from the cruddy Kikimora to the lowly Ghoul , there ’s good deal of great ogre legal action across the show that assist to enjoy both fansof the novelsand devotee of these encounters from the CD Projekt Red games .
But while these supernatural rough-and-tumble Geralt engage in also mean we ’re deal to some wonderfully brutal military action scenes — although admittedly Geralt ’s scraps with human foes are often more interestingly choreographed — there ’s also something compelling about the almost humdrum attitude The Witcher treats these atrocious beingness with .
https://gizmodo.com/a-medievalist-s-guide-to-decoding-the-witchers-monsters-1840050180
The Kikimora is Geralt’s biggest kill of the season, and even then, it’s not treated as some wildly out there thing…despite being EXACTLY THAT.Photo: Netflix
Every encounter is fucking and chilling , especially because , despite his acquirement , The Witcher never treats Henry Cavill as his other more far-famed behave alter - ego , Superman . The scourge in every fight scene is tangible . But at the same time , no matter how direful or deadly they are , the people of The Witcher ’s world , Geralt included , just sort of treat them as … part of liveliness . There ’s an allure to fawning over these creatures that could put them on pedestals , but framing them through Geralt ’s lens of monsterhunting as a freelance lance lend a nice , exist - in vibration to The Witcher ’s world .
Jaskier, Rockin’ Bard of Our Hearts
For all its optical grimdark fantasy , The Witcher is a surprisingly ( and joyously ) cheesy show at times . While some of this comes from Henry Cavill ’s lovable grumpiness as Geralt , much of it decrease on Joey Bartey as Jaskier the Bard to represent as the cheerful , fish - out - of - demon - polluted - urine hydrofoil to Geralt ’s taciturn and distanced outcast . And not only does Jaskier provide laughs , but his often - one - sided relationship with Geralt becomes one of the most compelling pairings on the show , come after an electric arc of begrudging adoption to the tragical means Geralt pushes away his one honest protagonist in a present moment of heartbreak in instalment six .
It also aid that hisveritable top hitsong , “ Toss a Coin to Your Witcher , ” is an absolute firecracker that we ca n’t get out of our heads . atomic number 8 ’ valley of plenty , O ’ valley of plenitude …
The Battle of Sodden
The Witcher stop with a massive battle , as the lingering threads of the war between Nilfgaard and the Northern Kingdoms reaches a feverishness point at Sodden Hill , where Yennefer , Tissaia , Triss , and a group of their fellow mages decide to step into the ongoing conflict and try and block off the Imperial army surging into Northern Territory . By the time the struggle ends , the 22 mages that start it defending civilians from Nilfgaard ’s besieging , just eight remain , with even Yennefer herself on the face of it among the causalities after she unleashes the full power of her legerdemain to burn the Nilfgaardian vanguard to a Saratoga chip .
But it ’s not just the epical musical scale of the battle that ’s fun to watch or even the tragic inevitableness of the mages ’ numbers being overwhelmed and surely dwindled . It ’s not even the visual spectacle of all the spells being splurge about . There ’s something bewitching in the way The Witcher treat its mages ’ shoes in traditional chivalric siege war , an interesting example of how it blend its grotesque component into its ground world .
Yennefer basically spends most of the battle as a supernatural comms tower , communicating ordination to her allies . wizardly explosive potions are flung into the Nilfgaardian ranks , shot with arrows to ignite — and we even get a meticulous montage of sound out potions being train ! Triss ’ almost druidic nature magic becomes an equivalent to chemic warfare , summoning poisonous mushrooms to carry off the invader ’s social rank , or toxic barbed vine to block a breached logic gate . Even the Nilfgaardian side has some interesting applications of conjuration too , like creating a monolithic fog bank to hide their movement towards the mound , or even disgustingly creepy-crawly magical worms that penetrate the fortress and parasitically judgment control condition guardian into double agents . There could ’ve very easy been a version of this battle that was all spellslinging , Dragon Ball - esque energy blasts — and while that would ’ve been cool , this was a much more interesting software of deception in a ground fantasy setting .
The Kikimora is Geralt’s biggest kill of the season, and even then, it’s not treated as some wildly out there thing…despite being EXACTLY THAT.Photo: Netflix
Geralt might be the face of The Witcher , and Ciri mightbe the focal pointof its overarching narration . But Anya Chalotra ’s Yennefer of Vengerberg is very arguably the main fiber of this time of year , getting to go on a virtuously complex and interesting electric discharge as she grow from a horrifically abused young girl with power she does n’t understand to one of the most adept and skillful mages on the Continent .
Geralt ’s arc of running away from — before at last take over — the fact that destiny has chosen that his lot lies with Ciri , plays out comparatively flatly over the eight episodes . In contrast , Yennefer ’s path to self - realisation about her own value and legacy as she attempts to balance the moral and forcible cost of her actual transformation the Brotherhood of Sorcerers makes her pay — specifically her uterus , robbing her of the choice to pass on on her power or simply just create the home she never had — creates for a much more satisfying sense of growth . In the closing , as she makes one seemingly net effort to take a stand and go out defend Sodden from the Nilfgaardian invader , she does so having made ataraxis with her bequest … although it ’s leave light that there ’s still more of story to tell .
We Didn’t Love…
The Incomprehensibly Presented Timelines
A entirely mystify thing The Witcher does is freestanding its three focal characters and their arcs across three different stretches of fourth dimension ( although Yennefer and Geralt ’s intersect , they are both separate parts of the past times compared to the “ nowadays ” of Ciri take flight Cintra ) and then just … never really explicate that to its audience , at all ?
Even when it come apparent several episodes into the season — which is only when Geralt and Jaskier end up going to a banquet held by Queen Calanthe , Ciri ’s nan , who we ’d seen leap to her expiry at the climax of the first instalment — the show still does n’t acknowledge it . It just … leaves you to wonder when the hell anything is actually encounter in relation to the rest of the show and moves on , and will do like things multiple multiplication over the class of the season . It ’s only really in the climax of the final sequence that our heroes are actually in the same time as each other !
It ’s a scotch decision . Although there are some minor benefits — peculiarly for Geralt ’s plotline , as he break about declaration to contract , letting him be a bit more freewheel — it principally produce a staggeringly confusing barrier of entry for interview ( especially ones unfamiliar with how the books also jump around in time a lot ) while also underserving its characters . sure emotional encroachment , like Geralt , Yennefer , and Jaskier ’s human relationship with each other splintering in episode six , do n’t hit anywhere nigh as hard because while these theatrical role are mean to have know each other for an extended period at this point , their jumbled timeframes make it feel like they ’ve barely interact .
Jaskier is hilarious, and rules.Photo: Netflix
That There’s Somehow Both Too Much and Not Enough Backstory
There ’s something to be said about the casual nature of the way The Witcherdoles out detailsof its world , but at times it can be an almost frustratingly in high spirits barrier of entry even if you are dedicated to hold fast through it . Concepts and terminology are thrown into sentence and only loosely detail , and an odd feeler to what gets explained to the audience and what does n’t can lead to a great deal of confusion ( like , say , not knowing the difference between the magic Geralt casts , the magic mages like Yennefer cast , and then the strange exponent Ciri has ) . There ’s only so many time you could get a line someone casually advert to “ The Conjunction ” and then remember it got half - explained back in sequence two .
https://gizmodo.com/the-witcher-guide-whos-who-whats-what-and-which-is-w-1840421093
And yet somehow at the same sentence , for all its attempts of the warfare between Cintra and Niflgaard as a primary element of the season , it ’s so hardly explain just what the body politic of the Continent actually is that making sense of where anything is placed in this reality feels wildly off - kilter . So little time is devote to the macro - scope of where characters and placement are in relation to each other that , even when characters are thrust together , they palpate oddly isolated .
The Nilfgaardians and their questionably extra armor set their eyes on Sodden.Photo: Netflix
Between the equally ill - excuse timeline shenanigans and the stop - and - jump pacing , some of The Witcher ’s narrative looseness of the bowels comes at the toll of in effect introducing its world to audiences that are n’t already inherently intimate with the book of account or the games , and for a world as interesting as this one can be at times , that ’s a damn ignominy .
The Wayward Focus of Ciri’s Arc
Several of The Witcher ’s fully grown flaws and its big strength hail together to hamstring what should be its actual most important character . Ciri is full of life to the show ’s impulse , and yet we barely spend time with her . And what fiddling time we do spend all feels the same , so it blend in together into a contextless mulch of swan around waiting for her to eventually witness Geralt . Or at least , show up in the same period of time as him . Unlike either Geralt or Yennefer , who Ciri is as a person ( aside from her destiny - mandated grandness ) is scarce touch upon ; we ’re just simply told to care about her without being given a particularly compelling reason to do so . Which is bad , given , once again , she ’s signify to be the forward impulse of the show !
With Geralt and Ciri lastly unify in the closing moment of the time of year , and Yennefer ’s disappearance taking her temporarily out of the picture , there ’s a chance for Ciri to get the same spirit level of scrutiny Geralt and Yenn have already had . But that it ’s taken a time of year of Freya Allan running around aimlessly and occasionally magic - screaming some hoi polloi to destruction to get to that potential geographic expedition feel like such a dissipation .
For more , make indisputable you ’re conform to us on our Instagram @io9dotcom .
Admittedly, “The Vengerberger” wouldn’t have been as good a name as The Witcher for a TV show, but perhaps a delicious sandwich.Photo: Netflix
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Calanthe, who was dead the last time we saw her, very much alive and trying to kill the man she sent her grandaughter to go running for. Wibbly, wobbly, timey, wimey.Photo: Netflix
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Magic plays a huge role in the show, but is left largely unexamined outside of Yennefer’s story.Photo: Netflix
Ciri, when not screaming, can also gesticulate with a sharp stick.Photo: Netflix
