Spoiler

Haven't played the games yet, but the show is bingeable. It's pretty good as whole. I will say there were a bunch of moments that were... predictable? (like when the girl Queen Calanthe tried to pass off as the princess kept her head turned back so we couldn't see her face, then surprise, we do and it's not Ciri). The acting is pretty good. Definitely a fan of Tissaia and Ciri's actresses. Yennefer, not so much. Not sure if it's the actress or the character, but something's not working for me -- she's too angsty in a sort of eye-roll way. And I have no idea why Geralt seems to like her so much, genie thing aside. She's... jaded, immature, and has no positive qualities, yay? The show writers might've been going for she's dangerous in a hot Azula/Esdeath/Melissandre way, but it didn't stick its landing. Her fire scene was badass though. Honestly the biggest gripe I have with the show are the freaky CGI irises Ciri and Geralt have. They look like lifeless, painted cataracts. The technology for better CGI eyes exists. An example would be Robert de Niro's navy eyes in The Irishman. A weird shade of blue, to be sure, but they looked like eyes.

I did like the non-linear storytelling. Kept me engaged the whole way through.

 

Just finished watching the season and loved it. Haven"t read the books, but played all three games, so it was fun as all backstory and lore unfolded.

 

Yeah I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would given the initial trailers. Cavill steals the show with his portrayal of Geralt, and I enjoyed Yennifer's story more than I thought I would.

Contrary to some complaints, they dropped a bucketload of hints that allude to the time differential between the storylines, and I thought that was well handled. I thought the various Witcher contracts were well done, and many alterations to the storyline were well handled, and added t o the narrative.

The Lioness of Cintra was amazing; the actress killed it. Enough said.

Negatives: Battle CGI, and the seeming lack of cohesion with the armies portrayed. All of the single combat (usually involving Geralt) was superb, but everything else was middling at best.

Drawn out, and altered timeline: I really thought they should've united Geralt and Ciri prior to *when they did*. The ending episode I thought was quite poor, and I didn't enjoy it at all. The contrived nature and seeming benevolence of the mages and Sodden really rubbed me wrong, and I thought the backstory was drawn out a bit much.

All in all, very decent attempt and mostly faithful to the story. Room for improvement, certainly, but not the hideous mess people with an axe to grind over casting choices will tell you it is.

 

Watching episode 5.

God why is Cahir such a douche.

Edit:
The revised Brokilon arc and making Geralt present at the sacking of Cintra were also a bit weird, because the whole point of the entire series of events was that he wasn't trying to find Ciri and got stuck with her anyway, which was completely brushed over.

 

Watched the first episode and wanted to put down my thoughts before I continue, untainted by positive or negative feelings of what's to come.

This is how you begin a show. How ... convincing. Concise, self-explanatory, presents some of the major players and successfully introduces them to us and what to expect from them. Production quality was up there, the action was incredible, the set pieces passable to good.

And goddamn, Cavil nails the voice. I wasn't sold at all when he was announced, but I'm on board. He moves, sounds and acts like Geralt. Doesn't quite look like him, but I'll get used to that.

 

Is this what Geralt sounds like in the games? Who enjoys this choked, must-always-be-growling way of speaking?

 

The Polish.

 

It's actually more intense in the games. I quite like it, personally /shrug

 

In the games it's even more deadpan. In the books, Geralt is described as legitimately hideous (facially speaking) to most people, with his voice being downright metallic. Cavill's voice is fine.

 

I enjoy it, and its largely due to the fact that he speaks like that in the game and I got used to it and even loved it.

But based on your previous comments, it seems you have a problem with Henry Cavil in the role and will basically find things to criticize about him.

I agree with you on Cavill, he absolutely owned his role as Geralt, and by the second episode I saw him as Geralt and not Cavill playing Geralt.
Jaskier/Dandelion was annoying though. The actor just didn't seem suited to the role.

I also agree with your point about Ciri. Its been awhile since I read the books but IIRC Geralt never sought her out and they met by pure chance/destiny. I didn't like that he suddenly became consumed by his "surprise child".

He really owns his role as Geralt, you'll be used it to it by the third episode.

The action was so much better than expected and it really made it seem authentic because Cavill was actually doing the sword work, so they didn't have to make cuts to hide the stunt double. It makes the action soo much smoother.

Yennefer is as annoying as she was in the books, and to this day I still don't understand what Geralt sees in her, when he could be with someone better like Triss.

 

Loved the season, zero real complaints really, but damn they make it hard to get behind Yennefer. Hopefully S2 sees her grow a bit more.

Every time they used the word 'fuck' was spot on. Fave was after the fight at the feast.

 

To be fair, Book Yennefer has always been an unlikeable asshole. So they got that aspect right

 

You must be one of the people who love Rey in Disney SW.

Anyway.

Watched episodes 2 & 3. Pretty easy to spot that Geralt and Yennefer are being shown in different timelines if one pays attention. I thought Yen's storyline in ep 2 was a bit slow going, even though the apparent progression in training was quick--which I liked. It's just that the scenes were played kind of... without energy by the actors.

The witcher contract in ep 2 was meh. I understand the "killer with a code" angle, but this short story didn't intrigue me.

Now, ep 3 is where the show finally seems to hit its stride. Yen's transformation scene was satisfyingly bloody and violent and the witcher contract was interesting. I'm not a total fan of the striga design, but I liked the detail of the umbilical cord. Geralt going out of his way to keep the striga alive until dawn rather than just cutting her down was appropriately heroic and badass. Silver chain and brass knuckles--cool. Sells the impression that a witcher's profession is more than swordwork. Tbh I was hoping the striga battle would be played more for a horror vibe, either with it stalking Geralt (like it did the witcher in the opening) or with Geralt having to hide from the striga until dawn, and it ended up being more of a brawl, but I enjoyed it anyway.

Nothing to say about Cirilla for now because I don't have anything to say about "plot-relevant gifted child on the run" stories.

 

The whole point of the Witcher the entire time has been the question 'who is the monster, creature or man'? Jim Butcher has been chasing Sapkowski's shadow for his entire career in that regard with his rapist White Court vampires being lukewarmly redeemed. The underlying premise of any given Witcher story is the same.

Book Yennefer has always been an unlikeable asshole - but to be fair, the books are always very stringent about painting Geralt himself as a pretty irritating asshole as well.

Most of the conflict of the series is predicated on Geralt's own conflict with the purpose he was mutated for (hunting monsters) and the new purpose (being the guardian of Ciri) that he's embraced in both the narrative and the personal sense, with all the hanza drawn in. The world is deliberately not built to accommodate this purpose appropriately, and all the hanza suffer as result, being drawn into destiny's whorls.

 

Haha, What??? How does Star Wars factor into this conversation?

You are a very amusing guy.

Glad you're liking the show though.

Although I really do feel like more people should keep in mind that this show is an adaptation of the books and not the Video Game. IIRC the Strigga contract played out like that in the books. Plus you really can't have a legendary monster hunter hiding from a monster or being stalked by one.

 

In world slang for gang. In this context it relates to Geralt and the group he'll end up travelling with.

 

As I never read the books or played the games, it was pretty good. Geralt was great, attempts of humor were mostly succesful, I really liked Jasker (the Toss a coin to your witcher is fucking great). Thought I have to say the timeline was pretty confusing until about episode 7. I think I will have to re-watch it for things I have possibly missed. Also CGI sometimes felt really cheap.

 

Onlye played a bit of the games. Read none of the books.

Just finished it.

Damn, this was a solid first season. The finale was a bit lacking, but that, and the timelines being a bit off are my only complaints. Henry Cavill nailed this role.

 

Wait. That's it?

Geralt 5 seconds after meeting Yennefer:
Random person 1: "You look like you love Yennefer"
Geralt:
Random Person 2: "Gosh you're so in love"
Geralt:
Yennefer:
Random Person 3: "You two are so cute together"

Okay. But ... why? To be fair, the book is only slightly better at setting this up, but there is literally no reason for it in the show.
Maybe I just don't get it.

 

Should one read up on the characters/ settings/ history etc before bingeing this series? I hear a lot of praise, but you guys seem to know the lore.