The Witcher
THE WITCHER - NETFLIX
The Witcher, a medieval fantasy series — already renewed for a second season by NETFLIX before the first season had been released — follows Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), a mutant monster hunter known as a witcher. He soon finds his destiny linked with Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), a sorceress, and Princess Cirilla of Cintra (Freya Allan) as he goes about killing beasts.
The Witcher is based on a book series of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski, with this season being adapted from a collection of short stories that prelude the main Witcher saga. The first half of the season struggles immensely with pacing, as the three main leads of The Witcher have separate plot lines in order to build their characters and explain the events that link them. This becomes rather confusing as Geralt and Yennfer’s plotlines take place in the past while Cirilla’s are in the future. The writing does not make it clear that the audience is seeing two different timelines until certain characters that have met their fate appear again. It is also frustrating that The Witcher’s three leads take several episodes to meet one another; it often feels like the early episodes are simply filler to flesh out the characters instead of driving the actual plot. While it is understandable that a fantasy series needs time to world build in order for the audience to understand the action’s wider context, it often lacks to provide enough explanation for the plot points that actually matter, leaving key events unexplained. A concept called ‘The Law of Surprise’ is a recurring theme but the series leaves it up to the viewer to determine what this means instead of providing any explanation. The Witcher struggles with giving each character’s story the same amount of interest.
THE WITCHER - NETFLIX
Henry Cavill is remarkable as Geralt of Rivia, he is the most charismatic of the characters despite being a brooding loner. He becomes paired with Jaskier (Joey Batey), a bard hoping to gain material for his songs as he is witnessing a monster hunt. Cavill and Batey have wonderful chemistry, the two characters play off each other with sarcasm and deadpan humour that brings a lightness to such a dark series. Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer is a rather interesting character, as well, as she originally appears as a deformed hunchback but is scouted to become a sorceress after showing some inkling of magical powers. Yennefer’s storyline shines the most when she finally meets Geralt; Chalotra and Cavill’s chemistry provides for some of the best scenes in the series. Freya Allan does her best as Cirilla, the princess of Cintra, but much of her story follows her evasion of Nilfgaardian soldiers and soon becomes repetitive.
The Witcher is a standard entry into the fantasy genre, the first season leaves much of the world unexplored and though it starts off slowly, it becomes much more interesting as the episodes progress away from world-building and focus on the characters. The dark humour, blood and gore bring uniqueness to The Witcher. While it is frustrating that many significant plot points are never fully explained, the characters’ chemistry makes watching the series worth it and gives hope to a better second season as the source material switches to the main Witcher series.
The Witcher is streaming exclusively on NETFLIX December 20th 2019