The Witcher

The Witcher is a series of fantasy stories written by Polish author, Andrzej Sapkowski, which tells the story of Geralt of Rivia, the eponymous ‘’Witcher’’ who is a supernaturally gifted beast hunter who finds himself destined to safeguard a young princess who also houses strange abilities. It proved to be a very successful cult series within Poland and other parts of Europe, and the rest of the world jumped on the band wagon once it branched into the video game space with three games released by CD Projekt Red (with the latest game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, being considered one of the greatest games ever made). It also resulted in a pretty popular Netflix series, which debuted in 2019 and completed its third season in 2023, and many initially praised it for its casting, visuals, and dedication to emulating the style and tone of the books and games. This conception didn’t last very long, as the show’s popularity and critical reception would plummet with each passing season, leaving the future of the series looking pretty bleak. Geralt of Rivia (played by Henry Cavill) is a skilled monster hunter known as a Witcher, which are people who are mutated at birth to harbor special powers and abilities. After helping the ruler of the Kingdom of Cintra, Queen Calanthe (played by Jodhi May), he evokes a degree that forces the Queen to one day give something of hers to him. That something eventually becomes her granddaughter, Princess Cirilla (played by Freya Allen), who is forced to flee her home after the kingdom is ransacked by the neighbouring kingdom, Nilfgaard. After she and Geralt meet up, he vows to protect her from those who wish to either harm or use her, and eventually agrees to train her to become a Witcher. While upon this quest, the two get help from the sorceress Yennifer (played by Anya Chalotra), who happens to be Geralt’s former lover, and the travelling bard, Jaskier (played by Joey Batey) who strangely managed to become Geralt’s best friend. With the other kingdoms all wanting to use Ciri’s elder blood and powerful magic to strengthen their ranks, this newly formed familial unit will have to face off against all kinds of foes and perils, especially when it’s revealed that Ciri could hold the power to completely change the very fabric of their universe. The Witcher proved to be quite a useful brand for Netflix to adapt, as it was at the time their most watched original series launch (until shows like Bridgerton and Squid Game came along). However, it lost quite a bit of steam after the following two seasons upset fans with its massive deviations from the source material (enough so that it Cavil himself stepped away from the series). While it has a lot of talented actors, solid production and action set pieces, and a unique enough vibe and personality to separate it from other hard-core fantasies, the faults in the script really hold back from being its best possible self.

The dip in quality between the seasons is the true issue of this whole show, as you can feel a shift in the narrative direction, the screen time for multiple characters, and even the tangibility of the script the more the show continues. While it was supposed to originally just be a standalone film, Netflix’s Vice President of International Originals, Kelly Luegenbiehl, saw the potential in a show and persuaded the producers to switch up the project. With the book’s main crux of Geralt and Ciri learning to bond and trying to survive against a war of opposing kingdoms, also being the main driving force of the series during the first season, it felt like it was going in the right direction. The creator of the series, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, had previously worked as a writer/producer on shows like The West Wing, Justice, Drive, Parenthood, Daredevil and The Umbrella Academy, so she has the experience to work within this space and it feels like she captures the personality of the source material pretty nicely through its episodic format, combining monster hunting escapades with genuine character building interactions, and keeping Geralt, Ciri and Yennifer as the central and emotional focus of the story with the chaotic worldly conflicts being kept in the background. The writing for these characters and this world isn’t anything phenomenal and the recycling of fantasy tropes is starting to become a little obvious now, but whenever it sticks to its core strengths, it makes for a decently entertaining experience. However, as the show continues, it starts to lose its footing with incoherent plot lines, an abundance of side characters that are never likeable or interesting, and less and less attention being given to what made the show likeable and engaging in the first place. Season 2 is largely just forgettable as it starts to give more attention to its side narrative rather than its leads, leaving them with diminishing returns and no real sense of growth or change. Season 3 has a few shining moments with some of its visuals and action but is also still very unengaging from a storytelling perspective and really feels lost come the final episode. It felt like the first season, while criticized for its mildly incoherent and abnormal manner of presentation, had a sense of passion behind its presentation, a genuine care for its source material, and just general good storytelling that appealed to both new and old fans, whilst the later seasons ironically lost newcomers for its sudden deep dive into elaborate sections of the lore that have no proper build up or execution, and lost hardcore fans through the barren way they reinterpreted the original story. There’s this feeling of inexperience from within the main writing team that tanks most of the storytelling and holds back the directors and actors, all of whom feel like they are trying every step of the way. This isn’t the case for all of them as a few have worked on past projects like Mike Ostrowski, Declan de Barra, Beau DeMayo, Sneha Koorse, Jenny Klein, and Javier Grillo-Marxuach, but the rest have no real prior experience, so that more likely explains the inconsistent quality.

Given how prolific the world of The Witcher has become through the books and the games, there are a lot of popular characters to focus on and adapt faithfully, and in some areas, the series manages this quite well. Geralt, Yennifer and Ciri as the leads are very good, and while their writing isn’t always spotless, these characters and the actors carry a lot of the series on their shoulders. Henry Cavill received a lot of praise from fans for his portrayal of Geralt, and his known love of the franchise became a component of sympathy when he eventually decided to leave the show for disagreeing with the direction it was going down (with Liam Hemsworth being planned to take up the mantle). While the role of Geralt doesn’t have a lot of depth or intrigue, he does work as this neutral figure within a chaotic world of wizardry and politics who balances a stoic demeanor and proficient fighting prowess with an occasional glimmer of humanity which comes out through his relationships with others. A lot of the role works because of Cavill who, despite being an actor who can be a little one-note, commands it so effectively and authentically that it barely feels like a performance, but rather just the character come to life. His mannerisms, his movements within the action scenes, his voice (which could very easily be gimmicky) to his overall presence always feels well thought out and effectively delivered, and Cavil deserves a lot of credit for that. Anya Chalotra is also fantastic as Yennifer, taking a role that could easily be unlikeable and brings so much personality and raw humanity to it. Arguably the best episode of the entire show is Episode 2, ‘’Four Marks’’ (directed by Alik Sakharov and written by Jenny Klein) which details out her backstory as a hunchback abused and sold by her father to a magic school where she is taught to use magic and eventually transforms into a beautiful woman at the expense of mutilating her own internal body. It’s very well done, and the character becomes instantly relatable, with this tragic past adding a nice dark edge to her which makes her feel mysterious and slightly immoral, but never unlikeable, and Chalotra pulls all these facets off beautifully. Freya Allan, despite being the second-tier main character, is a bit mixed as Ciri. Whenever she has to act like a normal child, she feels pretty hoaky and doesn’t always give the best line read, but as a character of action who carries herself like a hunter, she portrays that pretty solidly and she does share a nice familial bond with Cavill and Chalotra, so it balances out okay. While these three are handled quite well, any other role either suffers from minimal screen time or terrible writing which greatly weakens otherwise good performances. While some avoid this like Joey Batey as Jaskier, who evolves from a horribly annoying character in season 1 to a decent likeable support in season 3, the rest aren’t so lucky. People like MyAnna Buring, Anna Shaffer, Graham McTavish, Jodhi May, Lars Mikkelsen, Mahesh Jadu, Cassie Clare, and Beau Holland are fine on their own but play characters that aren’t strong enough to stand out, and Mimî M. Khayisa, Mecia Simson, and Bart Edwards prove to be really great actors, but are stuck with such bland unlikeable characters in a subplot that is easily the worst thing in this entire show, that it destroy any chance of people taking any notice of them.

From a production level, the series does a good job emulating a medieval quality but is still able to feel like a magical universe. With most of the show being shot in Hungary, it breathes with this European energy that brings a quirkily boorish quality to some of the dialogue and attitudes, yet the inclusions of sorcery and fantasy creatures never feels out of place. While not the most unique fantasy environment and is certainly a little muted in terms of color and variety of locations, it still manages to look okay through the decent-ish visual effects and the overall production design by Andrew Laws and costume design by Lucinda Wright and Scotti-Henson Tim. The creatures in this show might not look the best from an effects standpoint and it can become distracting when it looks like the actors aren’t actively interact with what should be a fearsome creature, the designs are very cool looking and the fights around these monsters and even other humans, are usually done pretty well. From the choreography, cinematography and even additions like magic getting thrown into the mix sometimes, it keeps the blood pumping and brings a kinetic energy that isn’t always present during other moments throughout the series. The music is also pretty good, with Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinella creating some atmospheric and period-appropriate pieces which do a great job at elevating the emotional sections or hyping up the action set pieces through the great backings and instrumentation (usually led by violinist, Lindsay Deutsch). The further seasons composed by Joseph Trapanese may not be as effective, but it still sounds up to pare.

The Witcher is a very popular brand in book, video game and tv show form, and it’s a shame that for a show that initially left a strong impression on people, it would lose its audience through its baffling writing choices as it kept going. Despite this, it can say that the package is strong enough to at least warrant a watch. There are decisions made even during the first season that seem strange (presenting the first season like Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk was definitely a choice), but the script is really what ruined a good chunk of this project, as the directors, actors and most of the people in the post-production department, are trying everything they can still make this world a place you’d want to return to. The leads are solid characters to follow, the acting overall is pretty good, and the visuals, action and score help this brand create its own identity, but it’s a shame that Cavill’s final experience with the character was on a less-than-perfect note. One can only imagine what’s going to happen with a Hemsworth behind the helm now.