The Witcher

I didn't really know what to expect from The Witcher having never read the books or played the games but I'm a big Henry Cavill fan and saw all the high ratings so I thought I'd give it a chance and I'm glad I did because I liked it a lot, even more than I thought I would! It seems that most of the negative reviews are from people who are either comparing it to the games or books (which you shouldn't, just take it for what it is) or from bots from competing streaming services that rate everything Netflix does low. They say things like "another Netflix bomb" or something like that even though Netflix has had more Oscar, Golden Globe, Emmy, etc. Nominations than any other company on the planet. Henry Cavill is such a great actor and was absolutely brilliant as the lead, as was the rest of the cast!

As a fan of the books & games, I thought the first season was decent. It's an adaptation of a multi-book short story collection with an overarching narrative. Without prior knowledge of the series, I may have required multiple views to understand the timeline and events. It has a similar feel to the stories, though, and I enjoyed it.

Season 2 had a great first episode and an okay finale, but meandered in the middle episodes. The substance of many adapted stories were altered. Parts that were main story in the book felt like filler and lacked necessary plot & character development. I'll never understand why adaptations leave out parts that are important to understanding the main plot and characters, yet add meaningless fluff & soap opera drama. Some characters that don't say ten words in the books are main POV characters now.

Season 3 was awful. Before even looking at the train wreck of the content, I wonder why NF released half the season, when the second half will be aired three weeks? Why not wait and release the entire series, or release one episode each week? Anyway, regardless of the stupid release schedule, the first half of season 3 is abysmal. The main actors who brought the characters to life in season 1 don't seem to want to be there at all anymore. The script writers are no longer even trying to follow the Witcher stories, they're just off in the weeds doing their own thing. The drop in quality this season is precipitous. I'm sorry to say it, but Netflix's The Witcher is no longer worth watching.

Don't usually write reviews but this 3rd season was so bad. Boring, weak soap opera, forcing narrative, been there done that garbage. The future is not bright for this show. The only bright spot was the monsters and they were few and far between.

It started as if it was going to be a great season, maybe one of the best scenes in the series but went stale instantly. Wayyyy to talky, very little action. The story was all over the place and the recaps were the only value. You can probably watch the recaps and be done with it. I'm not sure how episode 7 made it to the screen. And out of nowhere the narrative hits the bard... cmon when will this nonsense end.

Watch and you'll probably feel like you've seen everything in this season before in multiple shows and movies. Very dissatisfying and disappointing.

Pretty much only kept watching for Cavill and Jaskier. They both did an amazing job, especially Cavill as the Witcher, his scenes and acting were perfect. Its too bad he was surprisingly only in about third of the scenes. Found myself bored with scenes without him and just wanting to skip ahead. Many of the other characters lacked charm and interesting sub plots and felt they had too much attention paid to them and that they were overall lacklustre. Would have liked more attention paid to Cavill and monster hunting. Really disappointed that Henry will not continue with the show since he single-handedly made it worthwhile to watch. Here's hoping the new actor can do the role justice.

Now in no way is this show as bad as people thought it would nor is it as good as some of the other reviewers here think it is either. First of, Henry Cavill as Geralt is the best part of this show 100%. No doubt about that. The show is worth watching just for his portrayal. He really cares about the character and it shows. Pros: -Henry Cavill as Geralt. Can't say this enough. -The fight Choreography is just insane. GOT could have really used some of the insane fight sequences from the witcher series. -The Really amazing moments between Jaskier(Dandelion) and Geralt. They did Jaskier perfectly in my opinion. -Roach Cons: -Really bad casting choices like Triss,Foltest and the Driads. Also they butchered an entire portion from the books which was one of my favorite parts from the Last Wish actually. -Nilfgaard Armour. Like who in the right mind actually thought that it looked even remotely good. I wanted to skip the parts where they came up in the screens. -Very unfriendly to people not familiar with the books or games. This is a fan-service. Not entirely a con but you get the point. -DESTINY THIS DESTINY THAT. GOD STFU. I know destiny is a main focal point in the books but it was over done even there. I just got so tired of that word after watching for a while.

All in all its worth the watch if you're a fan of the Witcher games/books. I can't praise Henry enough for his performance though. Seriously.