The Art of the Illusion

This review is for the season 3 vol 1 as a whole.

I really tried with this one. Really tried to agree with the internet. From IGN to the certain bearded youtubers, everyone on the internet seemingly wants us to hate this show.

Unfortunately, despite my earnest effort to summon hate, I am just enjoying it too much. The story is intriguing that has kept me hooked, characters are complex, the dialogue is very genre appropriate, the monsters are gruesome, the combat is stunning, and the cast and acting which has improved every season.

It is not without actual problems (as opposed to made-up ones). The writing throws too many characters, terms, locations at you which can be confusing even to people who are familiar with the universe. Some of the scenes are rather silly, some subplots superfluous, some narrative tricks (such as the one in this episode) completely unnecessary. And some new characters are once again cast with actors that look very different from how they are described in the original or portrayed popularly in earlier adaptations, as was in previous seasons.

Regardless, I have enjoyed it enough to eagerly look forward to volume 2, and season 4 after that even without Mr. Cavill. My sincere apologies to you, internet. I will try to do better next time. Please be gentle when using the thumb-down button.

I 100% agree with what another person wrote about writers wanting to make the series their own thing. I've never read the books (so don't "accuse" me for wanting the series to stay true, because I simply have no clue what the books say), but I do know a good story when I see it (because it's part of my job in real life!).

And this story is NOT good. The only reason I find for the production to create such an absurdity with no pace, character development or cohesive storytelling despite having in their hands an already well-loved source material, is when they believe they can be better.

Guess what. Time and again, this is a recipe for failure. When there is no respect for the source material you end up creating this monstrosity. Maybe the greatest monster Geralt had to fight was the production's ego. Glad he walked away.

This episode looked like a middle upper class fantasy of how the world should work. In real life sadly it's just not radical enough in showing the antagonisms and the moments of comming together despite differences. For this the writers and directors should have taken a page out of The Whale movie which showed how much emotion can be made with a good story while the shooting is almost not going out of a one small appartment. In this episode sadly there was non of that.

The writers wanted everyone to show how masterfull they are at displaying politics when in reality it reminded more of a kindergarden level diolog.

The main people responsible for the witcher has the life understanding and meaning of a tea spoon!

(613-word review) Since I already knew about you-know-what at the end, which, despite my prior knowledge, was impactful, giving the semblance of actual worthiness to be, albeit not 100%, engaged in what's happening (while perhaps being one of the most competently and well-done examples in this entire show at anything of such, and there's likely only a few examples overall) my biggest takeaway was the creativity and unconventional nature, directing and writing-wise.

To me, it seemed to be for adding some extra "this is the Volume 1 finale" seasoning to it, on top of stretching this episode's events out to full length - and maybe even some inspiration was taken from the first season's controversial and divisive 'different timelines' storytelling, which was treated too harshly and is one of a few things that continue to shine more positively, including in the sense of being, in a wishful manner, preferable to what we're getting now (there hasn't been much apparent distinction with the direction and writing in the show after that: it's all been generically routine) - as this would've been more unfitting as a finale without those elements.

That final scene was already abrupt (potentially because this season may not have been written with Netflix's occasional Volume 1 & 2-of-a-season model in mind), so thankfully, Loni Peristere (the director: directed seven episodes of Banshee, nine episodes of American Horror Story, one episode of Queen of the South, six episodes of (HBO) Max's Warrior, plus the last two episodes of the currently airing third season - and he's the upcoming executive producer of House of the Dragon's second season, AND he's the director for the next episode/the "premiere" of Volume 2!) and Clare Higgins (the writer) brought some homemade flavors to the cookout for enhancement.

However, I have one criticism: replaying some of the dialogue/scene sections that already happened "for the sake of" leading up to the new portions, instead of using some visual storytelling to create that connection element, dragged down the execution of an otherwise commendable choice. But the possible reason was to avoid repeating the whole disorder about the different timelines in the first season.

My conspiracy theory? The more accurate reason was to keep replaying, 'All is not...As it seems.' Once was never enough. "They" want you to be haunted by it - molded by it. Mr. "All is not...As it seems," you're not Mr. "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher." Stop it; get some help.

Regarding more general criticisms, and I've mentioned this before, but it was at its worst this time, so here I go again: the hair and costumes for Yennefer are usually dreadful. Did Anya Chalotra get under someone's skin in that department of production? Her hair styling in this episode was the worst it's been, along with whatever, makeup-wise, made her look orange; while her outfit wasn't as much so, it came across as having been picked immediately without any consideration and effort - in a negative way if it wasn't obvious. More borderline palpable thought and care went into Cassie Clare's appearance, which is still appreciated, but come on. Be consistent. What a tragedy.

And to a lesser extent of criticisms: more of that sublime modern language usage - with Sabrina saying the three-letter "S" word to Yennefer, and then, later on, saying, "Artaud's wasted again." Both terms, 'wasted' and the 'three-letter word,' seem too modern. But I'm no etymologist, so perhaps I'm off on that.

This was the best episode of Vol. 1, which isn't that significant of a compliment, as achieving that amid mediocrity is easy - but it was surprisingly decently crafted. Hopefully, Vol 2. (the last three of the season) surpasses it, or at least an episode.

The acting is (mostly) well done, Cavill while not the greatest actor out there, is showcasing a true-to-character and amazing Geralt and well worthy of being the lead.

The production and set design is amazing. You can tell the aesthetics are one of the best on tv and so on point, yet the story is terrible, no stakes, just too many secondary characters with motives I don't care about moving from one location to the next advancing a story that I couldn't care less about.

And really, giving us this much filler with cool short scenes of Geralt fighting a monster in between won't work in the long term, just leads to bad editing.

And I am sorry but the chemistry between Geralt and Yen is just non-existent, I still can't imagine them as a couple in a million years and every scene with their romance or even 'letters' totally takes me out of the show.

The potential is right there. Please get people who know how to use it Netflix.