Hello fellow human beings. I am a huge witcher fan and just finished watching all of The Witcher 2019. This is my review broken down into four sections:
1. Overall review (taking in the series in broad strokes)
2. Continuity between the tv show and book/games/polish tv show
3. Casting & Acting performances
4. Technical details (lightning, fight choreography, music, and so on...)
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1. Overall: I am a huge fan of the Witcher as a story. Over the past five years I have been completely sucked into the world that author and creator Andres Sapkowski formed. It is because of my passion for the world of the witcher that I thought, going into the movie, that I would either love it, or hate it. However, after watching it I was left with a neither strong love nor hate feeling. It was, good but not amazing. That is why I gave it an 8-star review.
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2. Continuity & storyline: Overall, I feel that the story was true to the book and they took liberty in describing events that occurred in the book but were referenced to as opposed to being described out: Yennifer's backstory, Mage training, and the battle of Soden Hill. I originally scratched my head when trying to understand why they chose to film certain stories over others, but by the end of the series I realized that they were trying to make it all flow together. There are pros and cons to this. The pro: For new viewers to the witcher, it is a quick way bringing people "up to speed" with the main elements of the story. The con: Much of the richness of the world is lost, and a bit of the story feels rushed with noticeable time jumps throughout. This first season could have very easily been two seasons. I do not claim to understand the director's intent: They might want to get to the fun parts with Ciri later on and perhaps past where the book left off in order to have more creative license. Even if that is their goal, I still would have liked them to take their time more with the development of the story and the charaters...speaking of characters.
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3. Casting & Acting Performances
In general all the acting was very good and so one was able to overlook the casting choices in most instances.
Geralt - Henry. He was able to pull off Geralt very well, though at times his "prince-like" face didn't match the gritty "witcher" voice so it felt a bit forced at times. That being said, he ABSOLUTELY nailed the voice. It was obvious he had really studied the voice of Geralt from the audio book of the Witcher and/or the great voice acting in the witcher by Doug Cockle. Henry's skilled acting and spot-on voice made him very passable at Geralt though I would have liked to see an actor with a "rougher" face.
Yennifer - Anya, Anya didn't have the appearance of how I pictured Yennifer from the book, nor how she was depicted in both the games and polish tv show "hexer". That being said, she was close enough and when Anya began acting you quickly forgot about the slight details and became lost in her skilled performance. I enjoyed seeing her back story and I can't wait for them to go into more detail about her in the future.
Ciri - Freya was simply the best cast role in the entire series. She absolutely looks the part from her hair/eyes/makeup detail. Even her bone structure lets one easily see her as being of elven heritage (from the depiction of elves in typical tolkien fantasy novels). Her acting is also superb. There was no point in the series when watching Freya, did I think "oh she's just acting". Great!
Jaskier - Joey was a great pick for Jaskier. I felt that he has both the look, voice (speaking) and musical talents (singing/performing instruments) and behaviorism's of Jaskier from the novel and games as well. He is probably just as well cast as Ciri when one is comparing the actors to the previous renditions of the characters.
Triss - Anna unfortunately was a poor choice for Triss Merigold. The first impression of her looks, is completely different from the book series and the games. She could have pulled it off with acting (and perhaps better writing), but unfortunately the biggest aspect of the character that was different was her "vibe". The Triss from the book series/games/polish show had three main character traits: 1. She had a fiery personality. 2. She was naievly optimistic. 3. Mischievous. Then besides those, there was an obvious physical attraction to Geralt. I didn't sense any of that from the tv show. She was just another one of the mages.
Two other great casting choices
Vilgefortz - Mahesh doesn't look like Vilgefortz from the book (and swords instead of staves?) yet I feel that his acting was great and he really pulled off the character. One does question the sudden choice to have him go near the end...seemed out of place.
Tissia - MyAnna did such an amazing job with this role that I can't picture anyone else being Tissia now.
Supporting actors: This is the part where I feel the casting directors did a great job. Many of the supporting actors looked perfect for the part and their acting was good. Overall, the acting saved scenes that were otherwise poorly written with bad dialogue or not enough direction.
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4. Technical Details:
On Screen Chemistry: There was so much great chemistry between various characters both supporting and main.
Missed opportunities: The saddest part about this whole series is that I really didn't feel the amazing on-screen back-and-forth chemistry between Henry and Joey. One of my favorite parts of the book was the banter between the Witcher and Jaskier. In the show, it is obvious that they are both great at acting out their parts yet when they are together I don't feel the same "Batman & Joker" teaming up feel that I got from the book. In one scene they are both capture by the elves and I remember from the books Jaskier trying to talk his way out of it and Geralt telling him to "shut up". Yet, none of that came through in the tv show and it just felt...weird.
Fight Choreography- Overall it was a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately, it is a lot easier to jump-cut and change camera angles than to train people in how to use weapons. Many of the fight sequences were just random shots of people getting run through, or battlefield chaos with no strategy. Such as the first battle we are shown in the first episode where there is no strategy, no nothing. We don't really have a good view of the terrain. All we know is that one army is a lot bigger than the other army. I want more :(
One could tell that Henry worked extremely hard on the fight choreography. His technique wasn't amazing but he got the overall flow of the combat and movement and so 99% of all viewers are going to absolutely love it. He got as good as I would expect for an actor to get. For the purists: What I mean by not perfect: some techniques were not anatomically possible, or the sword came off plane "scooped", or simply was cutting at one angle while the body was sliced at a different angle. Again, most audience members won't be able to see these so overall. Great job.
Vildefortz using swords...That might have been in previous parts of the book...but wasn't he amazing with a staff? What happened?
Musicianship: Like combat, music tends to be faked in modern media. I was very happy to see that Joey (Jaskier) could really sing and he was a decent musician as well! I watched closely during the wedding scene when he plays with the other minstrels and they all appear to be legitimate musicians. It added to the realism of the world and I really enjoyed the attention to detail. However, there is another scene (I believe in a tavern) where the lute player is obviously just randomly moving his fingers about (or they didn't sync the sound right to it). If they are going to go through the trouble of hiring good musicians then they should do it throughout. Continuity. One small detail, I didn't like how Jaskier would seem to be starting up a song or making up something and the entire tavern would suddenly sing along as if it was a local favorite. The director should have been pickier as to when something would have been a well-known song or not.
Lighting and Music: I really, really liked the lightning choices in the show. There were some scenes that were completely perfect. The music was adequate but not memorable. I would have liked to have at least one or two songs that were more memorable. I know that is a personal choice...completely subjective.
There you have it.
I'm extremely excited to see what happens in the next season...one fear I have is The Witcher gets out by Disney... and they pull the same crap with Geralt and Ciri that happened with Luke and Rey. That would be stupid would it be? yea it would be...
Thank you for reading and have a great day!
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