The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022) User Reviews

Reasonable review

[Showwatcher1986 · 4/10 · 26 December 2022]

The 1 stars are slightly exaggerating and the 10s are clearly trying to manipulate the rating. When the dust settles this show will be a 4/10. No I'm not some upset Witcher fan, I watched the two seasons. Never read the books or played the game. This is purely from a TV watchers perspective.

It clearly had potential but it was just bad. At no point was I connected to any characters, the plot development is way too fast at every step and everything that happens is just the justification of the plot, almost nothing seems logical or natural.

The writing as far as dialogue goes is amateur/hobbyist level. Super corny and melodramatic. Every cliche known to man is crammed into these four episodes and honestly the finale is an egregious offense.

I didn't even mention the effects of the music lol. That's all that needs to be said about it.

I liked the dwarf character and Michelle yeoh. I'd watch a spinoff of their adventures as long as no one else associated with this disaster was attached.

A lackluster mess

[FastEddie63 · 4/10 · 26 December 2022]

My wife and I are ardent fans of The Witcher series. Sadly this prequel was not of the same caliber as the main series.

Firstly I should note that the actress who plays the dwarf character (Francesca Mills) was great. When she's in a scene everything works. The other actors felt mostly miscast -- in part since everyone looked different and has different accents. Nothing felt natural.

As for the story, I expect that I missed a lot since the writing was absent of the cleverness that I had come to expect; some ensembles just work, this one didn't.

We watched the 4 episodes in one sitting. At the end we were pleased that it was kept to only 4. At the end I was left with a mild headache and no interest in more. Easily forgetable. And as one reviewer noted, this series is very reminescent of the "Wheel of Time" series, similar feel and characters that felt miscast, yet even that series was better than this.

Ironic: a badly told story about the power of storytelling, lol

[chaakar · 4/10 · 26 December 2022]

I actually surprisingly felt like all of the casting had some great acting potential, but there is basically zero character development in this show -- it's almost as if a 40 episode series were condensed into a very long YouTube summary/recap video, and all of the development is narrated out to you... like Netflix didn't really want to spend the time/money on a complete show, but someone in the studio thought it'd be really cool to squeeze this prequel in before the next season of the Witcher, to give the audience some background: all while producing something with room for literally every single woke trope under the sun! Kind of hilarious if you think about it.

The show actually might have been better done as an animated series, and honestly, a lot of the tone of the show struck similar to some recent shows like Vox Machina and Dragon Age. And a pretty decent Witcher animated movie does already exist anyway.

Overall though, I've seen worse unfortunately; probably isn't so bad if you maybe wanted to put it on in the corner of your screen while getting some other work done. Basically could serve as a podcast with some decent action scenes worth tuning in to scattered throughout 🤷‍♂️

Its like bulletpoints

[marc5477 · 1/10 · 25 December 2022]

Imagine a story, like say, The Hobbit, summarized into 20 bullet points. Thats how this show feels. It moves from point to point rapidly and tries to fit as much story as possible into a short time span. There is no depth. Its a hallow shell of a story that anyone could have written in a bathroom break.

To make matters worse, aside from the questionable story telling, this is obviously a low cost production. Everything looks very Halloweeny. Animated monsters are pretty bad. Im talking about 2000s style video game quality. Not something you would expect from modern work using fully rendered scenes.

I am not sure if video editing could have fixed the above problems but certainly the editing didn't help. As stated above it plays like bullet-points and the editing feels like it was done by someone who puts together newscasts rather than movies. I should know, I did that work years in the past.

So how forgettable was it? Well after the 4th episode, I have no idea what the two main characters names were... I just think of them as doggy man and warrior princess superbard. Wait I think the bard was Emily... Emilia? I literally just watched the last episode 10 minutes ago before writing this and I already forgot... And that probably best illustrates what you can expect if you watch this.

Save your time for something else. I have no idea why they released thing.

Why?

[AndersSTHLM · 3/10 · 25 December 2022]

It's like the writers were on acid. The story jumps all the time and this series isn't watchable. Netflix doesn't care about quality it's just quantity. I was looking forward to this series and really like "The Witcher" series. But this was just a mess. Still the actors did a good job and this was just a failure by the director who has to have big problems if this is the end results of a big budget series.

It's not hard to get why Henry Cavill won't be coming back as Geralt. The producers totally destroy the entire series with storytelling like this.

It's time for this series to end and if Henry will be replaced by someone else because of he likes the series to stay to the original storyline. Then it's time to stop this show.

Barely watchable but surely not enjoyable...

[Honodi · 2/10 · 25 December 2022]

So we have the long awaited 6 part series - oh wait it was so bad Netflix already had to cut 2 episodes worth from it, so let's try that again, - the long awaited 4 part The Witcher "spin off / Prequel". Let's start by saying if they cut bad writing / acting / storytelling away to the tune of 2 episodes, and we are left with these 4 barely watchable episodes that in my opinion should have been cut down to 1 single !short! Movie (i am not sure i found 90 minutes worth of good enough scenes in the whole 4 episodes, so a cut down to somewhere around 65 mins would have been probably somewhat reasonable), So lets take a look at what we have besides bad acting, writing that would be cringe worthy in a high school production, and obviously in todays adaption is only "inspired" by the source material. The Casting choices were questionable in many cases and the miscasting might be what lead me to state that the acting was bad before , but to be honest i think it is a mix of both. If you loved the Witcher lore in the games and / or in the books, you will undoubtedly be disheartened by this sad attempt and if this is a sign of what's to come, it does not bode well for the main show once Cavill is gone.

NETFLIX STOP THIS!

[Paigeeexo · 25 December 2022]

Okay, so I believe Netflix believes that the programme will be successful merely by having a diverse cast and including mystical elements. Right? WRONG! Please, please, please, can we return to good story telling as the MAIN priority, regardless of where the cast is from.

What makes this the "Witcher"? Let the Witcher be the Witcher, which is, incidentally, doing fantastic on its own as it has been for many years now. I really don't understand. Why then alter it? Why not use a different name for this? So many questions. The casting is appalling. The dialogue is the same. Netflix doesn't realise that pairing these hot trash fast food shows with games like The Witcher just serves to hurt the franchise and achieves nothing for everyone involved, especially the performers. Michelle was great in the movie Everything, Everywhere, but how does she go from that to this?

The reason there have been so many remakes of popular shows in recent years-many of which, like this one, are incredibly underwhelming and perplexing for all the fans of the original series-is because this is not the golden age of television; rather, it is the age of television in which "we have the rights to do whatever we like".

As a lover of the Witcher I wasn't able to finish a simple episode of whatever this is, but then again, there's only four episodes anyway... literally what is the point? I'm guessing it was some sort of test or something, well you have your answer: we DO NOT want to see more of this. Thank you very much.

Not Bad

[craig-snell-151-149427 · 7/10 · 28 December 2022]

I normally only review shows that I either really enjoy, or shows/movies that I have been thoroughly disappointed by. The Witcher Blood Origin is neither of the above.

I simply felt as though I had to review because of the plethora of bad reviews of this show. How can you judge a whole series when you freely admit that you could t watch a single episode ?? I just don't get it.

Look everyone is upset the Geralt is not going to be Geralt anymore, he is going to be a different Geralt but I will not judge a show that neither Geralt's are in just because I'm annoyed that Mr Cavill decided that he didn't want to catch a coin anymore. We will never find out the real reason he left, it might have been Superman, it may have been the direction of the show, Henry is the only one who knows, and he is keeping schtum.

Thors little brother might be fantastic in the role he also may be utterly terrible only time will tell, one thing is for sure is that it will be different.

Now for Blood Origin, is it amazing, no it's not, is it the worst show Netflix have ever created, well no it's not that either. It's decent fantasy, showing us a time we have never seen nor read about on parent show or books. Yes I did find it interesting that Elves were at some point just like Humans, selfish, proud ambitious and many other similar adjectives. They turned on themselves and probably made it easy for us humans to nearly wipe them out.

I also found it interesting where some of the 'things' we have seen on the Witcher originated from, I will not go into spoilers here because I do actually encourage people to watch the show

So take it from me as someone who managed to sit through the full series it's not bad, reasonably good in fact, please do not judge a whole series on fanboys who couldn't even manage to watch a full episode just because it's not the Witcher. No it's not, but the Mandalorian, isn't set at the same time as Star Wars, it's not got the same characters in (Boba Fett being an exception I know before someone flames me). But I don't hear anyone saying that it's not Star Wars.

Look that's all Netflix are doing here, they have stumbled on a huge success in the Witcher so they are trying to create a universe just the same as Star Wars and Marvel and even DC did it with The Arroverse, just not as well. And you cannot blame them for that, they will have paid squillions for the rights to the Witcher et al, all they are doing is trying to make a couple of quid or a few new subscribers before the magic (or people watching it) run out

Back in your box please haters !! Says me climbing down from my high horse.

When you order The Witcher from Wish

[BlockLike · 1/10 · 26 December 2022]

Well, considering how much I adored The Witcher series, this is absolutely terrible.

When you compare them, it absolutely pales in comparison.

The pacing is all over the place as there's simply too much too fit into so few episodes, which results in a lack of any disearnable coherence.

It's doesn't feel like you're in the same world in any way shape of form.

It's disappointing to see something so blatantly ruined to this extent

Atrocious writing, sub par acting, budget props/set design and sfx.

The whole thing feels cheap and amateurish.

I've seen soap operas with better production values.

A complete and utter let down.

Not that terrible but certainly not great

[cloudstrife-03407 · 6/10 · 28 December 2022]

I'm embarrassed to give this a "6" but I actually enjoyed this show as a guilty pleasure and liked it far more than Rings of Power or Wheel of Time. The action and events move at a very fast clip and I was never bored watching it, it didn't take itself too seriously.

Now for the bad: the storyline and plot are dumpster fire level terrible and at times make no sense. There is very little effort to world-build and quite frankly Netflix should fire the showrunners and writers for this series. The CGI is atrocious and much of the dialogue is not creative and bland. I have no idea why they would market this as The Witcher and the reception would have been so much better if they gave it a generic fantasy title.

Despite the other reviewers I actually thought the casting and acting was solid, these folks played a bad hand well with the junk script they were given.

All that said, for some reason I still enjoyed this as mindless fantasy fast paced action mind-candy which I have a soft spot for and is hard to come by.

Finally, Michelle Yeoh really needs to have a discussion with her agent over how she ended up in this show; she is far too great an actress to end up in this series.

Terrible. Please Netflix, Jut Stop!!!

[ShamisSabri · 1/10 · 25 December 2022]

Anyone who has any love for The Witcher, will without a doubt be saddened and disheartened beyond belief when they see this travesty of a show under the Witcher banner. This is so shoddy, cheaply made and uninteresting. Also, how is this related to The Witcher Universe in any way possible - just because Netflix has the rights to the Witcher, doesn't mean they should go around and make any steaming pile and call it a part of the same Universe. Utterly terrible and disrespectful.

So sad to see this. Such a shame. The entire cast and crew owe us an apology and need to not only cancel, but stop airing this show, this very second. It is a joke!!!

An Excellent Tale of Adventure & Magic

[LeAvantGuardian · 8/10 · 29 December 2022]

The Witcher Blood Origin feels like a classic D&D adventure. It's rife with fun and competent characters, and full of lore and a fairly strong sense of immersion given the low episode count.

Hardcore fans of the Witcher books and games might be upset that this series has gone ahead and altered some of the Witcher lore, but those changes withstanding, this show does feel very much like The Witcher. More than that however, this series works really well as a prequel. It explains the origin of the world we have come to know on The Witcher series and does so quite well.

The action choreography is excellent and easily on par with the Witcher.

My only real complaint of the show is that elves don't much feel like Elves at all. They all really seem like humans with pointy ears. I've experienced Elves in many, many different fantasy IP and in almost all of them they are wholly unique from humans because of their societies. In this adaptation, the elves both look, and conduct themselves exactly like humans in virtually every way. They opted for a very diverse casting, but they did not do so in an intuitive way that might have made the different Elven clans feel more like different clans. Rather, each clan had diversity making it so that none of the clans seemed any different from one another. Some of the decisions make very little sense, but ultimately this has pretty minimal effect on the show.

The acting is pretty good and the Empress is really friggen cute.

Too many bias reviews

[craigfitzgerald-13336 · 7/10 · 28 December 2022]

Honestly, I really wanted to hate this. I'm a big fan of the books and the games, as well as being extremely disappointed by the news about Henry Cavil. But it's really not as bad as everyone else is making it out to be! A lot worse is rated higher.

The acting and special effects are decent. Not GoT level, but still on par with Witcher series 1&2.

I don't mind the story squeezed into 4 episodes. It has about as much world and character building as your average movie. Though the final episode did seem to rush a number of elements to a climax.

Being a fan of the lore, my biggest issue is with the complete miss with the origin story for Eredin. I get why this is setting up the future Witcher series story, but what we know of Eredin and the Aen Elle it's a much more fascinating story, with enough blanks to give writers some freedom, it would have made a much better limited series. Instead it feels like they're just cashing in on a familiar name.

But dropping some stars for that minor gripe, the original story and production is worth 7 stars.

Cringe.

[fvrk · 2/10 · 25 December 2022]

I gave it a 2 stars because I saw few other shows that were worse, maybe enough to count them on both hands, but still this is without a doubt one of them.

The lines are horrible, it feels like it was written as a kid's school play, the acting is wooden at times (maybe because of the lines they have to work with), some of the actors were not cast well for the said roles and they simply do fit in the show. (not saying they are bad actors, they just don't fit in the roles, like the king for example... and if you add the cringe lines on top of that it just turns this into a cheap parody without jokes).

I've played all the Witcher game franchise, I've watched the show as well, and I must say I did not expect something this bad receiving a green light to actually enter production.

The bad "CGI" and cheap props used in this show, I could maybe get past, but the story telling itself, the lines, the roles assigned to some actors and the purely cringe moments made me stop watching after half of the first episode just to come here and complain.

If you're one of those that don't about any of the aspects mentioned above, and still loved the show, then I am happy for you, and I am happy knowing it ended up reaching someone that appreciates and is not just a big middle finger to everyone loving the Witcher universe, because to me that's all this seems to be, a middle finger to the fan base.

Worst of the year

[zzzxxxcccvvv-43202 · 1/10 · 25 December 2022]

This is without question the worst show of the year, and I'm putting it into my top 5 worst shows of all time.

Terrible writing. Terrible acting. Overall terrible production. It also has nothing to do with The Witcher...

A lot of people will laugh it off as being "low budget" but this goes so much deeper than that. In reality, Netflix is being exploited here. There is a very bad group of people working behind the scenes to destroy this show and get a fat paycheck in the process. In some ways I feel sorry for Netflix that they are being taken advantage of like this.

Please Netflix, you need to clean house.

What a lump of coal

[yooniverse · 1/10 · 26 December 2022]

Ugh. So painful to watch. I couldn't even make it out of the first episode. I'm not here to pile on about Cavill. Production quality is mediocre, passable for CW but far short of expectations for Netflix.

The story is just gibberish mashup of fantasy genre tropes and woke casting and screenplay. Whoever thought this up and greenlighted it should be all fired. The storyline is all over the place, with the thinnest of ties to The Witcher. What a terrible production for Michelle Yeoh to be hitched to, after her recent performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

I'm not wasting any more time of this. Too many better shows to watch out there. A solid lump of coal dropped on Christmas Day.

My rating is pretty generous

[OhItsStefan · 3/10 · 25 December 2022]

Honestly, there's very, very little to like her. The plot is paperthin, so are the characters. The dialogue is horrible, things happen randomly without explanation and build up making basically everything it tries fall flat. All these backstories of the characters are laid out but nothing feels distinct or unique because there's a huge overlap in their backgrounds. There's also far too little time to even get to know and care for these characters. Even with 4 episodes it feels drawn out in the parts that don't matter and too rushed in parts that do matter. This all is not even mentioning the fact it's tied to The Witcher brand, in which case they've thrown out the little bit of information they could've used for these events, it's all horribly inconsistent with what's already established for no apparent reason other than to be different.

On a positive note, ignoring how well it fits The Witcher, the cinematography looks decent, the action is snappy and Meldorf is kinda funny.

It just baffles me how this show even came to release knowing it had to pass multiple sets of eyes for approval at several stages in it's development.

So what's up

[phillip-henry · 7/10 · 25 December 2022]

This is not a review based on the other reviews placed here that look pretty similar, it's an enjoyable tale, the cast are strong and the effects are ok, it's not The Witcher which I think is most peoples issue, it's a limited series which makes it difficult to connect to the characters but they are meant to be short lived but the dwarf character is great, there's gaps in the story but you would need an origin of an origin to make any sense of it.

The ending is terrible and bears no sense in the story that comes afterwards on the Witcher but I suppose they wanted a bit of extra drama, all in all worth watching if you want a few hours of fantasy.

Michelle Yeoh ?

[prdofaker-58990 · 1/10 · 25 December 2022]

I can't believe that Michelle Yeoh is in this TV series.

I can't believe Michelle Yeoh read the script and accepted a role in this TV series ?

Is it even possible for such a good actress as Michelle Yeon to play in this disaster ?

My theory is as follows.

Michelle Yeoh was kidnapped and forced to film the Tv series Witcher Blood Origin. There is simply no other explanation or option.

Why else would Michelle Yeoh even star in this TV series because this is worse than crap.

The writers of this TV series did not hold the Witcher book in their hands for even 1 minute.

This is a disaster of epic proportions on all fronts.

A decent prequel hampered by a low budget

[benzapp-1 · 7/10 · 28 December 2022]

Blood Origin is an interesting prequel that gives us some back story to the original Witcher series. It was interesting to see the origin of the "conjunction", which was central to the original story. The cast is pretty good most of the time with a few successful actors as leads.

Problems with the film include amateur fight scenes, which are odd given the original Witcher series had very good ones. They just aren't believable, with many cast members very new or very experienced, making the dichotomy impossible to ignore.

The special effects are not that great. Monsters and costumes are generally below average.

I hate giving out bad reviews

[ginocolantonio · 3/10 · 26 December 2022]

I hate giving out bad reviews to TV shows or franchises that I've enjoyed watching in the past. It always perplexes me on how they can take something good and successful and ruin it. I hate to see good franchises flop, in the end we the viewers suffer. I have nothing against a lead female character. Some of my favorite TV shows and movies have lead female characters. Unfortunately, when it comes to certain genres and franchises that changes. This felt forced, I don't like any of the characters so far, male or female. The action sequences are from the 1980s, the acting is not very good. I see very little hope now for The Witcher franchise.

A Savagely Fun Tale

[Pairic · 8/10 · 27 December 2022]

The Witcher: Blood Origin: Set 1,200 years before the events The Witcher we learn how the plames of existence collided and humans and monsters came to the world of the Elves and Dwarfs. A treacherous Mage (Lenny Henry), an unhinged princess (Mirren Mack). A band of elves and a dwarf who set out on a quest to avenge their slain clans, led by warriors Laurence O'Fuarain and Sophia Brown who previously served rival kings. They gradually build up their group with the help of Michelle Yeoh who had been Brown's sword teacher. Conspiracies abound and old scores are settled. O'Fuarain and Brown first meet up on Inis Dubh, which bears some resemblance to Inisherin, I almost expected Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell to appear and join in the fighting, singing and music making. A lot of Irish, Scottish and Welsh place names and accents. Some great tunes and songs. Great sword, ax and hammer play. Minnie Driver plays the Seanchai who reveals this tale to Jaskier (Joey Batey) in sequences which bookend the series, I liked it more than most viewers and critics, seemingly it's not faithful to the Canon of the books. (Some think the Elves are not Elven enough,) Foul language and a line of dark humour infuse this violent and gory tale. . Created by Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, Directed by Sarah O'Gorman and Vicky Jewson, Screenplay by Declan de Barra, David French, Tasha Huo and Aaron Stewart-Ahn. Four episodes on Netflix. 8/10.

Not as bad as some say

[minaebrev · 6/10 · 28 December 2022]

This story needed to be told because I had no idea about about the origins of the Witcher universe. It was cringe at times but really it needed to be told. They could've expanded a bit in some areas, some felt rushed as well. Relationships were rushed and some dialogue was on the nose. It was still exciting to see what happened before, I hope they listened to the bad stuff and make a better season two where they left off. I doubt that they'll make a season two but I would love to see how the "second" Witcher was made and the founding of Kaer Morhen? Or whatever it's called, (the base of the witchers) Would also like to see it being picked up where it left off just so we can see more of the aftermath of Humans & monsters coming to the continent!

It's really only 4 episodes so it's not dragged out, it just felt rushed in some ways.

Borders on parody, which would be an improvement.

[rrtiverton · 2/10 · 26 December 2022]

If you ever watched "Game of Thrones", "Lord of the Rings", "Flash Gordon" and anything MCU or DCU, then have we got a series for you! Not an original plot point in this four-series schlock-fest. SEE! A princess and her brother talk about her being betrothed to a foreign leader to stop a war! SEE! Giant, flying dragon-like-thingie vaporize leaders! SEE! A group of misfits overcome their personal animosity towards one and other to band together to fight off an evil oppressor! SEE! (Ming the Merciless) Someone wield mystical power to open up multidimensional portals! SEE! The voice of the 'humanity' be a comical dwarf! SEE! The Evil Princess wear "Princes Aura"s costumes from "Flash Gordon"!

This series just BEGS to be given the Mel Brooks touch.

I would have rated this a 1 or less had it not been for Michelle Yeo.

This is not Witcher

[badrofadro · 1/10 · 25 December 2022]

"The Witcher" certainly draws from Slavic mythology as it can be found in many names of monsters derived from Slavic tales and myths. It contains references to Polish legends and even Polish history.

Netflix's Witcher blood origin, on the other hand, is 0% based on the books and takes place somewhere in New York or Los Angeles and has nothing to do with The Witcher.

Why name the TV series Witcher and then do something completely different. The writer and showrunner of this TV series has 0% talent.

"Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made."