I'm a fan, freely admit it. Read the books, have the audiobooks in my car, played the games, even watched the original Polish TV series (in my case with subtitles).
The Netflix series does a massive injustice to the fans and the author.
The casting wasn't bad in the main. Cavill as Geralt was superb and its to the shame of the Netflix show runner that he felt he couldn't continue. Not going to open that can of worms any further. The other actors did the best they could with very badly written and conceived material. I had a few quibbles but nothing major.
What is actually wrong, glaringly appallingly wrong is the character arcs.
Ciri runs up to total stranger apparently immediately trusting him due to some metaphysical mystical destiny rubbish. Destiny is mentioned in the books extensively but hey - guess what, Geralt himself has absolutely no time for destiny and he already knew Ciri very well. Having met her in Brokelon forest a long time previously and where they had spent a lot of time together, a great story and one which apparently the show runner couldn't be bothered with. So a character arc is completely altered.
Yennifer, who in the books had spent months training Ciri at Mother Nennekes and felt maternal and protective of her, is now portayed as someone scheming to hand Ciri over to a monster for 'reasons' in a made up story that never happened in the books.
Eskel, a much loved character in the books and games is killed off in a made up story that was so badly conceived it was laughable. Witchers didn't treat Kaer Morhen like some kind of brothel and that number of witchers could easily have dealt with the monster. Vesemir would never have tried to kill Ciri nor did Ciri get possessed (she had visions and nightmares but she didn't go around killing people in their sleep), nor did she scream great trenches and monoliths into existance across the landscape any time she got upset.
Yennifer didn't suddenly turn into some angel of fiery death at the Battle of Sodden. Sigh - It just goes on and on.
Series 1 was the closest to the books even though for some reason they felt obliged to time jump so extensively that I had to keep stopping the show and explain the plot to my bewildered husband, and they missed so much out that it made no sense whatsoever to anyone who hadn't read the books. The first episode of series 2 - even though that was altered was at least recognisable as one of the short stories.
After that episode it just becomes unrecognisable in its entirety, generic and poorly written fantasy and it might as well be called something completely different.
The show runner and writers have taken great stories and memorable characters and turned them into parodies. I have no idea why they feel that their ideas and writing is superior to the original authors (it most certainly isn't), or why having made that decision they didn't just write something else entirely and leave Witchers out of it.
I've stopped watching and gone back to the books to restore my equilibrium.
If anyone is thinking of watching this trash, don't. Get the books or find the audio books or play the games, anything but this. I gave it 2 stars based purely on series 1 and that's being generous.
The Netflix series does a massive injustice to the fans and the author.
The casting wasn't bad in the main. Cavill as Geralt was superb and its to the shame of the Netflix show runner that he felt he couldn't continue. Not going to open that can of worms any further. The other actors did the best they could with very badly written and conceived material. I had a few quibbles but nothing major.
What is actually wrong, glaringly appallingly wrong is the character arcs.
Ciri runs up to total stranger apparently immediately trusting him due to some metaphysical mystical destiny rubbish. Destiny is mentioned in the books extensively but hey - guess what, Geralt himself has absolutely no time for destiny and he already knew Ciri very well. Having met her in Brokelon forest a long time previously and where they had spent a lot of time together, a great story and one which apparently the show runner couldn't be bothered with. So a character arc is completely altered.
Yennifer, who in the books had spent months training Ciri at Mother Nennekes and felt maternal and protective of her, is now portayed as someone scheming to hand Ciri over to a monster for 'reasons' in a made up story that never happened in the books.
Eskel, a much loved character in the books and games is killed off in a made up story that was so badly conceived it was laughable. Witchers didn't treat Kaer Morhen like some kind of brothel and that number of witchers could easily have dealt with the monster. Vesemir would never have tried to kill Ciri nor did Ciri get possessed (she had visions and nightmares but she didn't go around killing people in their sleep), nor did she scream great trenches and monoliths into existance across the landscape any time she got upset.
Yennifer didn't suddenly turn into some angel of fiery death at the Battle of Sodden. Sigh - It just goes on and on.
Series 1 was the closest to the books even though for some reason they felt obliged to time jump so extensively that I had to keep stopping the show and explain the plot to my bewildered husband, and they missed so much out that it made no sense whatsoever to anyone who hadn't read the books. The first episode of series 2 - even though that was altered was at least recognisable as one of the short stories.
After that episode it just becomes unrecognisable in its entirety, generic and poorly written fantasy and it might as well be called something completely different.
The show runner and writers have taken great stories and memorable characters and turned them into parodies. I have no idea why they feel that their ideas and writing is superior to the original authors (it most certainly isn't), or why having made that decision they didn't just write something else entirely and leave Witchers out of it.
I've stopped watching and gone back to the books to restore my equilibrium.
If anyone is thinking of watching this trash, don't. Get the books or find the audio books or play the games, anything but this. I gave it 2 stars based purely on series 1 and that's being generous.
Tell Your Friends