Fantasy Netflix's The Witcher - General Discussion Thread

IncognitoX said:
Half way through the first episode and I really like Cavill as Geralt. He's like Geralt from the games in many ways including the voice. So I don't get why some are still having issues with him
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He's nowhere near as good on his Delivery as game Geralt
 
He's still very similar though. The sword fights are cool
 
I watched all of them and I'd rate it 6/10. Mediocre overall, but has it's moments.

Subtlety and introspective tone of the early books is gone. I believe majority of changes were for the worse. They packed it with twists, but forgot about "the lyric" of it all. Attempt to jam as much world building as possible hurt the narrative flow. When you read the books, you don't really feel like you need all that heavy exposition and aggressive change of locations. They're told from Geralt's perspective and it works that way better. I believe they needed to embrace episodic nature of the first two books instead of trying to remodel it into large scale epic similar to GoT. Sure it would make things go slower and the scope would be narrower in general, but at least we would get natural development of things. The biggest catastrophe is the final scene. It just doesn't work because
unlike in the books, Geralt and Ciri don't spend time together and then they're separated to reunite again. Here it doesn't hold any weights and Cavill's acting doesn't help things either.

Actors. Cavill is bad. I was annoyed by the same three expressions he had. And most of the time they didn't fit the context. Line delivery is ****ing awful. He gets a bit better when he has Anya around, but most of the time he looks good only in action scenes. Him and Triss actress - two worst castings on the show. I couldn't re-adjust to the new appearance of Fringilla. I'm sorry people, but after the books and the games, I just can't. Freya Allan was very good. Everything that the show threw at her she handled well. Anya was damn great. Additional props for going full Yennefer. It was not easy, especially acting was really intense. Bravo.

Production for the most part is rather poor. There are a few quality set pieces, but vast majority of it looked like not very good cosplay. Cinematography is awful for the most part. When people say "cinematography like it was made for TV", they mean exactly this. FX work and prosthetics were mostly bad. The result is rather trashy.

If not for a couple of powerful performances and thrilling set pieces that hold this thing together, it felt really generic. Only Yennefer got a bit of development and her arc was the most interesting. Episodes 3-5 were the best, imo. Waiting for the season 2.

If you enjoyed it and you didn't read the books or play the games, I believe you will find even better experience there.
 
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Seen the first two episodes and it's alright so far. A decent watch
 
Well, after a very rocky first episode the series at least got better as it went on and found its feet a bit even if it does still suffer from a few issues overall still, the biggest being Cavill unfortunately as Geralt who I am not entirely convinced by but the female cast is all very strong by contrast, the fights are at least well up to scratch and Cavill does at least show Geralts skills with a sword very well. The other things it does get right is the chemistry between Geralt and Yen which was vital to this thing gaining any traction.

The script is a little up and down with a lot of "destiny" talk which even the characters take the mick out of sometimes so it can get a little dense at times, luckily there is some light and much needed comic relief at times which helps levitate things a bit.

The overarching story is a little muddled and gets lost at times but with a few improvements and better support casting to remove some of the "dubious" acting it has potential. It works best when Geralt is fighting or Yen is interacting with him or the other witches, Ciri's actress is also good but is more in the background most of the time. Its also nice to see it doesnt skimp on the brutality and sexyness like the books and games are known for at least so doesnt feel like a dumbed down version.

Its not anywhere near GoT level but its fairly, solid, fun and not without some of its own unique touches that make a second series worthwhile but needs some work in a few areas.

Episodes 3-5 were the standout and needs more like that to last for any notable length, I'm just glad it wasnt a complete mess like the first episode hinted at. 7/10
 
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OutOfBoose said:
I watched all of them and I'd rate it 6/10. Mediocre overall, but has it's moments.

Subtlety and introspective tone of the early books is gone. I believe majority of changes were for the worse. They packed it with twists, but forgot about "the lyric" of it all. Attempt to jam as much world building as possible hurt the narrative flow. When you read the books, you don't really feel like you need all that heavy exposition and aggressive change of locations. They're told from Geralt's perspective and it works that way better. I believe they needed to embrace episodic nature of the first two books instead of trying to remodel it into large scale epic similar to GoT. Sure it would make things go slower and the scope would be narrower in general, but at least we would get natural development of things. The biggest catastrophe is the final scene. It just doesn't work because
unlike in the books, Geralt and Ciri don't spend time together and then they're separated to reunite again. Here it doesn't hold any weights and Cavill's acting doesn't help things either.

Actors. Cavill is bad. I was annoyed by the same three expressions he had. And most of the time they didn't fit the context. Line delivery is ****ing awful. He gets a bit better when he has Anya around, but most of the time he looks good only in action scenes. Him and Triss actress - two worst castings on the show. I couldn't re-adjust to the new appearance of Fringilla. I'm sorry people, but after the books and the games, I just can't. Freya Allan was very good. Everything that the show threw at her she handled well. Anya was damn great. Additional props for going full Yennefer. It was not easy, especially acting was really intense. Bravo.

Production for the most part is rather poor. There are a few quality set pieces, but vast majority of it looked like not very good cosplay. Cinematography is awful for the most part. When people say "cinematography like it was made for TV", they mean exactly this. FX work and prosthetics were mostly bad. The result is rather trashy.

If not for a couple of powerful performances and thrilling set pieces that hold this thing together, it felt really generic. Only Yennefer got a bit of development and her arc was the most interesting. Episodes 3-5 were the best, imo. Waiting for the season 2.

If you enjoyed it and you didn't read the books or play the games, I believe you will find even better experience there.
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Ugh I figured Triss and Fringilla would be low points.

So far Anya is ok as Yen I just didn't care for them delving into her time before she was a full blown witch.
 
I feel the makers of the show are VERY out of tune with the source material. They tried to bend it into something else and didn't have enough resources or vision to do it well enough.

Only Alex Garcia Lopez (director of episodes 3-4) had something up his sleeve. If the show survives, and there are more seasons, I hope they look at these two episodes as a blueprint.
 
The Transformers movies made a ton of money and a lot of people love it, doesn't mean its good.
 
I like it so far. Cavill is fine for the most part. His Doug Cockle voice needs work. The production value seems somewhere between a cheap BBC show and Spartacus: Blood and Sand. A lot of room for improvement, but not terrible.
 
"he doesn't sound like Geralt!" said the people who wanted it book based.

"he doesn't sound like Geralt!" said the people who don't he isn't the one who voiced Geralt in the games.

this thread... i love it.
 
Marvolo said:
Wasnt this supposed to have a $10 million per episode budget?
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If it does the the actors must have gotten most of it or they wasted it because I think the show at least through episode two looks kinda low budget a lot of the time. Also while The Edge of the World may be my least favorite story from The Last Wish it's hard to believe they waisted it the way they do. It's almost like the attitude was we need something for Geralt to do let's chop up this story. So I'm not sure if what I'm about to say is stepping over the spoiler line of not so I'm gonna tag it.
Also Dandelion and Geralt know each other already in the story The Edge of the World. So what purpose does introducing him as just meeting Geralt serve? They completely waist the story. If they really had to show Dandelion and Geralt's first meeting why not just use the story of Dandelion escaping a girls four brothers.

I'm sorry but the destruction of Cintra should have been a big climatic event for the season. They give us no reason to care for the people of Cintra not to mention it seems like they were like alright let's hurry and get this out of the way.

Also Does anybody else feel they completely wasted Geralt's lesser evil monologue? I expected this to be a epic moment and it's basically a blink and you miss it moment.

As for Yennifer I'm guessing she's not going to have a desire to be a mother which also makes me doubt very much the Yen and Ciri won't have a mother/daughter relationship which saddens me if true. Also I'm guessing they're going with Yen being her actual in show ( not sure how to actually word this ) and rather than around 100. Just having watched two episodes I'll be shocked if The Last Wish story is anything more than a poor adaptation.

With that being said I'm sure non book readers will view this show differently than book readers and I think the will have a better time with the show.
 
Reek said:
whoa whoa whoa its not scrotum armor... its mr hanky turd armor... please be respectful.
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It is Christmas, after all.


I watched the first episode of this. I didn't hate it. The fight scenes were good, and I liked the Renfri character. My past experience with Witcher is from playing the first hour of Witcher 3 on two non-consecutive occasions. So I don't really have any notion of what I should expect. Overall, as a first episode, it could have been worse. I have hopes that it can improve over the course of the season, and people seem to be indicating that it does. So I'll stick with it.
 
Perfect Cell said:
It is Christmas, after all.


I watched the first episode of this. I didn't hate it. The fight scenes were good, and I liked the Renfri character. My past experience with Witcher is from playing the first hour of Witcher 3 on two non-consecutive occasions. So I don't really have any notion of what I should expect. Overall, as a first episode, it could have been worse. I have hopes that it can improve over the course of the season, and people seem to be indicating that it does. So I'll stick with it.
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a good and decent man cell is.
 
TheVileOne said:
After initially doubting Anya Chalotra...well...I don't doubt her anymore.
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Yep, she gives it all and it works.

I hope the TV series, regardless of reception, attract more people to the games and the books. Even if mediocre, it's still much better than the old Hexer show and there's nothing else on the fantasy front at the moment.
 
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OutOfBoose said:
Yep, she gives it all and it works.

I hope the TV series, regardless of reception, attract more people to the games and the books. Even if mediocre, it's still much better than the old Hexer show and there's nothing else on the fantasy front at the moment.
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To me The Edge Of The World parts of episode 2 feel like it's from the Hexer movie with the way they cut it up to fit it in the show. But I do agree the Netflix show is better than the Hexer movie and show. For those who haven't seen the Hexer movie it feels more like two hour tv show season recap than a actual movie.
 
Wow I actually ended up kind of loving this. Was not expecting to binge the whole thing in one day, but I somehow managed it. Outside of that rough first episode I thought this show picked up immediately in 2 and man episodes 3-5 were pretty damn awesome and the main reason I decided to finish it all in one go. I enjoyed Cavill in this, although I'm not familiar with any of the source material, so I have idea how accurate the character is to his game counterpart, but the man really does bring a great physical presence to this IMO with how he handles a sword and the more he stared to interact with other characters the more he began to grow on me.

The actress who played Yennifer is not only insanely gorgeous, but is also a fantastic actress and honestly she might be my favorite character in this show. Many of the supporting characters were fun and interesting even if some fare better than others in the performance department. I also loved how brutal and gory the violence was at times, and while the cinematography might not be as aesthetically pleasing to look at something like GOT I did think their were plenty of beautiful shots sprinkled throughout and considering its only the first season I wouldn't be surprised if they pored even more money into it by the time we get to Season 2 depending on how successful it ends up being for Netflix.
 
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