TV Shows

The Witcher – S01


Acting
Writing
Directing
Entertainment
Final Thoughts

Visually stunning, with Henry Cavill capturing the whole essence of charismatic monster-killer Geralt, THE WITCHER is a very entertaining show, despite struggles with some screenwriting choices and couple slow episodes.

Overall Score 4.2
Readers Rating
1 votes
4.3

“THE WITCHER” is remarkably hard for me to review because of how much I enjoyed the game series (specifically WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT). I will try to stay as objective as possible, but, man, I truly enjoyed this show.

Firstly, the elephant in the room – casting. Henry Cavill absolutely nails it as a charismatic, enigmatic, sarcastic, deadly, mutant monster-killer Geralt of Rivia who has much more say in philosophy than actually killing someone. I think there could have not been anyone else who would have done this role the way he did so kudos to that. Rest of the cast, I also enjoyed Freya Allan as Ciri and Jodhi May as Queen Calanthe (a very pleasant surprise as she actually steals every scene she is in).

Regarding casting of Anya Chalotra as Yennefer (and I’d add Anna Shaffer as Triss) I am torn. Acting-wise Chalotra is perfect. She goes above and beyond for her role to show true emotions and all struggles of her character. But, I couldn’t accept her as Yennefer – a woman who Geralt is ready to die for. Call me shallow or blame it on the video game, I guess.

Show is very well directed. Visually it is as stunning as any episode of GAME OF THRONES. Writing tho, I felt could have been better. This includes selection of the stories to show, as well as some scenes with Ciri felt compulsory and dragging the pace down. Couple of episodes in the middle were really mediocre (dragon hunt). I did enjoy the timeline jumps writers utilized which enabled showrunners to bring back characters who have already died and also emphasize the backstory of each of them and give them some meaningful character development.

Overall, as I said, I did enjoy the show, but I feel it could have been just a tad better. Looking forward for next season.

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