Witcher (Netflix)

[Truth Seeker]

Never heard of the game or the books- But saw the hoopla about it recently-I forced myself through the 1st episode. It's certainly no Stranger Things or Lost in Space.

I really don't understand why so much fantasy is done so poorly on-screen. The acting was -eh. The setting seemed anachronistic. The swordfights were way too Hollywood, and at any minute I was expecting for the main character guy to
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That alone puts you at a disadvantage, not knowing about it will give you no understanding of it. That is okay. And for fantasy being poorly for tv, it is a testing ground to find their footing. It is common practice, to have improvements down the road, if said show has more seasons.

 

[Zaukrie]

I don't think you need to know anything about the books or games to watch it. Only one person in my house had played the games......

 

[Eric V]

Never read the books, nor played the games, but we loved it in my house. Gave a look of how a "typical" DnD world with fairly common magic abounding and monsters being real might look like; felt much more D&D than GoT, but that makes sense upon reflection. The hints within the world make me want to learn more about it. Looking forward to season 2.

 

[Janx]

Watched to the end.

Liked it and want to see next season. I didn't twig on the whole different time streams thing until about half way through watching. Cool technique. Stories were well done, acting is good enough, and it's got a pretty solid over arching plot.

Yeah, I'll watch the next season.

As I understand it from an interview with Cavill, they wanted 3 main characters, but the books don't introduce the two sorcereses until later. So they did the funky time stuff to bring their stories to inter-weave with Geralt.

My wife has read most the books and played the stuffing out of the video games. It took her a bit to realize the how the time-choppy worked (because some of that content is from the newest book). I didn't figure it out until the big party with the Law of Surprise shotgun wedding.

 

[Hussar]

As I understand it from an interview with Cavill, they wanted 3 main characters, but the books don't introduce the two sorcereses until later. So they did the funky time stuff to bring their stories to inter-weave with Geralt.

My wife has read most the books and played the stuffing out of the video games. It took her a bit to realize the how the time-choppy worked (because some of that content is from the newest book). I didn't figure it out until the big party with the Law of Surprise shotgun wedding.

Yup, that was pretty much the same for me too.

As far as fantasy FX or whatnot, decades of Doctor Who has trained me not to see it. They were good enough. And, I thought the sword fighting was actually pretty darn well done. Meh, to each his own.

 

[Talltomwright]

I too know nothing about the Witcher, never played the games, never ead the books, but by the third episode I was really loving the series; the decades wide time-split felt like a feature not a bug; the moment of surprise when the time-frames were revealed were really exciting, and it created a lot of anticipation for the three protagonists eventually meeting. I also liked how each episode felt like a fairy story; things like knights cursed by witches and the law of surprise made it feel much more Brothers Grimm than George R R Martin and that felt different and exciting. Plus I found Cavill appealingly vulnerable and ended up really rooting for him by the end. TLDR: Not the best thing out there but a fun fantasy in a very different mold to Game of Thrones. And yes, heavy D&D nods (looking at you, Gold Dragon.)

 

[Beleriphon]

I too know nothing about the Witcher, never played the games, never ead the books, but by the third episode I was really loving the series; the decades wide time-split felt like a feature not a bug; the moment of surprise when the time-frames were revealed were really exciting, and it created a lot of anticipation for the three protagonists eventually meeting. I also liked how each episode felt like a fairy story; things like knights cursed by witches and the law of surprise made it feel much more Brothers Grimm than George R R Martin and that felt different and exciting.

From the original books this is very, very intentional. Most of the original stories have a dark take on a classic element from fair tales and folk stories.

For anybody that needs a bit of background on terms. Conjunction of the Spheres is the event that dropped monsters, humans, and some other stuff, into the setting some 1500 years prior to the events depicted. Very important to this is that humans didn't exist in the world before the Conjunction.

 

[BookBarbarian]

The first season of The Witcher was always gong to be be the most challenging. To avoid the jarring change in story between the 2nd and 3rd books they've intermingles elements and split timelines. The strength of it is when the separate threads come together. It's a big moment when Geralt and Yennifer... ahem ... collide. And again when the last timelines come together.

While i thought the sword-fight of the first episode was not that great (but faced paced enough to be exciting) for me the fight with Geralt facing Knights in Cintra was far better. You could tell his strength and speed were enhanced as every blow he landed was precise enough to hit joints in armor with crushing force.

I'm really looking forward to season 2.

 

[MNblockhead]

As I understand it from an interview with Cavill, they wanted 3 main characters, but the books don't introduce the two sorcereses until later. So they did the funky time stuff to bring their stories to inter-weave with Geralt.

My wife has read most the books and played the stuffing out of the video games. It took her a bit to realize the how the time-choppy worked (because some of that content is from the newest book). I didn't figure it out until the big party with the Law of Surprise shotgun wedding.

Didn't know that. I thought jumping around in the timeline was an homage to the video games, which frequently has you jump into a scene from the past. This also plays into him recovering from amnesia with him (and you the player) learn more about past events to better understand the present plot.

 

[MNblockhead]

Ay, the short miners are dwarves, and the elves have pointy ears. The bard is also in the books and in the games, and is sort of a major character. Of his songs I don’t know, but he is sort of a comic relief in the games too.

Wasn't sure at first whether I liked Dandelion/Jaskier (the bard) in the show. He didn't have the looks that made him believable as a Casanova type. In the video games, I didn't like the character at first, but he grew on me. Same with the series. By the end of the series, I came to like the character as acted by Joey Bately.