Television The Witcher | Netflix | There are book spoilers here

evil_geko said:
Even though I warmed up to her over time, this in the quote still bothers me a bit, she should look a lot more mature than she does.

Like many mentioned, Eva Green is still perfect for the role, oh well...
Click to expand...

They probably couldn't afford her. I'm guessing they had a short production budget in general, and blew most of their acting budget on Cavill. Apart from Cavill everyone else is either a newcomer or a little known actor.

Not to say anything of the SFX budget, as demonstrated in episode 6 ("Rare Species"). That took me back to the times of Hercules and Xena the Warrior Princess.
 
Since she was deformed all her life she probably goes the extra distance to make herself younger and more beautiful out of insecurity or something.

Anyway, this and Mandolorian have made me appreciate story of the week shows more. You can have your main plot but a fun side adventure running throughout an episode.
 
Gambit said:
It was good. Not great. Mostly hampered by really bad script writing. Hardly anything paid off or made sense. It felt like they couldn't be arsed to explain it in anyway. Characters going from being crap to mega powerful. Sudden jumps in motivation and a load more I could go into butttttt I'm not going too, as I did enjoy it and I'm looking forward to season 2.
Click to expand...
I think the show could have benefited from a narrator, maybe an older Jaskier explaining stuff at least in the first few episodes. The way it jumped around timelines made me think that it was mostly targeted for fans of the series, or at least people with basic knowledge of the story and the characters. The first two or three episodes was pure fan service.
 
Gambit said:
It was good. Not great. Mostly hampered by really bad script writing. Hardly anything paid off or made sense. It felt like they couldn't be arsed to explain it in anyway. Characters going from being crap to mega powerful. Sudden jumps in motivation and a load more I could go into butttttt I'm not going too, as I did enjoy it and I'm looking forward to season 2.
Click to expand...

That's a timeline issue (there's a lot of jumps) and one of adequate explanation. Yennefer's training at Aretuza is happening nearly 70 years before the events of the Fall of Cintra and Ciri's disappearance unfold. She had plenty of time to get plenty powerful in the process.

But yeah, I also felt the didn't set the events and story well for those not well versed in the universe.
 
Yeah I was enjoying it at first but it's a complete mess of a thing really. Nothing ever felt fully fleshed out over the eight episodes and it was more like a collection of short stories that they were hap hazardly trying to tie together rather than anything particularly coherent, which I guess makes sense given that's basically what the source material was (or so i hear) but they surely could've still done a better job or taken a different path.

Cavill being so good in the role (and Yen and Dandelion) as well as the sword fights being great (though there were too few of them) and the fact that in general the lore that they did bother to explore was interesting saved the show and made it just about worthwhile.
 
mu4c_20le said:
The Mandalorian at $15 milllion per episode for about 20 minutes, is ridiculous. I think the editing for this show could be better, but the production is right up there with Thrones.
Click to expand...
Are you serious? What exactly do you mean by production?
As for Mandalorian — yes, they spend tons of money on god knows what.
 
harms said:
Are you serious? What exactly do you mean by production?
As for Mandalorian — yes, they spend tons of money on god knows what.
Click to expand...
The world that they crafted, lots of different scenery, different factions have their own armor, the distance shots of castles, etc. It also has lots more CGI than both of those shows, not just a variety of monsters but also magic. I'm sure alot of that budget goes to their salaries as well, but the setting they created makes this feel like the early seasons of Thrones.
 
mu4c_20le said:
The world that they crafted, lots of different scenery, different factions have their own armor, the distance shots of castles, etc. It also has lots more CGI than both of those shows, not just a variety of monsters but also magic. I'm sure alot of that budget goes to their salaries as well, but the setting they created makes this feel like the early seasons of Thrones.
Click to expand...
The biggest problem that the show has that makes it feel less polished than GoT is the godawful cinematography during dramatic scenes. When your show uses Dutch angles you're fecked, and doubly so when they're used in the wrong places. I hope they get better directors for next season because of it.
 
MadMike said:
That's a timeline issue (there's a lot of jumps) and one of adequate explanation. Yennefer's training at Aretuza is happening nearly 70 years before the events of the Fall of Cintra and Ciri's disappearance unfold. She had plenty of time to get plenty powerful in the process.

But yeah, I also felt the didn't set the events and story well for those not well versed in the universe.
Click to expand...
Not a timeline issue. I had no issues with that side of it. I actually enjoyed that part of it. It was all the other jumbled mess that was occurring. Yennifer showed no signs of being that powerful literally upto the point when she did. There was tons more but I'm not going into it as I did really like and enjoy the series.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
The biggest problem that the show has that makes it feel less polished than GoT is the godawful cinematography during dramatic scenes. When your show uses Dutch angles you're fecked, and doubly so when they're used in the wrong places. I hope they get better directors for next season because of it.
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with a Dutch angle.
 
Just watched the first 2 episodes but this is absolutely fantastic so far. Perfectly captures the tune of the games and the witcher stories in general.
 
Gambit said:
Nothing wrong with a Dutch angle.
Click to expand...
They were using them for things like a heartwarming wedding though, or just two people talking when there was nothing to feel uneasy about. It just came off as tacky the amount of times it was used.
 
Seems like just about everyone agrees it seems that script writing it pretty poor. It does seem like they tried a tad too hard translating the books directly to TV rather than use a wee bit of artistic freedom. Can't blame them I guess - look at all the fan boys crying about changes to LOTR, Harry Potter, GoT, etc. (some of it justified I guess). A lot of it feels forced and rushed. I think the moments where we got to see more world building were incredibly powerful. Unlike GoT it shouldn't just be focused on the leads alone. Do the same as the game in a way and flesh out the side quests more. It's almost like they did the opposite of a show like the walking dead where they take way too much time to build the world. There has to be a happy medium.

They probably knew the Witcher would initially need a lot of buy in from the fans (whether game and/or book) - much more so than at least the first two because unless you lived under a rock you probably had at least heard of them. The Witcher at least until now is a lot more niche. I hope though that they are drawing viewing numbers great enough to justify adjusting the writing to make it a bit more suitable for TV.
 
Last edited:
Gambit said:
Not a timeline issue. I had no issues with that side of it. I actually enjoyed that part of it. It was all the other jumbled mess that was occurring. Yennifer showed no signs of being that powerful literally upto the point when she did. There was tons more but I'm not going into it as I did really like and enjoy the series.
Click to expand...

what parts are you guys talking about?
Its made pretty clear from her first involvement that she is super powerful but has no real control over her “chaos” she opened a portal as her first act, then she held the lightening within herself and was able to project its power outwards which was a foretelling of what was to come with the flames. She also surprised that guy by opening another portal on her first try when he taught her how to do it.

There were plenty of indicators to how powerful she truly was.
 
I hope this show lasts as I’d love for it to get in to the Wildhunt stuff. Maybe it’s just because the game was my first introduction to this world but I feel like they could do a lot of epic stuff with that side of the story. Some of the fights to be had :drool:

Should say little disappointed there didn’t seem to be any Gwent in the series.
 
Redplane said:
Seems like just about everyone agrees it seems that script writing it pretty poor. .
Click to expand...
I don't agree with that. It's slightly rushed considering they're covering a lot of the background building in one season. But all in all, I thought it was well written. The timeline issue doesnt really bother me as I don't mind making the effort of piecing things together anyway and it was hard either. But the three main characters were extremely strong and interesting, with many side characters (Jaskier, Aretuza principal lady, Mouse Sack beard man, Rat Boy!, Stragoborg?) adding to the show as well.

Plus Geralt :drool:
 
amolbhatia50k said:
I don't agree with that. It's slightly rushed considering they're covering a lot of the background building in one season. But all in all, I thought it was well written. The timeline issue doesnt really bother me as I don't mind making the effort of piecing things together anyway and it was hard either. But the three main characters were extremely strong and interesting, with many side characters (Jaskier, Aretuza principal lady, Mouse Sack beard man, Rat Boy!, Stragoborg?) adding to the show as well.

Plus Geralt :drool:
Click to expand...

The main thing for me was that the missus and my sisters enjoyed it. A good fantasy show needs to appeal to a female audience in order to establish mainstream appeal and that is what GOT was able to do and early signs are that the Witcher has in my personal experience done that. Whether that is replicated across audiences as a whole I cannot say but that will be key rather than appealing to the hardcore male gaming community only.
 
Yenn has definitely a decent set on her.
 
MadMike said:
That girl took a lot of shit on the internet, before the series even aired, for all the wrong reasons.

For being non-white cast into the role of a white character. For having almost no previous TV/Film experience. For being too young to play a 100+ year old Yennefer. For being too ugly (can you even believe it?) to play Yennefer.

In light of that, I'm just so so pleased that she delivered so well on the role. What better way to shut the trolls up. Even those who gave her shit are now praising her.
Click to expand...
:wenger:

She's in 'crawl over broken glass to sniff her farts' territory. How did that even happen.
 
B20 said:
:wenger:

She's in 'crawl over broken glass to sniff her farts' territory. How did that even happen.
Click to expand...

Don’t need to tell me, man. In the scene where she first met Geralt mid-orgy, I had to put a pillow on my lap for cover.
 
evil_geko said:
Even though I warmed up to her over time, this in the quote still bothers me a bit, she should look a lot more mature than she does.

Like many mentioned, Eva Green is still perfect for the role, oh well...
Click to expand...
Personally I thought she stole every scene she’s in - I’m very happy with her casting.

I think everyone is near perfect for their role.

The fact that she’s stunning is purely coincidental :)
 
Coxy said:
Personally I thought she stole every scene she’s in - I’m very happy with her casting.

I think everyone is near perfect for their role.

The fact that she’s stunning is purely coincidental :)
Click to expand...
She's absolutely perfect for the role and has that allure that Yennifer should have. Not to mention a very sharp voice.

But mere georgeousness won't stop Geralt from being the apple of my eye :drool:
 
Never read the books or played the games, yet binged this in a day but found this to be a Very enjoyable watch. The timelines stuff was clear to me by episode 3, you need to pay attention to the dialogues for the same but even without that by the act of surprise episode, it should be definitely obvious. Surprised people thought it was cheap, I found the production quality pretty good. GOT did not even bother showing any battle scenes till the end of season 2 whereas this one had multiple in first one itself. Surprised at claims of nudity as well, GOT's first couple of seasons had almost 10 times more than this with almost every other scene in a whore house or Dany without clothes for some reason or another. The only gratuitous use of nudity I found was during the Djinn sequence.
The biggest glaring hole is the lack of proper character development and jumps in motivations of character. For almost every single turn or change in direction this is the case. But the plot keeps moving at almost breakneck speed so it sort of alleviates this flaw. But it is still one thing that they should try to fix since it is very jarring from episode to episode see the same character espouse different takes for the sake of plat movement. Another issue was lack of any development of the evil Mage character. She played way too critical a role in the end for not have gotten any arc before hand.

I can see why some reviews are bad but I don't get the point of rating every series against an expectant way of telling a story. This is clearly not going to be some kind of prestige drama with slow character build up. Yes, in comparison to early seasons of GOT the dialogues and some of the character turns are very shallow but as said above it compensates for same by very good storyline and plot movement. Overall I would rate this 7/10 just in terms of what the show as trying to achieve.
 
Really liked it. It wasn’t as good as I hoped, but after finishing the season I think it sets up nicely for the next round. A lot of ground was covered in just one season, so it did feel a little rushed.
 
Redplane said:
For those who read the books (only player all three games) - how high fantasy are they? The show has a lot more fantastical elements early on than I expected tbh. Four episodes in atm but I thought we d get a bit more GoTsy like political and societal drama and intrigue.

Not complaining too much really - maybe I'm just worried it's going to scare a lot of people off who got into GoT because it was very low fantasy for most of the show.

Even though I don't know the book version - I do remember the Witcher 1 (I think it was) intro with the striga and I loved how the show captured a very similar feel. Not sure how I feel about the Foltest casting but that part definitely felt a bit like I was watching a quest from the game in a TV show (that's a good thing). I feel they can do more with atmospheric settings etc. Maybe use a different camera filter too because sometimes the lighting makes it feel a bit too colorful... As if I'm watching made by Disney.. Imho of course.
Click to expand...
The books lean on fantasy at times, but they are a lot heavier on the political atmosphere, with Geralt’s internal philosophical musing on humanity laced throughout. If GoT is considered low fantasy then I’d definitely call The Witcher series low fantasy too.

In my opinion the first two novellas which comprise of the short stories — some of which the show is based upon — is Sapkowski’s best. Concise Slavic folklore tales deconstructed and reimagined into the gritty universe.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
She's absolutely perfect for the role and has that allure that Yennifer should have. Not to mention a very sharp voice.

But mere georgeousness won't stop Geralt from being the apple of my eye :drool:
Click to expand...
When she really means it; else, she's a bit on the girly side (just the age of her voice, I guess). All in all I'm still very pleased with her portrayal of Yen.

DWelbz19 said:
In my opinion the first two novellas which comprise of the short stories — some of which the show is based upon — is Sapkowski’s best. Concise Slavic folklore tales deconstructed and reimagined into the gritty universe.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily Slavic, also Grimms' fairy tales. Renfri is leaning heavily on Snow White.
 
I think she’s a little young looking, but everybody looks too clean and fresh. Even when they were making jibes about Geralt’s clothes he looked the picture of virility.
 
Still havent had the chance to watch this yet as I've been working but really looking forward to checking it out this weekend.
 
DatIrishFella said:
Whoops. Three Jackdaws.
Click to expand...
:lol: his real name Villentretenmerth is pretty cool too! That was actually one of the stories I was most excited about, it really brings alive the feeling of the witcher world IMO.
 
I know nothing of the backstory, but it did feel like they were laying the ground work for the future seasons with this one. If the books are more coherent and present going forward then this could be amazing. Already enjoyed it a lot, the only downfall for me is that it did feel pretty rushed and so the character investment is lower than say a GoT. A solid 8.5/10 for me. Netflix have something big on their hands here.
 
crappycraperson said:
Never read the books or played the games, yet binged this in a day but found this to be a Very enjoyable watch. The timelines stuff was clear to me by episode 3, you need to pay attention to the dialogues for the same but even without that by the act of surprise episode, it should be definitely obvious. Surprised people thought it was cheap, I found the production quality pretty good. GOT did not even bother showing any battle scenes till the end of season 2 whereas this one had multiple in first one itself. Surprised at claims of nudity as well, GOT's first couple of seasons had almost 10 times more than this with almost every other scene in a whore house or Dany without clothes for some reason or another. The only gratuitous use of nudity I found was during the Djinn sequence.
The biggest glaring hole is the lack of proper character development and jumps in motivations of character. For almost every single turn or change in direction this is the case. But the plot keeps moving at almost breakneck speed so it sort of alleviates this flaw. But it is still one thing that they should try to fix since it is very jarring from episode to episode see the same character espouse different takes for the sake of plat movement. Another issue was lack of any development of the evil Mage character. She played way too critical a role in the end for not have gotten any arc before hand.

I can see why some reviews are bad but I don't get the point of rating every series against an expectant way of telling a story. This is clearly not going to be some kind of prestige drama with slow character build up. Yes, in comparison to early seasons of GOT the dialogues and some of the character turns are very shallow but as said above it compensates for same by very good storyline and plot movement. Overall I would rate this 7/10 just in terms of what the show as trying to achieve.
Click to expand...

It was already mentioned, but firs season is based on first two books that are collection of short stories in different timelines, so that is why it looked rushed and chaotic. From second season they start with main story books so it should be much more coherent if they don't feck it up themselves.
 
DWelbz19 said:
I think she’s a little young looking, but everybody looks too clean and fresh.
Click to expand...
A merchant's wife from the final episode with perfect teeth & skin that would make any queen jealous and even a little bit of lipstick on talking about their simple life on a farm :lol:
 
After binging the TV series and then re-installing Witcher III

70sdcpjsye641.jpg
 
All this Witcher hype, ah, I started reading the books for the third time, near finishing the first.

Then after books, all three games again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.