The Witcher critical review

Hello, this is Alex writing. 

In my view the Season 1 of The Witcher done by Netflix is a bold adaptation of the book, taking a few creative risks, making some mistakes along the way but overall doing a fine job keeping the immersion and offering something original and fresh.

                                  The World of The Witcher
        
Everybody talks about the flaming passion of the actor Henry Cavill, expressed beautifully in his Episode 1 fight against Renfri; an agile full scale battle which is more of a dance and pure martial arts awesomeness plus power, then what someone could expect from his past experiences with other similar and boring fights. It is very easy to cut down on the immersion factor with some poor sword fighting skills, unrealistic camera angles or bad acting. None of that can be seen here. Henry plays Geralt of Rivia in an excelent manner. His brain-hand coordination in maneuvering the custom made sword is on point. He even explains the first major fighting scene step by step, with precise and pertinent observations which bring clarity to the process. You can feel the raw passion and dedication, a source of inspiration to learn swordsmanship or similar art.

                                           Geralt sword

In the book The Last Wish, Geralt is quite the detective type asking a lot of pertinent questions to aid him in his quest to save the princess cursed to be a Striga. By contrast, in the Netflix Season One, Henry doesn't get to say a lot of words. It seems his role as The Witcher and overall acceptance by the society are not so well defined and respected as some persons would expect by reading the book. Personally, i find the lack of detective and analytical work from as a small minus. A powerfull swordsman and witcher should be equally as good in using his intelect. The Witcher is mainly shown as a slayer of evil monsters with a lot of blood and gore atached to the scenes.

                                   Geralt battling the Griffin

By antithesis, Yennefer the mage is richly presented in different times of her life, starting from her low self esteem and desperation, rising towards being a powerfull sorceress. In this process, the script or the writers do a poor job explaining the psychology behind her reasoning to sacrifice her ability to give birth which she does willingly. We as spectators can only see Yennefer saying she didn't have a choice, blaming the teacher Tissaia for coercing her to live a specific monastic life and give up her future motherhood.

                                             Yennefer

In the story telling department, Season One has some black holes, jumping through different time frames without explanations, missing content and background, which makes it difiicult to understand some of the scenes; and all this haze doubled by the mystical scenes can be confusing. 

This doesn't mean at all that the episodes aren't great. On the contrary. I think they are super epic and fresh. A bold and courageous creator is not afraid to take risks. The book was more about The Witcher - then lets make the show more diverse. Bold move. Unlike Vikings, it feels that The Witcher doesn't censor its female characters and gives equal time to both men and women. Giving even more time to the women through the story of Yennefer and other characters, showing the covenant of Aretuza, which is in a tower near the sea. Visually Epic. 

                                             The Tower

The censorship is what bugs me the most in a show, or in life. If our world is as bad as the one described in The Witcher, then we better learn something good from it. Which would be ideal. The Series has some interesting self reflective moments where you can sit back and contemplate the condition of our world, while observing the surprising romantic moments shown on the screen. And actually come up with something. 

I was surprised by this fact, because few movies are both epic and sufficiently stimulative mentally. Geralt has some good lines straight out of the book and the other characters too. But not always in the clasical manner of "lets deliver the meaning through spoken words because we wish to tell you something". 

For example, Ciri has a moment where she transforms in a white wolf and hacks everyone with an axe. Epic The moment is well integrated with the flow of the show and her words are powerfull and awesome because they are not just words but actions also. She uses her special blink ability and it all feels like in the game The Witcher which is a plus to me. Adding a game element into a show is preety cool in a world where the characters can be a bit lacking in this sector, unlike in the games where coolness prevails.  

                                             Ciri Blink


Taken into consideration the fact that Witchers are made by extreme suffering and mutations, i believe the best thing for Ciri is to become what she wishes to be. Being a fictional character, we as readers invest some of our own desires into the pot. Ciri inspires me to be whatever i would like to be, to be unapologetic just like Freya the actress playing Ciri was. The world of the Witcher is filled with superstitions and humanity making the wrong choices, fighting their own demons and monsters instead of just focusing on the good. Just like our world. 

                                       The good in nature

Geralt is searching for Ciri but we as spectators, or me personally, didn't feel that i was watching a linear path leading towards her. This unexpected move is refreshing to see, breaking the flow which sometimes is pure mastery. It takes skill, just like it takes skill to perform the sword fighting in one linear camera take without the mumbo jumbo of cutting the action down and shooting from many angles. 

Personally i almost forgot about the girl in the forest, being captivated by the battle of the mages from the last episode. And this is excelent. I don't like the fact that in some novels and scripts like Harry Potter, the action is way too concentrated on the main character and we as viewers are constantly reminded of his or her quest. I don't want to be reminded, i want to deduce it from the significance of the scenes and the novelty of action. I want the main quest to fade a litle in the background like a shining star.

And this happened in The Witcher, with Ciri and Geralt were placed more and more behind the main action, giving power to the father-daughther bond, although Geralt is not her "real" father but more like a protector bound by the Law of Surprise. We got it. 

                                          Ciri and Geralt

 So, I like to have the choice of seeing something fresh, and the battle of the mages in the last episode is mastery, especially because the pace and flow are so good. There are so many things happening but in a logical and magical nature. It all makes sense, even the placement of the wizards and their atacks are superb. It is similar to the epic fight scene from Twilight, but with better scenery, costumes, castles, nature, effects, everything. We can even see a reappearing sword mastered by a wizard failing to defeat the Nilfgaard lord and Yennefer from the tower telepathically linked and directing the wizard with some temperate words. Beautiful and with raw emotion. The magic of the castle fight is not too overpowering and its not presented like in a show, making it realistic. The same balance of magic is maintained in the rest of the show, for example in Yennefer conjuring of portals through the worlds, a genius and artfully done move, again not too flashy not too magical.  

                                           The Portal

 And i'm not saying these things because i'm a fan without critical thinking. I think The Witcher is a bit strict and demanding, and when you have this attitude mistakes occur. The ideea is not to be perfectionist, in my view at least. Geralt attitude towards Jaskier the bard, well, it sucked. An honest artist will always do his art presenting you through his work and artistic expression, which the bard did in a jolly manner. 

                                      Inspirational Ballad

Geralt wasn't too pleased of this performance, behaving like a star enforcing the law of copyright, seeing the singer like a thorn in his back, a profiteer who is after glory and women, as someone who hasn't got something better to do then follow him and take advantage of his image. Geralt was feeling threatened by the wit of the bard and sometimes strength and power is overun by sagacity. I was expecting the show to give a good example of acceptance and friendship, of not being so damn correct all the time with everything. Or incorect. To me, Geralt was behaving like those strict people that imediatly jump if you write about them. Touchy. Let others do their thing even if they are not politically correct, And Jaskier was certainly not so. 

To be continued...