Netflix will be releasing the first Season of The Witcher either later this year or early 2020. I like Henry Cavill but I wasn't sure if he was well suited for the roll. I'm wondering if this is going to be like Xena Warrior Princess or some serious Game of Thrones competition. Some others.
The trailer is out and it looks pretty good. The show will be an adaptation of the books and not the game.
The Wife and I binged watched the first 4 episodes. Given that I wanted to stop around 2 AM and she didn't, leads me to believe this show will be popular with women. It had drama, but no where near Game of Thrones drama. It does have plenty of violence, horror, sex and sometimes, weak humor. I think there is a good chance that anyone not familiar with the book or game will be thoroughly confused. I'm familiar with all the stories and I was still wondering if things were happening in the past or present. So far, I'd say it's very good. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 58/91.
I've watched the first 3 episodes. As someone who has read all of the books I've been able to keep up very easily but my wife keeps asking questions which leads me to believe the timelone is confusing to people who are Witcher virgins. They do move from the past to the present a lot. One minute you're with Ciri in the present, the next you're back in Yenifers back story or how Gerald met Dandelion. The downside is that as it follows the source material so closely it means I know what's happening all the time and know what's going to happen next.
I didn't realize they were flashing back until episode 4. It makes sense now, but at first I thought they were just changing the order of the story for some reason. I've only read two books so I didn't know who the first princess was or even if she came out of the book. The Stirga was awesome but I knew that story from a cut scene in the game. The only thing I wish they'd done was keep Triss's red hair.
I've now watched episode 4, another one that very much goes by the books. So far it's been more from the first book, which was a collection of stories. The actual Witcher saga hasn't really started at this point other than Cintra burning and Ciri escaping.
Watched the first three episodes. Realized almost immediately that this is a prequel to the main events from the Witcher, and that the plots for Yennefer, Ciri, and Geralt are set at different times. The acting is kind of uneven. Some of it is pretty bad, but Henry Cavill is really good as Geralt. My wife is enjoying it. I think between uber hunk Henry Cavill and most of the really powerful characters being women that this show will be a hit with women.
I've only played the games but haven't read the books, so it will be new material for me. I plan on watching the whole series this week.
I know some of it is only from the books. I'm excited to see episode 6 because it was my favorite story in the Sword of Destiny. I've only read the 2 short story books and to be honest I didn't like them that much. I've never been a fan of short stories and I didn't realize the two books I chose only contained short stories.
I watched a couple of episodes yesterday. I got more into it than I expected. I'll probably finish watching this series before the week is over. So far I'm liking the casting. I already was pleased with the casting of Geralt and Ciri, but much to my surprise I'm liking the casting of Yen much more than I expected. I still think of an Eva Green-ish looking character from the video games when I think of Yennifer, but this actress isn't bad and I like there are real darkness and struggles to her story to contrast her "enchanted" and far more glamorous look later in her story.
Witcher virgin here. Watched the first episode yesterday and it’s so far so good. Henry is good and I believe his character. I read some of the posts above and will try to keep up with the timeline changes. Hopefully it becomes more apparent when things are happening. It is nice to have a brand new fantasy universe to explore. Especially so soon after GoT. This show breathes like fresh air after GoT obvious England rebranding. It doesn’t seem like it’s based off anything. Will do a slow burn of episodes after the holidays to try and make it last. But I’ll probably binge the shit out of it. Although, does anyone keep thinking of Superman every time he talks? I keep changing his hair around in my brain and it’s funny. Merry Xmas.
Game of Thrones had a huge problem with running out of source material and hack writers trying to slap something together on their own. Witcher doesn't have that problem. There are 8 books and 3 games. They aren't going to run out of source material. And as long as they stick to the source material they should be fine.
For real, it started out as maybe the greatest thing to hit a tv screen and ended up a pale shadow of itself. Anyways, finished the Witcher season, day off and all that. Looking forward to season 2. Knowing that things were in different timelines helped a bit when the reveal came.
I finished the season. I like the show. It ended right as it was getting really good. This series has a lot of potential. Hopefully they stick to the books and games and don’t do any of their own hack writing. I’ve seen bad writing ruin way too many TV series. Right now I’d give it an 8/10. But it could easily become a 9 depending on what they do with it next season. It took a few episodes to get its footing, but the last several episodes with Nilfgaard attacking the mage fort were really well done with quality on par with early seasons of GoT. Also Henry Cavill nailed the role of Geralt. I think his portrayal is actually quite a bit better than what’s in the games.
I finished the series recently as well and may watch it a second time. I think they're sticking with previously written stories and popular legends and folklore most of the time. For example the hedgehog story was from the Bros. Grimm story "Hans My Hedgehog" rather than Witcher lore but it's obviously not just some crap they made up. The Witcher stories are grounded in Slavic mythology so mixing in a German fairy tale isn't too out of place BTW, there are videos of that song "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" with over 7 million views. I looked it up midday yesterday and the same video has increased by 500,000 views in a few hours when I looked it up again later. I wasn't expecting that.
Witcher already had a decent sized fanbase. Also a lot of people were super disappointed with the last few seasons of GoT and want something similar but better. So the popularity doesn’t totally surprise me. Dune is coming out later this year. And if they market it right I could also see that being popular. The Disney version of Star Wars disappointed a lot of people. If they market Dune as a Hard R Star Wars for adults, it could be very popular. But it will live or die based on marketing.
Finished the season and it was really good. It wasn't GoT good when GoT was good, but it came out at the right time. Too bad we might have to wait another year for season 2.