A Song of Men and Monsters - The Witcher: Season 1 (REVIEW)
written by Justin Prince (@prince_justin)
Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy epic, The Witcher, comes to Netflix in grand fashion. After bringing to life a Polish film and television series, comic books, and the critically acclaimed CD Projekt Red video game series, a new adaptation that brings to US audiences an interesting new take which ends up being surprisingly true to the source material. I’ve played the games and through those I grew interested in the books. While having a preexisting interest in the lore of this world isn’t a requirement, it does offer a benefit.
A lush narrative full of fantastical beasts, harrowing adventures, political intrigue, and massive large scale battles. While the titular Geralt of Rivia is the Witcher of this story, and is the subject of the novels and video games, this series takes an interesting approach by leading with not one, but three main protagonists who are all intrinsically linked to each other. Geralt of Rivia, the Butcher of Blaviken, a member of a mysterious sect of monster hunters who earn coin by slaying dangerous beasts and possess super human abilities thanks to forced mutation. Yennefer of Vengerberg, a beautiful sorceress with unimaginable power and control over chaos. Princess Cirilla, tragic princess of Cintra; a kingdom sacked by the power hungry Nilfgaardian Empire in an act of pure cruelty. These three characters share equal parts in the narrative of this first season, something I personally loved since I’ve always been fascinated by Yennefer and Ciri though their arcs are peppered across much of Geralt’s adventures.
At first glance, the episodes can be a bit confusing when you try to view them in sequential order, the best advice I can offer for people walking in blind is to view each character’s arcs separate except for the ones where they intersect. Geralt and Yennefer posses long lifespans and their stories span several decades while Ciri’s story is more linear and in a shorter period of time. For example, in one scene in the first episode Ciri wishing to learn more about war asked her grandmother Queen Calanthe about it. When the queen points out Ciri’s age, she replies that she was her age when she won her first battle. Jumping to Geralt’s part of the first episode, Renfri mentions that Queen Calanthe has just won her first battle, setting the events of the first episode Ciri and Geralt scenes decades apart.
While I’ve heard criticism about how following the narrative was confusing, I honestly didn’t come across that. I felt the pacing was spot on and they dedicated an appropriate amount of time to each character. I felt like Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri were equally represented in this first season. The casting was stellar, and Henry Cavill killed it as Geralt. I can tell that he really cares about this character, he made an infinitely better Geralt of Rivia than he ever did a Superman. Anya Chalotra is amazing in her role as Yennefer. She portrays the sorceress during two distinct phases of her life, her early days as a hunchbacked woman with facial deformities who makes a sacrifice to have her body literally remade to become a beautiful sorceress. Finally, Freya Allan as the young Princess without a kingdom absolutely nails her role. Ciri is vulnerable and shows the makings of the strong woman she will eventually become. What I feel I loved the most about this season was that Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri share equal character development. I love that they went this route because while Geralt is the aforementioned titular Witcher, his story is so interwoven with the people he interacted with… primarily Yennefer and Ciri, two women who make up a dynamic of family for Geralt with the woman he loves and the woman he cares for as his own child.
As for the side characters introduced, fans of the books and games will recognize when Triss Merigold (Myanna Buring) and Fringilla Vigo (Mimi Ndiweni) are introduced with the former acting as the other great love for old Geralt and the later tied to Yennefer’s past. But of course the side character who will be the most remembered will have to be the amazing Joey Batey as Jaskier, the spoony bard we’ll one day know as Master Dandelion. From the second episode, the song Jaskier wrote to tell the tales of Geralt’s monster hunting adventures was firmly stuck in my head. You’ll be humming, or outright singing this song for days after binging the series.
Overall, The Witcher was an absolute win. While it wasn’t perfect, it did excellently captured the themes of the books with much of what gamers loved about the games. I’m already prime and ready to jump back into this world and am kind of bummed that I have to wait until 2021 for season 2! I hope that unlike this first season, season 2 will come out in early 2021 rather than later. Please Netflix, let me give you my figurative money! All I want to do it… toss a coin to your Witcher.
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Toss a coin… Toss all the coin!
