The Witcher - Netflix **Spoilers**

Dyr

Sonics2k wrote: »

So, you've been kinda ****ting on this since the trailer came out, giving out about the 'diversty' hires and so on and the PC Agenda. Well it turns out they pretty damn faithfully have stuck the story of The Last Wish and hired some damn good actors in the process.

Oh, and here's the Twitter reactions.

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23TheWitcherNetflix&src=trend_click

Jog on with your usual ****e.

I didnt even mention the silly woke casting after the watching the first two episodes. If that was its only problem it would be doing well.

The verdict on Twitter? If Twitter meant anything Jeremy Corbyn would PM of the UK with a 5000 MP majority.

You know Kevin Bridges advice to people who use the phrase "jog on?"

Gbear

No spoilers because I won't have a chance to see it for a few days, but how's Freya Allen as Ciri?

is_that_so

Don't know the source material at all but it looks visually impressive based on Episode 1, a typical medieaval fantasy. Can't say I've any fondness for Cavill's "acting" but seems watchable enough if confusing in the narrative to the uninitiated!

Dyr

Gbear wrote: »

No spoilers because I won't have a chance to see it for a few days, but how's Freya Allen as Ciri?

Not up to much IMO, the girl who plays Yennefer is a good. A lot of the female charectars are not great, combination of bad writing and indifferent acting.

The guy who plays Dandelion is good but he's having to deliver some awful lines

The episodes with mostly Geralt or Geralt/Yennfer have a fair amount of good moments. It just constantly hits bum notes though.

Gbear

Gbear wrote: »

No spoilers because I won't have a chance to see it for a few days, but how's Freya Allen as Ciri?

as bad as she looked in the trailers

the rest is honestly great though, just not the cintra stuff

CrazyFish

Its decent. Cavill played Geralt much better than I expected. It gets a bit lore heavy at times with characters referencing things that I don't think add much to the story and probably confuse people not familiar with The Witcher. Found this especially in the earlier episodes.

Sudden Valley

Only watched the first episode but just makes me feel bad that there is no more witcher games in the forseeable future. I thought Ciri was okay but how many books were there until adult Ciri appears? Geralt was perfectly cast

RedRochey

Sudden Valley wrote: »

Only watched the first episode but just makes me feel bad that there is no more witcher games in the forseeable future. I thought Ciri was okay but how many books were there until adult Ciri appears? Geralt was perfectly cast

The company that made the games just signed a new deal with the author of the books so something might be in the works, although will probably be a few years

https://www.pcgamer.com/cd-projekt-has-a-new-deal-with-the-witcher-creator-andrez-sapkowski/

Ronanc1

StockTwat29 wrote: »

The company that made the games just signed a new deal with the author of the books so something might be in the works, although will probably be a few years

https://www.pcgamer.com/cd-projekt-has-a-new-deal-with-the-witcher-creator-andrez-sapkowski/

Man the more I read about Sapkowski the more I think he's a dick. Spent all the those recent years bitching about CD projekt Red and the games etc, but won't stop him from running back to that teat to get a better deal.

Back on topic I enjoyed the first episode was curious to see how they would adapt the books seeing as the early ones are more vignettes and narrated in more of myths and legends style (Twas true loves first kiss that broke the curse etc). Though I believe the latter books eschew that style for more traditional long form story telling.

Mickeroo

5 episodes in now, found the first couple a bit ropey but the last three have been really good. Cavill is perfect in the role and the actress playing Yennefer has been a lot better than I expected.

The Ciri stuff is definitely the weak link so far but is slowly improving I think.

Relikk

Only watched the first episode so far, but that dialogue is very ropey and brings it down quite a bit. I'm only familiar with the games and I've never read the books, but if it wasn't for my fondness for the games then I reckon it'd be touch and go on whether I'd continue to watch this or not.

Dave_The_Sheep

Up to EP6. Generally speaking, I'm liking the series a lot. I thought Episodes 1-5 were very solid.

EP6, however was a little ropey. The Villentretenmerth short story is one of my favourites and while they didn't butcher it, some things not nessarily story related really grated, and not just the lack of hot tub orgies. The design of the dragon, while I'm 100% sure is down to CGI budgets, really wasn't great. The Aard kiss scene was just silly as was a sorceress fighting with blade and not spell. The volatility of Geralt and Yenn's relationship wasn't shown very well which makes the ending a little ... out of nowhere. Similarly, the relationship between Jaskier and Geralt isn't quite at the stage yet where an outburst like that has as much impact. I feel pushing this episode slightly further down the line might have worked better, though with only 8 episodes, I suppose that's unavoidable.

It felt rushed. Weakest episode so far.

nix

Just got done on episode 3, and to be honest, im loving it a lot more than i was expecting. They are taking some stories from the first book (only one ive read) and making those stories much shorter, but not in a bad way, they are still staying true mostly.

My only issue with it thus far, is the odd bit of ropey dialogue, mainly in the first episode from the no name characters. And some of the set pieces are crappy, a bit too clean, like the likes you would see in the old hercules tv show. Mainly those scenes shot during the day. But any of the scenes set in the dark or in the snow look terrific thus far.

I was expecting the story in the first episode (

butcher of blaviken

) to be the best of the season, but episode 3 just blew that out of the water

Varik

While the episode was different in a lot of ways it was disappointing that one thing from the Jinn short story didn't make it into the episode,

the ancient spell/curse that Geralt used.

billyhead

Should you have read the books of played the games to watch this series to understand it?

Encrypted Pigeon

billyhead wrote: »

Should you have read the books of played the games to watch this series to understand it?

I have only read the first book and working through the second. I’m only at the start of ep 6 and to this point a lot felt familiar just from reading the book.

I’ll be honest, if it weren’t for having this familiarity, I am not sure I would have stuck with this, as a first exposure, it is a bit out there in terms of lore/fantasy. I’m curious how new audiences will receive this.

Jerichoholic

First episode was truly great. The fighting is absolute carnage, so well done.

Wasn't expecting it to be any good at all, but it's class.

nix

billyhead wrote: »

Should you have read the books of played the games to watch this series to understand it?

If you like fantasy/horror, give it a try at least. From any bad reviews ive seen on RT/meta, those that didnt like it were those that had no prior knowledge of the world or were just slow on the uptake of knowing when particular scenes were being shown at different times. Theres no "15 years ago" writing that pops up on screne, but i found it rather obvious and not because i know the witcher world

fritzelly

Third episode in and it's a slog knowing nothing about the series
Lots of characters being thrown into the episodes just to disappear again, really needed some world building for non fan bois

Hyzepher

Finished the series last night and thought it was great. Each episode seemed to be better than the last. Knew next to nothing about the subject matter aside from knowing it was a video game. Can't wait for season 2

nix

fritzelly wrote: »

Third episode in and it's a slog knowing nothing about the series
Lots of characters being thrown into the episodes just to disappear again, really needed some world building for non fan bois

Game of thrones was more confusing starting off to be honest, give it more time, info will start sticking and other characters will return.

BurnUp78

Watched the first ep thought it was just ok, nothing really grabbed me and made me want to binge the rest, may still give the rest a bash though.

Hyzepher

Hyzepher wrote: »

Finished the series last night and thought it was great. Each episode seemed to be better than the last. Knew next to nothing about the subject matter aside from knowing it was a video game. Can't wait for season 2

If was adapted into games. The show is based on the original books.

Jerichoholic

nix wrote: »

Game of thrones was more confusing starting off to be honest, give it more time, info will start sticking and other characters will return.

GoT has too much going on in the first few episodes, I've tried watching the first season a few times but couldn't grasp it and gave up. Way too much going on.

Skerries

Renfri would have made a much better Triss or

Geralt's mother

Gorgeousgeorge

Finished it today. Very good imo well worth a watch

I've played the games and read the first book of short stories and I'm still confused with what is going on

iwillhtfu

Haven't read the book, played the games or ever heard of this but said I'd give it a go and ended up watching the whole thing.

It's kind of a highlander meets game of thrones with some magic thrown in type of thing. The one thing was the story time line seemed a bit all over the place but it's worth a watch if you don't like the first few episodes you'd be unlikely to like the rest imo. I'd say there was some serious geeking out over this years ago I'm sure it has a following by the dungeons and dragons type.

If there's a season 2 I'd give it a watch.

fritzelly

Deleted User wrote: »

I've played the games and read the first book of short stories and I'm still confused with what is going on

Just on to episode 6 and only now realised all things Geralt are in the past (I think)

Spoilers after episode 4:

Would I be right in saying ciri is the child of that urchin knight? Why did they accept his offer?

GottaGetGatt

Found the timeline to be all over the shop. Almost frustrating to watch.

I see sheep

I watched episode one. It's absolutely terrible.

Fluorescence

Just finished watching the full season. Have never played the games or read the books (although I do know a bit about them and have been meaning to play the games for years). I loved this show. It was brilliant. It's more fun than GoT, there are some very campy cheesey dialogue choices, and there's a good balance of dark edgy fantasy with fun Monster of the Week romps. Once you click that each main character is in their own timeline it's quite easy to follow. The only thing I thought was poorly explained was Nilfgaard and why they're invading/after yer wan specifically (other than "Dey tuk are laaands" nonsense). Also, why are the bad guys dressed like penises? Genuine question.



Anyway, loved loved loved it. Wouldn't be for everyone I'm sure but for me it scratched an itch! Really looking forward to season 2. Might finally play those games that have been sitting in my steam library as well.

duridian

Deleted User wrote: »

Spoilers after episode 4:

Would I be right in saying ciri is the child of that urchin knight? Why did they accept his offer?

Response to your spoilered question which also contains spoilers after Ep 4:

Yes, you are correct. Ciri is the child of Duny (Urcheon) and Princess Pavetta.

As his reward from when he saved Pavetta's father King Roegner about 15 years earlier, Urcheon claimed Pavetta's hand in marriage by the ancient tradition of the Law of Surprise.

Geralt in turn saved Urcheon's life when Queen Calanthe ordered him killed. Geralt then invoked the Law of Surprise on Urcheon, requesting that which Urcheon had but did not know, namely the unborn child in Pavetta's womb, of which Urcheon was not yet aware, but Geralt suspected.

Varik

duridian wrote: »

Response to your spoilered question which also contains spoilers after Ep 4:

Yes, you are correct. Ciri is the child of Duny (Urcheon) and Princess Pavetta.

As his reward from when he saved Pavetta's father King Roegner about 15 years earlier, Urcheon claimed Pavetta's hand in marriage by the ancient tradition of the Law of Surprise.

Geralt in turn saved Urcheon's life when Queen Calanthe ordered him killed. Geralt then invoked the Law of Surprise on Urcheon, requesting that which Urcheon had but did not know, namely the unborn child in Pavetta's womb, of which Urcheon was not yet aware, but Geralt suspected.

Way he play it in show it looked like he didn't suspected it.

matthewmurdock

The first episode is utterly abysmal.

nix

I see sheep wrote: »

I watched episode one. It's absolutely terrible.

matthewmurdock wrote: »

The first episode is utterly abysmal.

Surely you can give a reason or two why :rolleyes::pac:

fritzelly

Finished.
Great finale but god those first 4/5 episodes were tough. If they weren't gonna do dates on screen (and understand the reasoning for it) at least they could have added a hue or something so you know this isn't the same timeline - they are a global audience who most would have no idea about the lore or anything.
After the third episode I was ready to give up, only all episodes were available I persevered.

duridian

Varik wrote: »

Way he play it in show it looked like he didn't suspected it.

Actually I think you're right.
I'm a bit biased by knowing things from other media, but on the show, at the exact moment that Geralt says he will take as reward the Law of Surprise, I don't think he had fully copped it.

In the earlier revelatons they spoke of Urcheon and Pavetta's nightly liaisons. At Urcheon's insistence of rewarding him Geralt also invokes Surprise. He reassures Calanthe of his intentions, that he is not planning on coming back to claim "a crop or a new pup", and proceeds to berate Destiny. No sooner does he say this than Pavetta vomits. I think this gives Geralt the last clue, he puts two and two together and realises that she is expecting a child. His reaction shows this as he goes "F###!!" when he turns away.

BopNiblets

I took his claim as being ironic and sassy while trying to leave, but then realising what he'd just done.
Could be destiny, could be just Geralt being Geralt.

I liked most of the episodes, I felt the last one was a bit all over the place, the battle was a bit disjointed

Cavill nailed Gerlado

matthewmurdock

nix wrote: »

Surely you can give a reason or two why :rolleyes::pac:

I can only talk about the first episode because that is all that I have watched. Feels like most of the people who will appreciate this are people who have extensive knowledge of the source material.

• We have two separate stories and no real idea of how they relate to each other. The transitions between them are incredibly jarring.
• The pacing is hilariously bad. For example - we have a scene at a banquet where some characters, a king and queen of somewhere (it isn't made clear where they are ruling and where this place is in relation to Geralt). They are sitting around and they talk about how there isn't going to be a war. The next thing some guy comes to the table and there is an invasion. A couple of minutes later we have a battle (the bit with the arrow through the eye is bloody hilarious, unintentionally I'm sure) and by the end of the episode the city is in flames. Feels like 4 episodes of plot in 1 episode. Everything falls flat as a result because there is literally 0 tension as we don't know any of the characters.
• The interactions between the characters don't feel real. Everything is completely melodramatic and at the same time robotic.
• Names of (strangely pronounced) places and people are dropped at a laughable place. No idea of the politics or geography of anything.
• The camera work is horrific - this blurry look that they do should see somebody fired, it breaks my immersion every time. I spent half of the first episode wondering if there was something wrong with my tv, because surely nobody would do that intentionally.

Padre_Pio

matthewmurdock wrote: »

• We have two separate stories and no real idea of how they relate to each other. The transitions between them are incredibly jarring.
• The pacing is hilariously bad.
• The interactions between the characters don't feel real. Everything is completely melodramatic and at the same time robotic.
• Names of (strangely pronounced) places and people are dropped at a laughable place. No idea of the politics or geography of anything.

Just finished it tonight.

I loved it but I agree with all the above. Totally uninitiated to the Witcher series, I was fairly lost on ep1, I had to turn on subtitles just to get a better idea of what people were saying and to learn the names and locations.
GoT at least has the intro cinematic which gives you an idea of the geography of the continent, feel like I should have had a map to understand who's invading what and from where.
Regarding pacing, it feels like you've just walked into a room when someone is halfway through telling a story, you've no context to what's going on, or who the main characters are, but it's still compelling enough to keep listening.

It all pulls together from ep3 though, and once you're aware the timelines are skewed you should be able to piece everything together.

Going to get the book this week.

nix

matthewmurdock wrote: »

I can only talk about the first episode because that is all that I have watched. Feels like most of the people who will appreciate this are people who have extensive knowledge of the source material.

• We have two separate stories and no real idea of how they relate to each other. The transitions between them are incredibly jarring.
• The pacing is hilariously bad. For example - we have a scene at a banquet where some characters, a king and queen of somewhere (it isn't made clear where they are ruling and where this place is in relation to Geralt). They are sitting around and they talk about how there isn't going to be a war. The next thing some guy comes to the table and there is an invasion. A couple of minutes later we have a battle (the bit with the arrow through the eye is bloody hilarious, unintentionally I'm sure) and by the end of the episode the city is in flames. Feels like 4 episodes of plot in 1 episode. Everything falls flat as a result because there is literally 0 tension as we don't know any of the characters.
• The interactions between the characters don't feel real. Everything is completely melodramatic and at the same time robotic.
• Names of (strangely pronounced) places and people are dropped at a laughable place. No idea of the politics or geography of anything.
• The camera work is horrific - this blurry look that they do should see somebody fired, it breaks my immersion every time. I spent half of the first episode wondering if there was something wrong with my tv, because surely nobody would do that intentionally.

I understand where your coming from on mostly everything except the camera work, didnt notice anything wrong there..

But yeah a lot of the info being thrown at you from the get go is overwhelming, even for me and i played the last game a lot and read the first book. But they dont help with much of whats been shown on the show, except the storyline Geralt is involved in and they did rush through that story.

You will have trouble with the geography probably forever or until you investigate into it more online yourself, but it does get less jarring as the show goes, and you will get more info on the characters and their actions as the show progresses. The show kind of bounces around the time lines so you will get more back stories on the characters in the fist episode mostly.. Id focus more on just the character interactions..

I would advise giving a few episodes a watch before hammering the nails in the coffin after the first episode.

Wailin

Cheesy as **** but enjoyable nonetheless. Just finished episode 5 so well into it. Cavill is a ****ing wooden actor but probably suits the role visually.

The comparison to Game of Thrones won't go away, but there is no comparison. The Witcher doesn't even come close going by this first season.

duridian

duridian wrote: »

Response to your spoilered question which also contains spoilers after Ep 4:

Yes, you are correct. Ciri is the child of Duny (Urcheon) and Princess Pavetta.

As his reward from when he saved Pavetta's father King Roegner about 15 years earlier, Urcheon claimed Pavetta's hand in marriage by the ancient tradition of the Law of Surprise.

Geralt in turn saved Urcheon's life when Queen Calanthe ordered him killed. Geralt then invoked the Law of Surprise on Urcheon, requesting that which Urcheon had but did not know, namely the unborn child in Pavetta's womb, of which Urcheon was not yet aware, but Geralt suspected.

That whole sequence was so confusing. And I even read that short story a few years back. Did it explain what law of surprise is??

Itssoeasy

I'm half way through the first episode but would it be fair to say it's not as good as the last kingdom ?

johnnysmack

nix wrote: »

I understand where your coming from on mostly everything except the camera work, didnt notice anything wrong there..

The crappy blurry camera work is one of the first things I noticed and it's really irritating. Like the above poster I agree that it's mind boggling this is what they were going for. Some of the secondary actors in each episode are pretty dire too.

As stated if you didn't know any of the lore you would be lost. They didn't even explain him taking decoctions. My friend asked why he kept drinking the little bottles of vodka!

Episode 1 was decent, 2 not great, 3 very good, 4 & 5 back to decent again. It's not bad but it should be a whole lot better. If I wasn't already a huge fan cause of the games I don't think I would bother with it. Geralt and the witcher universe deserves better.

fin12

Itssoeasy wrote: »

I'm half way through the first episode but would it be fair to say it's not as good as the last kingdom ?

The last kingdom is 100 times better. I’ve watched 4 episodes of this. The monster and screeching stuff was pretty hard to watch.

Ave Sodalis

Itssoeasy wrote:

I'm half way through the first episode but would it be fair to say it's not as good as the last kingdom ?

I couldn't finish The Last Kingdom. The acting was horrendous.

BKtje

I binged watched it hungover on Saturday. Ive played the third game and read the second book. (Dont ask, it was a mix up).

Overall I highly enjoyed it even though i didnt have a clue what was going on half the time. They really could do with explaining the little things better. I'm going to see if my gf will like it but ill give her a crash course before hand of what i know / have learnt so she can follow it a bit. Without it i doubt she'd persevere.

Looking forward to season 2