Review: The Witcher
There is a lot of confusion in The Witcher. Broad time leaps propel the audience into various moments and subplots experienced by the immortal warrior. Our understanding of the characters and the overall narrative comes in fits and starts. ideas reveal characters and characters reveal ideas in a recursive stream of narrative vulcanism.
All is grey, all is dusty and grim and oh so Game of Thrones, oh so Lord of the Rings, oh so Harry Potter and Dark Crystal. Andrzej Sapkowski’s source material spins a yarn that makes some of its competing fantasy properties feel a bit anemic. But as grand and epic as The Witcher appears, at its heart it is as personal and intimate as Potter. The characters and their motivations aren’t just driven by lore, but my personal conflict, experience, and ambition—and by love, deception and loss.
Henry Cavill’s Geralt, while retaining some of Cavill’s rather stoic acting, manages a depth of emotion that connects even to the children in the story. Never does the acting or the atmosphere remove viewers from the story. Fear of the other, chivalry, a lack of self-determination, unrequited love, personal transformation, self-hatred, disguise, power, and redemption weave in and out of the story, along with monsters human, fanciful and other.
Showrunner and creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich transformed several Andrzej Sapkowski short stories that act as a prequel to the extensive library of books and video games that constitute the long-term draw for the series. Many fans may not even be familiar with these particular tales.
As with much fantasy, hidden abilities, and discoveries of those abilities play a central role in the evolution of individuals as well as furthering the plot.
Everyone looking for the next fantasy series that will likely live across more that one or two years should hitch their unicorns to The Witcher.
Everyone looking for the next fantasy series that will likely live across more that one or two years should hitch their unicorns to The Witcher. Follow Yennefer, the queens and princesses of Lyria, the people of Erlenwald, the warriors of Nilfgaard, the Brotherhood of Sorcerers and the other assorted rogues and villains, saviors and saved as they trek through the stories of The Continent.
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Everyone looking for the next fantasy series that will likely live across more that one or two years should hitch their unicorns to The Witcher.
- inc. w/ subscription
To add to Henry’s involvement in the death of Roach. “Enjoy your last walk through the meadow and the mist, be not afraid of her, for she is your friend.” Is in reference to Geralt in the books meeting death, and it being a child who holds your hand into the afterlife. Henry himself wrote this, and added it to the scene of Roach’s death which before he intervened was meant to be a comedy bit, but he stopped it knowing how much Geralt connects with his horses. It’s one of the best moments of the season, and it’s all on him. Dude should be writing the whole damn thing if you ask me. He seems to be the only one with talent, and really reminds me of Viggo on the LOTR set, who learned elvish and incorporated book songs and poems and really understood Aragorn to his core. This is the type of dedication required to make everlasting impressions on people like aragorn has, it’s just a shame LOTR had an entire cast with this in mind, and the Witcher seems to only have the one.