"Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" Netflix Delivers a Show Targeted for Fans

Over the decade, the open-world RPG has become one of the most popular video game genres to make. Games like Elder Scrolls and Red Dead Redemption have constantly pushed the limits of what can be achieved as far as the scope and size of their worlds. One of the biggest of these games that have served as a precedented gold standard of the genre, that has influenced so many other games that have been released since is none other than The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. Based on a series of novels by Polish fantasy writer, Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher follows the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, a witcher by race and trade. What exactly is a Witcher?  Well, a Witcher is a person who has been mutated by the use of magic in order to augment both their strength and immune system to handle potions, cast basic magics, see in the dark and have increased stamina and strength in order to make the perfect monster hunting machine. Despite the public service they provide, Witcher's are shunned for both their lifestyle and unsettling appearance, often treated as poorly as the monsters they are hired to hunt. Here' ns The Thing, this past Friday, Netflix released the first season of their serialized adaptation of The Witcher, starring Henry Cavill. I went into this show very skeptical because, despite my initial enthusiasm at the casting of Henry Cavill as Geralt, photos from the set and the first advertisements had given me cold feet due to odd choices in design and poorly edited dialogue that just felt cringeworthy. However, I figured that I owed the show at least an episode as I love the games and I love the books, and well, I was pleasantly surprised. Netflix's The Witcher is atmospheric, it's raw, and Henry Cavill leads the series in both his delivery of lines and the physical presence he brings to the role.

It's hard to pick a place to start when talking about the things The Witcher does well. The choice of practical effects over CGI as much as possible gives the show a Guillermo del Toro horror feel to it, the fight scenes are clean and free-flowing, making it easily the best fight scenes from a tv show since the first season of Marvel's Daredevil. You could write a list as long as my arm about the things that are done right, and it helps that the lead actor, Henry Cavill, is clearly as in love with Geralt as we are since he has very clearly both played all the games and read all the books due to the extensive knowledge he shows in interviews. Probably my favorite scene happens in the first episode where he recounts the first time he killed a monster to his horse, Roach. While there is definitely artistic license taken to best fit the director's vision as an adaptation, the end result is definitely a love letter to the people that made such a series possible: the fans. However, The Witcher's glory as a series walks hand in hand with its doom as this very same thing that makes it so beloved by audiences, is also it's the weakest point.

The singular most glaring flaw that this show has is just how utterly confusing and jarring the narrative is. The narrative lense jumps between different characters, different settings, during different points in time. Even for a seasoned fan of The Witcher, if you don't pay attention it is very easy to get lost in this chosen method of storytelling. This makes the show rather inaccessible to those unfamiliar with the franchise, and as such is already confusing people who are experiencing this story for the first time. I understand that is difficult to tell the story of The Witcher in a straight linear fashion, there is a lot of jumping around to explain the different stories of different characters. However, this is a massive failing in the editing department as something as simple as acknowledging these different settings through title screens or some other technical tool to help the audience better understand the narratives as they are being presented could have been used.

Outside of this narrative hiccup, there are very few things to complain about in Netflix's The Witcher, and with all the narrative lenses coming together by seasons end, I don't think that this will be an issue going forward. Between the high quality of this first season, and the promise and potential of what should be coming our way (filming for season 2 has been confirmed to start in February of 2020), The Witcher is a must watch especially for those looking to fill the void that was left behind in the wake of the disappointing finale of Game of Thrones.