The next season of that dreadful show is coming soon, a place to criticize that affront to the books and games is in order (unless it already exists, mods feel free to post the link and merge the threads if so)
As a day 1 hater of the show, it feels so vindicating to see how people who were glazing it to high heavens are turning on it (not talking about you specifically, just a general observation).
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I also count myself among the Day 1 Haters, the only thing I liked in S1 was the actress that played Calanthe and Jaskier's actor is IMO a good singer (but IMO not a good Jaskier) but that's it (also, Jaskier's songs in the Polish show were way better).
Yeah even S1 fans were turned off by 2 and 3, likely because at least in 1 it looked like they were following a plot (albeit badly weaved).
Same here, I like Calanthe's actress too, the way they handled her character was straight bad, but the actress herself is talented. I think Ciri and Jaskier were also pretty good - that's it, everything else was pure ass.
I knew that it was over when they've introduced that Aretusa turns students into eels. To be frank, I couldn't take anything seriously after that embarrassing big battle in Episode 1. It was funny seeing how almost everything that was dismissed as hating ended up being true in subsequent seasons, though. The outrage over Eskel's death was hilarious.
Oh god, Eskel getting turned first into a young assholish Witcher and then into Groot was something else in the worst possible way
. The people making the show truly have zero respect for the source material.
yyyYYYeah. That was just a whole box full of odd that more or less departed...forever...from Sapkowski's story. Don't even want to get into the Baba Yaga stuff. (My argument was always: "There's not enough fantastical material in what the author wrote? They needed to start adding their own stuff!?")Oh god, Eskel getting turned first into a young assholish Witcher and then into Groot was something else in the worst possible way
Hey, at the very least I don't have to see Cavil's mug in that stupid wig any time I open something Witcher related. That and hearing cringe viral songs.
Henry Cavill just doesn't fit as Geralt, and that's not even counting the bad wig and even worse eye contacts (which are surprisingly not better than the Polish show ones). The new actor fits the character even less, because at least Cavill was closer to the age range Geralt is supposed to look like. Seems like the showrunner just picked the actors she finds hot
You are very close to truth, because Liam Hemsworth, the new Geralt, was one of the initial frontrunners for the role.Seems like the showrunner just picked the actors she finds hot
I didn't know that, but I can't say it surprises me given the show's track record.
The thing is, I don't hate either of those actors, they've done well in other roles, but they just aren't Geralt.
I didn't dislike Cavill as Geralt, but physically, that's not what I envisioned. He pulled off the energy well, but I would have preferred him to be more grumpy and less "grim". (Weird consideration, but Geralt is quite whiny in the books. It creates an interesting contrast to his better qualities. Kind of like Gandalf in the LotR books vs. films.)
I doubt I'll watch any more of it. Season 2 wasn't "bad", per say. It had its moments. But they compressed waaay too much, changed more, and added far too much of their own vision for me to remain interested. It's not really The Witcher...it's whatever it is wearing a Witcher T-shirt.
I doubt I'll watch any more of it. Season 2 wasn't "bad", per say. It had its moments. But they compressed waaay too much, changed more, and added far too much of their own vision for me to remain interested. It's not really The Witcher...it's whatever it is wearing a Witcher T-shirt.
Geralt should have been like in the Polish show: throwing hilarious burns at his enemies. That show got Geralt right
To think a Witcher show done right could have been the next GOT/LOTR... we truly got robbed. Shame on Netflix Witcher.
I've only ever watched snippets of the Polish show. Can't really compare.Geralt should have been like in the Polish show: throwing hilarious burns at his enemies. That show got Geralt right
To think a Witcher show done right could have been the next GOT/LOTR... we truly got robbed. Shame on Netflix Witcher.
The whole Netflix/Amazon film thing, though...it's people leading/writing that I don't think really get what goes into good cinema. Someone clearly had a vision for The Witcher, Wheel of Time, Second Age...but they just didn't gel. It almost felt like student work in a lot of places -- people (with talent!) making very basic mistakes that any director or writer with practical experience at that level of creative work could have identified and fixed. Everything from departing too strongly from the source material, to over-compressing certain segments of the story, to interpretations that were wildly off-base.
I just don't think that the studios have access to the experience and personnel that they need to avoid running into those situations. They wanted to break away from Hollywood and the networks. Hence...they have to work with what they've got. It'll be an evolution.
You know what really irks me? The fact that across five seasons (and spin-offs), they've spent approximately 720 million dollars on that franchise - and it still looks worse than a low budget student film.Geralt should have been like in the Polish show: throwing hilarious burns at his enemies. That show got Geralt right
To think a Witcher show done right could have been the next GOT/LOTR... we truly got robbed. Shame on Netflix Witcher.
One of my favorite sci-fi movies is Upgrade (2017) - it has great acting, stylish cinematography and amazing fighting choreography. It has the budget of $3 mln. There is a great sci-fi film called "Prospect", with Pedro Pascal and Sophie Thatcher - that movie costs $4 mln.
How many amazing films, shows and cartoons could've been financed with this amount of cash, if given to people who actually care?
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True, I've seen shows with lower budgets that used said budget way better and had much better artistic direction. Netflix Witcher looks cheap and b-movie like, I wonder where that budget went. Certainly not to the eye contacts
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I recently discovered this youtuber, she's Polish and has lots of videos about The Witcher, she has some interesting things to say about the Netflix S4 trailer:
There's a "next season"? I haven't even kept up. I barely managed to push myself through the first season, when Cavill was trying his hardest to salvage something from the horrible writing. I gave up somewhere in the second season. Zero interest in whatever they're doing with the series, other maybe than cancelling it.
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But the Golden Dragon. We all loved the Golden Dragon from season 1, right? I mean, it was so awesome and overwhelming and majestic, just like a Golden Dragon is supposed to be.
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I tried rewatching recently, S1 was entertaining dumb fun but I ended up also giving up somewhere in S2, don't know how I managed to watch it all the first time. I don't know why promising and genuinely good shows keep getting cancelled while things like Netflix Witcher are allowed to keep going.
Oh god that "dragon", no way that's Saskia's dad
Most likely it's a combination of sunk cost and the show doing well according to the mysterious algorithm. It hit the right taste clusters and better shows did not:
I did watch the entirety of Seasons 1 and 2. Season 1 out of hope for something half-decent, Season 2 out of morbid curiosity. It boggles my mind how anyone could fumble adapting The Witcher. There are so many scenes in the books that jump out of the pages, so evocative and cinematic in nature. Such excellent dialog, too. And they ignored all of that, instead trying to dig deeper (emphasis on trying) into minutiae that were never really that compelling, or coming up with entirely different story threads.
I can see how a team of people that had previously worked on adapting comic books could decide to take an approach where the adaptation is fairly loose, since it has worked so well and so many times for film/TV adaptations of comics. Even so, however, it's been really poor - they clearly didn't believe in the quality of the source material and so it never quite felt like they got (or wanted to get) the spirit of it right. The Polish TV series, for all its faults and deviations from the plot, absolutely nailed the atmosphere, at least.
Anyway, needless to say, I have no plans to watch the upcoming season (or any of the spin-offs - animated or otherwise). I hope another studio gets a shot at adapting the books soon.
I can see how a team of people that had previously worked on adapting comic books could decide to take an approach where the adaptation is fairly loose, since it has worked so well and so many times for film/TV adaptations of comics. Even so, however, it's been really poor - they clearly didn't believe in the quality of the source material and so it never quite felt like they got (or wanted to get) the spirit of it right. The Polish TV series, for all its faults and deviations from the plot, absolutely nailed the atmosphere, at least.
Anyway, needless to say, I have no plans to watch the upcoming season (or any of the spin-offs - animated or otherwise). I hope another studio gets a shot at adapting the books soon.
I won't say it's almost as if they consciously didn't want to make a worthy adaptation, because we know that for a fact. It's written all over the show.