The Witcher - Season 1 Review

I feel sorry to all the idiots who though the first two seasons were any good :/. Now everyone jumped the bandwagon of hate upon season 3 release acting all cool and smart pointing its flaws out but nobody could see how butchered, second-rate, soulless, graphically ugly, B-class the world of witcher in tv-series was.

Everyone was just starving after some fantasy content that would fill the hole that game of thrones season 7-8 left to the degree that the audience was willing to swallow whatever turd was being produced.

I expect a written, public apology not from Netflix' the Witcher creators but from everyone who enjoyed the first season . It should be mandated by law at this point.

Not to mention Geralts retarded eye lenses. In every second scene he looks as if he had lazy goat eyes and yet still all the girls watching this tv are moist like a tropical forrest.

If I were a POC, I wouldn’t want representation in the ugly, sad world of “The Witcher.”

Even though no one will read this, I agree with the majority of what you had to say about the Witcher, but I do have 2 things to say in response. The fact that monsters aren’t always apparent on the surface level is something that has been part of the Witcher IP since its conception. Getalt even refers to the first person he felled after leaving Kaer Morhen as a monster because of his behavior as a rapist. It’s a point that is central to the Witcher, monsters aren’t always what they seem. As someone who enjoyed the games I thought that would be apparent. The other would be how the story is told out of chronological order, by your own admission you’ve never read the books, well guess what, the books are written out of order, not only the individual releases but the stories within each book. So I think that was the show runners way of paying a true homage to Andrej by keeping this facet of the story in the tv show, it definitely asks a lot of the viewer and reader but I think that’s part of why the books became so popular in the first place. It makes you think rather than just consume product.

All hail MILF-Guard!

S1 was decent enough, though at times the jumping around was jarring, and they didn't give story lines enough time to breathe. Too many important elements often felt rushed. Like Geralt falling in love with Renfre. Or was he enchanted by her? In either case, there wasn't enough meat or explanation, and yet I'm supposed to believe that Geralt's love or curse was so powerful that he took her broach as a love token, permanently attaching it to his sword, has his future decisions influenced by their short time together, and says her name in his sleep decades later. None of this was properly set up or given time to develop; and that's a shame, because its a great concept, especially since Geralt was forced to kill her in the end. There's also the thing that no one seems to talk about, and that's Yennefer literally drugging or enchanting an entire crowd of people into having sex with each other, and given their horror when they came to, it wasn't consensual. Yet its treated as if its supposed to be sexy, then later as a joke. But why? When Renfre decides to stalk down the wizard (in part) for the rape she endured, it was presented as a terrible thing that twisted her into a monster. And though the morality was muddled and heartbreaking, it still existed. Yet, in this scene, forcing people to have sex with each other against their wills is used as cheap entertainment with zero moral issue or gray area. It's not terribly offensive, even though its distasteful and off putting. Its crime is that it strikes such a different tone from so many other events. Take Jaskier's decision to lie about history. It was an off putting rejection of what is noble, moral, and good, providing layers, gray areas, and paints a bleak reality for this world. It made me question if I could like this character, which is a good thing. It also highlighted Geralt's nobility. And what about Renfre trying to get vengeance against the wizard who tried to assassinate her, stole her life, and was at least partially responsible for her rape? Understandable, but morally wrong, at least in Geralt's mind. Geralt taking a stand against her and inadvertently saving a slimeball like the wizard highlights an almost tragic idealism in the morally gray world they live in. And then there is the forced orgy scene that serves no purpose except to tantalize the audience and in which morality is ignored just to make Yennefer look...cool? It's entirely disconnected from the complex morality of the world and probably why it stuck out like a sore thumb. Aside from that, Anya Cholatra did a great job as Yennefer. Her gratuitous nudity was a bit much, but it didn't detract from her performance or the development of the character. I genuinely enjoyed her character, and Geralt. I really do wish this show had found its footing. Unfortunately, it crashed and burned, and Henry Cavil is once again perfectly cast in a story that just can't pull itself together.

Lmao😂

Watching this after barely getting through the first 10 minutes of season three sad they didn’t go in different direction. Writers need to watch your channel

Sapkowski is a Polish author. A lot of the creatures are based on Slavic folklore.
Not Nothern European.
But yeah, not much race diversity there; we were not involved in African slave trade and also Africa and Arab peninsula is not geographically close like in case of Spain, for example, to have mutual influences.

As a person who has binged Andrzej Sapkowski’s book as a teenager, this review was painful for me.
I’ve watched a lot of Critical Drinker’s videos, but this one lacks so much depth and understanding.

Also,
It is weird for me that so many people claim to be fans of the franchise when they didn’t read the books, only played the games.
The author had little to do with the Witcher game #2 and #3, as far as I know. He didn’t really think the games would be a success.

Yennefer isn't beautiful

I actually liked the season 1 very much. All the timelines converging into the final episode was really amazing. All the sigils combining together in the opening to became the Witcher logo was really amazing. I really liked the non linear approach in season 1. It was a fresh attempt to tell a story rather than have a linear storytelling attempt. But the quality really dipped after season 1. It became shitty as story progressed from S02 onwards.

Yes the fuking time-line narrative is so shity and confusing that ..

I like how Drinker thought the characters in the show were well portrayed and that the short stories aren't a way to build a world thinking that source material was bad... when it was the writers who just didn't want to (or couldn't) understand and portray the source material. And the way it showed in later seasons. It shows how sometimes we might not know what's wrong with what we're presented, but somehow we can feel something's off.

When I first watched the show, I was at the same experience level as Drinker having played the games and not explored the world in any other way. The show convinced me to read the books, because I could not believe they were so admired with the way the show (supposedly being faithful to the source material) told its story, just repeating the word "destiny" over and over along with having Yennefer bounce around the world being the most childish character in the entire show. Not to mention the way the supporting characters were presented, starting with King Foltest and ending on Jaskier/Dandelion. Then I read the first book of short stories and realised that one conversation in the first short story between Foltest and Geralt achieved much more character/world building than the whole season of the show. In the books you can see every character is different with their own set of beliefs. Sometimes they aren't even well written, but they still fit the world. In the show every character is a slave to the story so each time someone speaks about "destiny" it's like they've already read how the saga is supposed to end. They aren't talking about their own experiences and beliefs, they are just pushing the story along with words that do not fit their personalities or circumstances. And that's because the writers completely failed to understand that each character in the books had their own experiences and thoughts, often completely contrary to the previous character. Instead they made everyone exactly the same and built the world more in the image of Game of Thrones, instead of The Witcher books.

Honestly a perfect analysis
And I don’t often see that in reviews at all

you should DEFINITELLY read the books, it will give you a whole new dimension to understand what and absolute bastardized dogshit non-sensical bland pile of crap this show is

I so wish they could just do a geralt killing monsters n shagging hot women series . I like yen but dear got fridge Ciri asap

FYI, the first book was a collection of short stories that had a well written backbone. The premise is the Witcher is looking back at past encounters & mistakes & grand adventures that he’s thinking back on & retelling to his priestess friend who is patching him up after a huge scrap. In the backbone it reveals that the Witcher has been slowly weakening but not from age or world weariness but because his fate has been sealed with the events that slowly reveal itself in future books. These stories all relate but they tore out the strong backbone that connects them, like even why he’s at those places. It’s kind of tragic what they did to the overall story. They jammed the whole Siri storyline in there when only her parent’s getting together & the father & grandmother essentially pledging the first born to the Witcher group through lore of surprise.

Season one was the only good season. Unfortunately.

To be fair Alexander the Great led in front. Albeit, he was a highly trained male warrior.

the timing of the farts is perfect

I would like to say that Star Trek was coming back as a TV show before star wars came out. It just became a movie instead due to star wars. Trek was bigger then ever in the early 70s and was a legend already.

This is the first ever video from you i straight up dislike. I find it incredibly bad "reviewing" to fault a show for certain things, when those things are from the source material, that i am aware you said you haven't read, but literally half Ur "cons" are from the books, and half of those cons don't even make sense once you realize that for example... The books predate before most of the themes were cliche .. there's a reason these themes are NOW cliché

I agree with the overall assessment however, I found being thrown into the deep end and not knowing much about the world drew me in and made me want to know more. I often get bored with a new show or the beginning of a movie spoon feeding viewers. It almost always feels contrived and lazy.

I liked the first season of the witcher. I hate all the follow ups

I can't stand Yennifer. She doesn't go through any development in the show, she's just a selfish and bitter character who everyone in the show seems to fall in love with, even though she's always rude and never thinks about anyone but herself. She's never satisfied and always thinks she DESERVES everything.

The best part of the show was Cavill, and that's the one part they're getting rid of now. Shame.

That didn't aged well

Never played the video game so I came into the series blind. I have enjoyed most all of it, I agree that some of the cgi is real ify. Being a sword and dagger nut/ low level collector I’ve been really impressed with the sword work. To get it right is actually really hard. 😊😊

Back when we thought these shows had a chance. When we thought the makers wanted to try to impress us instead of piss us off deliberately.

Yennifer was not casted right. Way too young. She looks the same age as ciri now and looks like a child compared to Cavil. Oh that fits for Hollywood

Watching this video now, in July 2023, is really depressing. There was hope and opportunity for this show. It could and SHOULD have been great. But... there is no going back now.

Unpopular opinion: Geralt could've been portrayed better by Cavill's performance. It works, but it isn't that big of a deal as most people cry about. Perhaps he got better at it with season 2 and 3, but in season 1 I found it just very mid.
Also sadly dialogue was at Xena level, but that's not Cavill's fault.

My biggest problem with the show wasn't the characters, stories or actors. It was trying to fit 3 stories into basically 40 minutes. The books took their time and told 1 cohesive story to make it emotional and well understood. The show rushes through every story so there's no time to understand what on earth is going on until the end of each mini story and even then the meaning gets lost. This is as early as the first episode

Only now I started watching the witcher ,just finished 4rth episode... damn i already can feel shit smelling ,its nicely shoot but why the hell elfs are black , its also has sh*t ton of the message in it ... damn i would not even say that the witcher is the main heroe , so much stuff have time diarhea that u just dont get what the f is going on at first. I wanted to watch only 1 seasob because have heard its garbage on season 2 and 3 ... but damn boiii what the hell

Sorry for such a late comment... You did manage to find serbian version of polish books, to show after you show Andrzej. Just a fun fact. 😁

now they are gettin to the good stuff
I mean blood origin, season 3
and in future season 4 without henry

if your ever bored, or without any internet: invest your time in the books.
they are... like fantasy writen for adults.
There´s only one other author that made me stop more often to write something down I wanted to memorize.
Another beardy guy with VERY slow work ethics :D Mr.Rothfuss ?

This was really entertaining as usual. I agreed with most of your takes, in fact what you said word-for-word about Jaskier made me say "SAME" aloud at the same time. It’s a love-hate relationship with his character cause whenever he speaks it’s supposed to be funny and overly dramatic… which is a hit or miss with this show.

Funnily enough I think the 3 timelines structure of the film was really fun from the generic beat for beat storyline and I thought it was creative and at times pretty cool. But yes at the beginning of the show it was confusing to realize this was what they were trying to do and kinda jarring because they just expected us to not only figure this out but figure out the world too…. Still. I like the fact that they even trusted us to figure it out, it was a little like a mystery we unlock with each episode but just felt like a smart show. 🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️

The Fresh Prince of Rivendell - hits me hard🤣
Well, i got knew universe of "Withcer" before games, they were damn good, esp third one, it is amazing and characters were wrote nice and act naturally.
But when i saw an a cast of show - it outraged me! For God sake! Scenarists, play one part of games at least, to see, to understand "what is this world looks like"! F***ing idiots, the blew up my ass and let it burn untill i landed on the Moon. I've tried for a several times to watch 1 episode, but failed, gave up after 20min.
How i hate that brilliant choice for Triss! Arrrrrrgh. I don't wonder that Netflix losing they price, cuz, don't spit on your auditory. But NO(!!!) Loran Schmidt just take her pants off and fits in to drop a tons of sh*t and thats after fu***ng success of "The Witcher: Blood origins"...
S*it, i need an extinguisher.
Ooow, they f**ked up at 1 season and get more intense in second.

Most of these unanswered question can be answered, if you played the games with great attention beforehand. I quite liked the show.

Season 1 was awful frankly if it wasn't for the nudity it'd be unwatchable. The timeline made no sense to most people.



Season 2 was literally unwatchable.. i tried multiple times to watch the first episode and then multiple times the second episode.. i gave up the 3rd episode.

I managed to finish cursed.... Yeah I finished that piece of shit ... I couldn't make it half way through season 2 of the Witcher

I think Cavill was attempting to sound like the game voice actor but came across like 'I am Batman', the acting generally was below average, Yennefer's performance one of the worst.

The games are so much better than this 'show'.

Dieversity is the answer to most of your rhetorical questions about the series.

The modern feminist idea that they need masculine type women to be the heroes then let 90% of the cast be shown naked is a strange concept indeed..How corny and over the top,not dark and not interesting this first season was is why i hated it. Was like watching a more confused Beastmaster or Xena or some god awful shit. Childish songs,very silly characters and illogical nonsense.. Yuck