I enjoyed it and I thought there was great set design and immersion overall. Really liked the episodes that almost felt like one offs.

But holy hell is this awfully exited and brought together. I see absolutely no reason to tell the story in this manner and it's really likely to turn off people with no background info. They also don't explain a lot of things very well at all.

Hope it comes back but the show runner seriously needs help.

MBAR said:

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I enjoyed it and I thought there was great set design and immersion overall. Really liked the episodes that almost felt like one offs.

But holy hell is this awfully exited and brought together. I see absolutely no reason to tell the story in this manner and it's really likely to turn off people with no background info. They also don't explain a lot of things very well at all.

Hope it comes back but the show runner seriously needs help.

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Ok thank you. Wife and I are watching and never read the books or played the games. After 2 episodes we're both going WTF and kinda wondering what's going on. Seems very disjointed.

Finished it up tonight. I like a show that doesn't spoon feed you every bit. I haven't played the games or read the books and didn't find it too hard to figure out. I thought the multiple threads woven together was a brilliant way to assemble all that backstory together into something entertaining that sort of climaxed through the season.

Can't wait until the next season.

I'm two episodes in and definitely getting a vibe that this season is one big setup for the future. I haven't read any books or played any games. Liking it so far.

I think to show the central theme of the show with destiny/fate it was an interesting way of telling the story. No matter what Geralt did and how he avoided it he found her anyways.

It starts off a little confusing but everything definitely comes together in the end and makes sense.

I do wish we got to see more scenes of him just brutalizing some people punisher style though. I hope that is coming in the future.

I think it's a solid first entry for a fantasy series and hope it builds into something special. It's definitely a high fantasy setting and I am all for more fantasy material getting its fair shake. Still praying for a proper Dresden/Mistborn/storm light. Dresden is just the perfect freaking show for a home like HBO or Netflix.

For context for those who feel it's a bit disjointed, the first season is pulled almost exclusively from The Last Wish, which is a short story collection that establishes many of the characters without necessarily being directly connected. Also included are other events, mostly told in the books through either flashbacks or conversations. All of it starts to come together a lot more when you get into the main novels when Geralt begins to really search for Ciri.

As far as understanding the world, I remember people having this same issue with Game of Thrones as well when it first came out. It's definitely more difficult to build a world like this on screen than on paper, and I can see them not wanting to completely bombard the viewer with exposition on every little detail.

bluefire579 said:

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For context for those who feel it's a bit disjointed, the first season is pulled almost exclusively from The Last Wish, which is a short story collection that establishes many of the characters without necessarily being directly connected. Also included are other events, mostly told in the books through either flashbacks or conversations. All of it starts to come together a lot more when you get into the main novels when Geralt begins to really search for Ciri.



As far as understanding the world, I remember people having this same issue with Game of Thrones as well when it first came out. It's definitely more difficult to build a world like this on screen than on paper, and I can see them not wanting to completely bombard the viewer with exposition on every little detail.

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Thank you.

bluefire579 said:

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For context for those who feel it's a bit disjointed, the first season is pulled almost exclusively from The Last Wish, which is a short story collection that establishes many of the characters without necessarily being directly connected. Also included are other events, mostly told in the books through either flashbacks or conversations. All of it starts to come together a lot more when you get into the main novels when Geralt begins to really search for Ciri.

As far as understanding the world, I remember people having this same issue with Game of Thrones as well when it first came out. It's definitely more difficult to build a world like this on screen than on paper, and I can see them not wanting to completely bombard the viewer with exposition on every little detail.

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There are just some things that people who have either read the books or played the games will understand that they never bother to explain at all. Examples include how Geralt uses magic, What the **** a witcher actually is, why silver, etc etc.

The aspect of it coming from short stories makes sense. There were some episodes that really just felt like one offs (and I really liked them) but barely had any connection to the main story line. But the bigger issue was the time jumps back and forth. My guess is that their aim was to make Ciri a bigger focus than the stories themselves called for and thats why they did it this way, but its jarring and its really hard to figure out things at points in the season.

All the time jumps aren't nearly as bad as Westworld

I've only read the first two books so far, but for frame of reference, Ciri doesn't show up until the 2nd-to-last story in book 2. Ciri's parents and grandmother are in book 1 (not sure if that story appears in this show), but Ciri isn't around until the end of the 2nd book, and then looks to be a very large part of books 3-7.

I'd describe book 1 as mostly world-building one-offs, until the Last Wish story with Yennifer. Book 2 is more character-exploring than straight world-building, with Geralt and Yennifer getting more of a focus. Books 3-7, as far as I know, are a large saga with Geralt, Yennifer, Ciri, Nilfgaard, etc. etc. etc.

Very excited to continue the books, and very excited to continue the show!

rhutton125 said:

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I've only read the first two books so far, but for frame of reference, Ciri doesn't show up until the 2nd-to-last story in book 2. Ciri's parents and grandmother are in book 1 (not sure if that story appears in this show), but Ciri isn't around until the end of the 2nd book, and then looks to be a very large part of books 3-7.

I'd describe book 1 as mostly world-building one-offs, until the Last Wish story with Yennifer. Book 2 is more character-exploring than straight world-building, with Geralt and Yennifer getting more of a focus. Books 3-7, as far as I know, are a large saga with Geralt, Yennifer, Ciri, Nilfgaard, etc. etc. etc.

Very excited to continue the books, and very excited to continue the show!

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Books 1 and 2 are both mostly short independent stories. Those stories are largely the basis of the series so far. The Citi portions are mostly not from the books or are changed significantly (dryad story line). Same with yennifer until the djinn story.

Yennifer isn't so much changed from the books as going into parts that aren't explicitly in the books. Her past deformity, for example, is mentioned, but you never see it, you only see her as the beautiful sorceress that Geralt is enamored with.

bluefire579 said:

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Yennifer isn't so much changed from the books as going into parts that aren't explicitly in the books. Her past deformity, for example, is mentioned, but you never see it, you only see her as the beautiful sorceress that Geralt is enamored with.

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You are correct I should have been more clear on my yennifer statement.

Agree with this. Yennefer's deformities are more stressed on the TV series than the books

Overall not to bad. It was basically the first two books. There are a few stories left out but I suspect specifically the temple that my fit better in the second season. They over did both fringella, cahir and the white flame stuff though.

I have not read the books or played the game. Have got through the first three episodes so far. To me the production values have been pretty good. It takes a while to get a handle on who is who, but by episode 3 it is pretty clear that the three story lines are not happening at the same time. Once you get that a lot of the confusion goes away.

I am glad that the showrunners here did not emulate D&D and run away from the fantasy elements of the show...though when your protagonist hunts monsters for a living and is a mutant even D&D would not have been able to avoid it.

I am looking forward to binging off the season the next couple of days. I assume like Dunkrk the various storylines will converge by the end of the season.

I really liked that we weren't spoon fed everything, and you start to slowly realize that this is not all happening at the same time. Figuring out which is yet to come, getting more backstory as the show progresses and so on.

Finished last night. Really enjoyed it as a whole. Looking forward to the next season in 2021.

I liked the sword fighting scenes, enjoyed most of the show, but that battle in the last episode was terrible.

I have a feeling that the budget came into effect pretty heavily with them not showing the scale of the battle well at all. It was all very close up moving back and forth from one area to the next without showing the scale very well. Looked like it was probably to save money,

Maybe I'm in the minority but I thought the battle was awesome

Man, just finished episode 3. That was fantastic stuff

Loved it. Big fan of the multiple timeline layout. They could've played the audience for dumb and just did a monster-of-the-week linear plot based on the short stories. Instead, they assumed the audience was smart enough to cobble it together via dialogue and event timelines (ala Dunkirk). Huge fan of the creativity.

tv1113 said:

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I have a feeling that the budget came into effect pretty heavily with them not showing the scale of the battle well at all. It was all very close up moving back and forth from one area to the next without showing the scale very well. Looked like it was probably to save money,

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Very similar to the early seasons of GoT when they'd show the start and aftermath. It was only once the budget grew exponentially that they could show the battles.

I'm not really wanting to see more cgi wide shots of the battle anyways.

Fryngella, the mage with Nilffaard was cold as ice at the end there. "Another fireball" just to test the defenses. Yikes

I feel like a dummy for asking, but in the genie episode Geralt simply wished to not lose Yennifer? At first I thought he just wished it to be free

I don't think they ever explicitly state what he wished for but it was something along the lines of not losing her I'm guessing,
so she thinks she has been tricked by magic to be in love with him.

redline248 said:

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I feel like a dummy for asking, but in the genie episode Geralt simply wished to not lose Yennifer? At first I thought he just wished it to be free

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One of the most popular theories is that he wished for their fates to be tied together- this would prevent the djinn from killing her without also having to kill him, which it is unable to do since Geralt is it's master at the time.

I've gotta start incorporating "hmms" into my daily life more.

redline248 said:

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I feel like a dummy for asking, but in the genie episode Geralt simply wished to not lose Yennifer? At first I thought he just wished it to be free

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IIRC, even in the books it's not explicitly revealed what Geralt wished for. But the intent/result of his wish is that his and Yen's fates are tied together

Very interesting.

So, were his 3 wishes that Jaskier would shut up, the jailer to explode, and whatever about Yennifer? So, without a vessel is the djinn, in theory, free?

Finished it on Tuesday. Really enjoyed the show. Looking forward to season two.

Excellent show. Finished season 1. The "tension" relationship between Geralt and Yennefer is done well. And they did a good job following the books. Excited for season 2.

I have not read the books, but I have played Witcher 3, which is excellent. Cavill nailed his portrayal of Geralt compared to the game. I also think it would help the Witcher noobs if they explained or showed more of what the potions are for and what they do to him, why he has 2 swords (or does he?), what makes him a Witcher, his magic skills, etc.

Overall, I thought it was a fantasist first season, and I'm very much looking forward to the next! Heck, I need to start reading the books!