My favourite part of this show is when Vessemir at Eskel's funeral says: "That doesn't make any sense", because it was me while I watched any part of this show
Netflix butchered Witcher series pretty bad. Terrible writers that don't want to follow original content, but lacks the skills to create even something remotely good.
I had the same thought when watching The Two Towers, when of Sam Gamgee and Frodo were taken to Osgiliath by Faramir, and Sam's says "We shouldn't even be here!", which is correct of course as they never went there in the book.
Deviations are a risk. You want to cash in on a existing fanbase and brandname yet won't follow the original. That can work, but it need to be good. Otherwise it feels as though you are disrespecting the original. RIP Eskel
But why deviate so strongly when you’ve already got a provenly popular source material to draw from Either they’re too incompetent to even try, or they’re so arrogant so as to believe they can create something better
I think id they were going to do these deviation s then you just go all in on it and don't tie them to the books at all, im sure they're are plenty of good witcher stories you can come up with without following the books and butchering it along the way, while deviating it extremely from the books you're trying to follow.
The funny thing is, I watched this show without any knowledge of this fantasy world and story whatsoever, never played the games or read the books - and even I noticed the issues with Yennefers character, the inconsistency of the plot, the geography and travelling....so it seems like this could be only thoroughly enjoyed by turning one's brain off. A pity, really, seems like there was a lot of potential for great storytelling there!
I actually feel sad for the poor people who are watching the show but have never read the books. I really cannot understand why often writers feel the - apparently desperate - need to change so much from an incredible source material (and creating something far worse). That being said, if we consider The Witcher show like a different story with respect to the books (which is true except for some contact points) it is still a story that gives the idea of having potential but not being able to exploit it. The inconsistencies are HUGE BLACK HOLES and a lot of characters have a story arc which doesn’t make any sense, if not to create some action and events to fill some minutes (see “Fringilla”, “Francesca”, “Cahir”, even “Vesemir”) just to end up at the same point as the beginning basically. In general, the show doesn’t give that feeling of being a serious show but rather of being a stupid-jokes-action show (in perfect Disney style).
I hope one day you make review of polish tv show (2001), its too far from source material as the netflix show, but in some moments its so much better, than netflix. Golden Dragon episode is my favorite, its actually much closer to source material than any episode in netflix show and i love it
I did like the show's portrayal of Mother Nenneke and the Temple of Melitele. She is not how i pictured her when reading the books (but so what?) and unfortunately she had to do a lot of exposition (remember *Show* don't *Tell*), but she came across as wise and mentally tough and they touched on the fact she knew Geralt, which was welcome (surprised she was not therefore also killed by a monster of the day like Eskel! Jeez!). I *really* liked the idea that the young Witchers-in-training would come to the Temple of Melitele to learn their signs. It makes total sense to me. It is not in the books but does not contradict anything. Nice touch. The fight scene in the Temple of Melitele was excellent, as in the choreography was brutal and smart. However, fights in shows (unlike real life) are usually one way to advance the story... which did happen with this fight, but i just didn't buy the story it was telling.
i don't read the witcher books, i just played all of the witcher games, which is extraordinary good. And then i watched this netflix show, i didn't expect it to be precisely the same as the whole story that i've already know, since the show is just "adaptation" from the book, but after i finished watching the show there is so many thing that felt so wrong and so annoying. One thing that really annoyed me the most is vesemir characther, how in the world that he became stupidly unwise grumpy old bastard, this is not vesemir that i know.
As a Slavic person myself, I get a feeling that they totally messed up the atmosphere. Wither 3 conveys this bitter, gloomy and desperate feeling of being stuck in a hopeless world, full of evil, where decent people eventually get either killed or devoured by their dark side. The reason why I love the game so much is that CDPR did a great job creating this atmosphere. The players always get a sense that whichever decision they make, it can never truly be right - it's a constant struggle to choose what is "the lesser evil", nothing more. This is what makes the Witcher universe unique and beutiful in its own rather sad but impressive way. The show, on the other hand, "westernized" the story completely, stripping it off everything Slavic and converting it into another typical Netflix project. They just kept the characters' names, really, everything else just feels wrong to me, with a couple of rare exceptions. Like, come on, humans hated elves not simply becasue of the shape of their ears. In the books, the historical and economic reasons for the tension between elves and humans are described in detail, once again showing that there were no "good" or "bad" people involved in this conflict, making it a much more complicated matter. A better example of the difference between Slavic and western understanding of things is the story of Nivellen. Books are ready to accept that even a man who has raped a pristess can have a good side to him and may deserve compassion. Generally, as I stated above, virtually every character in the book is complex, and not one can be lablled as only a hero or only a villain. However, the western discourse can't allow that to happen. Netflix is set on showing the viewer exactly what behaviour is encouraged and what is to be frowned upon. This is not a Slavic way of doing things. Yet for me the worst thing they did is butchering Ciri's relationship with... well, basically everybody?.. In the books, she meets Geralt before they both know that they are each other's destiny, so their bond develops even without this knowledge. That is why when book Ciri finds out she and Geralt are connected, she already has a good reason to trust and love him. However, in the show she just meets this guy she's never even seen before, falls into his arms happily, like... why?.. Ok, he might be her destiny and all that, and her grandma told her to search him, and she has no one else to turn to at the moment. But she has no reason to either love or trust him. Not yet, anyway. The father-daughter chemistry between them in season 2 doesn't seem very good, either. And don't even get me started on Yennefer, the dynamics between them in the show is just awful and it's clear for everyone to see, I guess. Yennefer is probably the worst character in the show anyway, so whatever. I can see my good man Henry is doing his best, though. They really should have let him run the show.
Yes. They showed the Elves as if the Elves were some kind of saints, but the Elves were also involved in several crimes against the humans. The war between Elves and humans isn't simply a race thing, there's no "good" side to that war.
I am from the UK and I one thousand percent agree with everything that you have written. I love the game and the books, and The Witcher deserved so much more
As a person loves Russian novels and can understand more or less how their mentality works, i totally agree with everything you said. Especially the lack off Slavic atmosphere! Kept telling something is wrong with the show and it wasn't just about choice of actors and actress' but also the spirit of books. You wrote down whatever i wanted to👍🏼
When I first saw Yen interacting with Ciri in The witcher 3 when she arrived at Kaer Morhen (before knowing anything about the books) i thought hey that's a beautiful moment, but nothing special. After I read the books, seeing how yennefer called Ciri ugly all the time and how their relationship developed, I immediately burst into tears when i heard Yen say "My, you've grown beautiful" in the game. That's how you make a good adaptation. And this is just one small example
The story is already there, and cast members such as Henry Cavill seems very passionate to tell it. So why not just tell it? The writers for this show are horrible, there’s no other way to say it. How do these people get paid trying to (and failing at) flex their nonexistent writing skills by worsening a completed, well thought out and consistent story? They seem so confident in their writing abilities that they present it to a respected and popular franchise, despite only an idiot not realizing all they did was ruin the story they’re trying to improve. How egotistical and delusional isn’t that? And forcing your cast to act out these terrible scenes you made, despite them clearly not wanting to.
One of the dumbest things I read about was that the writers tried to have Geralt make some smart arse joke at Roach’s death. Cavill talked them out of it, but still. I mean, seriously you clowns, Geralt *isn’t* some weisenheimer, quick with a bon mot or other snappy patter. He’s a grumpy, posing as cynical killing machine. He doesn’t *do* one liners!
Honestly, Henry Cavil is the sole pillar holding that series together and making it watchable. If it wasn't for his mostly accurate, solid performance everything else would be too lack luster to attract fans of the franchise. Although I do have to say I really like the actresses' portrayal of Ciri, but that alone isn't enough to hold the show together.
Cavil is one of the many reasons I cannot stand the show. His personality is nowhere close to book Geralt and only mildly closer to game Geralt. The actor is a sweet person, however, and I'm sure he tries hard because he loves the games. It just isn't quite enough for me. Ciri, yes, the only actress that I totally agree with, she looks and acts just like I imagined Ciri from the books, she's wonderful and feels lost among the many acting dilettantes.
yeah, them two are great.. - and Yen-actress was well done in season one as young Yen... but ... as grown-out witch she doesn't stand a chance to save this miswritten charakter... or she can't display a century old charakter like Liv Tyler did back then... or it is just me being older now... but i can't help... when i hear witch... i think of Eva Green as Morgana ... still think she would have given a much better old Yenefer... and with being much more in Henry Cavills age i could enjoy the love scenes much more... i just don't buy those too...
@@186bingo She is amazing, but I wonder why there's no indication of her being the superior, and a very old, sorceress .. Ah, just so many missed opportunities
The Netflix team are treating the show, like I've treated most of my jobs. With the attitude of: "I don't know. I don't care. I only work here. Where's my paycheck?"
It's bad fanfiction. That's what Season 2 is. Inconsistent. Lore breaking. Bad writing. And either boring or confusing. Action =/= entertaining. Nivellen was the only episode that felt like the Witcher.
aswell i think - at least for me - killing Eskel is not that much of a deal - but inventing a bunch more witchers beforhands and not killing them but Eskel, just to kill them all in the last episode without giving them anything to do in between...
@@zoefezius6615 Killing Eskel shouldn't bother anyone, he appeared in the books for a like a paragraph at most. The worldbuilding, weird baba yaga character (I have no idea how they're gonna tie that back into the Wild Hunt), and general weird choices are far more of a problem. I'm mildly hopeful that they do seem to listen to feedback from fans and make changes, so hopefully they can figure some things out (Maybe their covid pause allowed them to flesh the script out more). It does seem like they're under pressure from netflix to just be another GoT as a cashgrab, which is disappointing, but I'm still hopeful they can pull it together
@@nikeaddict55 it would bother anyone who played Witcher 3. Eskel is involved in the game and killing off a character that may be familiar to anyone who read the books or have played the game is just a bad choice especially when the show has so many nameless Witcher’s that could have been killed instead of eskel. It just upsets fans who assumed they may see more of a character they enjoyed.
@@MrJayza89 They could still "fix" it, by just doing their shitty writting and write Eskel back in next season, in a way that he was never possesed, but Leshen took his form, kinda like Doppler, and won a fight against Eskel. Then took his clothes, medallion and got inside Kaer Mohren but real Eskel would be alive. Ofc it would be dumb plot, but it's not dumber than killing him off, just because originally casted actor had covid so they recasted him with someone else who can't act.
Thank you, this reviews are funny and very enjoyable... unlike this series. PS.I started Blood and Wine on January and I defeated Detlaff thanks to you.
Question is : are you done with this mediocre series ? There are 5 more seasons right ? Are you going to keep screaming silently while watching your favorite lore getting butchered by the minute ?
If Cavill really introduced the line "Destiny isn't sufficient, something more is needed", then he's literally the only one who actually GETS it. Because that line is arguably the most important line in witcher lore.
@@xLetalis "Am I your destiny? Say it, Geralt! Am I your destiny?" "You are more than that. Much more." That line moves everybody reading the books and that line is why everybody cried when they saw the flashback in Witcher 3 when we finally find her again. If you don't get THAT moment, then you don't get anything at all about The Witcher.
@@xLetalis it's also the meaning behind the entire "The last Wish" quest in Witcher 3... Yennefer wants to find out if it's just destiny or "something more". NONE of the relationships work if THAT line isn't understood.
Don't worry guys, Eskel will be back for season 3. When it's revealed that Ciri's tears can resurrect any dead characters. Remember when we said that no TV shows writing could be as bad as Game of thrones? 😂😂😂. I mean you have 5 books with a finished and coherent story. How do you fuckity fuck the fire fucker up?
@@munken7673 D&D were very good at adapting the story when they had the books... well, first three books. But the fourth and fifth one met critism and the other two are not even published.
I think in the books Yennefer is a character who never loses her dignity, whose spirit is never broken. Even when she is tortured by Vilgefortz, her clothes torn, bleeding - she holds her head high and won't let herself be broken by such lowly beings. She seemed way more wise, collected and experienced as in the series. I often admired her way of carrying herself and speaking in the books and games and I don't get that same vibe from her in the show. Another thing that I hope we see in S3 is more dark academia aesthetics, more scholars and maybe the Oxenfurt university. I also wish they did something for the history nerds and bring up some nice looking banners, armour, buildings, agriculture etc, because I'm sorry but not only the Nilfgaardian armour still looks bad compared to anything they came up with in the games. Especially Emhyrs armour looked not very dignifying - don't they have it in their budget to buy (or have made) proper looking armour for at least the important characters? I understand that they have very limited money, but there must be something they can do to get out of the worbla-looking stage.
like it's so hard to look up some fuckin artifacts or manuscripts or effigies etc. for reference for arms and armour lol :D thats what the games did (really well imo) it's the easiest way to get functional looking armour and not some random stupid shit that "looked cool" for them.
Yennefer has a character in the show, but different from how she was in the books. In the books she is an aristocratic entitled passive-aggressive bitch. In the show she's a traumatized ambitious woman who manipulates people to get what she thinks she wants.
@Football-Pundit Even Geralt is not in the half of the books, maybe even more lol. Yennefer is definitely the third most important character of the books. And the fact you don't like her doesn't change that 😂
In this show, she's first a millennial political tool, & she's a woke hollywood view of a teen idol second. Simple, this show is like if you put Riverdale in a fantasy earth's 1300's.
About geography... S1E7: In Sodden, one merchant informed Ciri that she could reach the coast on a fast horse in about one week.. So trip from Cintra to KM should take at least two months
ok, and take 8 episodes to show them traveling... There's not enough time to tell a decent story what makes you think they will take the time to show days/weeks/months of travel? Kinda impractical.
@@celticbabs3105 they don't have to show they can tell. Except they didn't. It is implied that they got to kaer morhen overnight because if the trip actually did take enough time that would mean that Baba Yaga was possessing Ciri for like a month or more
@@celticbabs3105 what the hell are you talking about? They don't have to show them travelling, they just have to be consistent and logical, if it takes them two months then acknowledge it took them that long to reach there, not skip the timeline entirely and act like you got there overnight.
One of the first things that Yennefer does in the first season (once she become a sorceress) is to feel sorry for herself... (Wagon scene) You won't find a single line in the books of her feeling self pity. Is the absolute opposite of the character. I don't know what are they doing, but not a good adaptation that's for sure. I remember a director who left the project in the early stages... He clearly saw something messed up.
I don't think that's a flaw itself since they did add a lot of content that wasn't there with her background. It makes sense that she wasn't always exactly the same, especially for a sorceress who can have a very long life. Her character was built overtime and developed into... well, yes, whatever the fuck season 2 yennefer was, but the point stands that season 1 yen makes sense
@@totalpichatron8787 I looked him up the guy turned out to be a legend man. He directed Sopranos, Rome, game of thrones, house of cards, ozark... No wander he left witcher he is too good for this show.
I think at least a part of the problem with trying to create a mother-daughter bond between Ciri and Yennefer in the show is that the characters are so close in age. They aged Ciri up to at least mid-teens, and Yennefer looks and acts more like a young woman in her mid-twenties at best. With that small an age gap between them, the dynamics between them should be more like sisters than mother and daughter, if they want to make it look plausible - but of course they can't do that, because the narrative is already set up for them having a mother-daughter bond. So what we're getting instead is this hybrid compromise that feels forced and somewhat awkward.
One last thing i will add here is that, the witcher books are morally complex. You cannot distinct what or who is good and evil, there is consequences to your action even when you are being neutral. Even the CDPR manages to put this messages into the videogame. Netflix witcher on the other hand is trying to look like it has morally gray charachters or the world but instead it has good and evil morality. They just trying to convince people that by making charachters do first good and then the next episode or season evil thing that makes them morally gray charachter. NO, its just makes them dumb.
Yup. And it is infuriating to someone like me who is spending a frell ton of time trying to convey the morality of characters in my own setting, from cultures that are vastly different to our own. Like, one of the "lawful good", actually the only lawful good, characters in my world is going to effectively exterminate a species of sentient and thinking beings, because his people have been their cattle for hundreds of years. Or this other guy, who's whole thing is liberating men from a brutally matriarchal society only to institute an even worse patriarchy in response to the brutality of the women running the matriarchy. And these are the simplest guys, as things like slavery and homophobia are fairly rampant in this world due to it being medieval.
@@xLetalis thank you so much for all these reviews. You are one of my new favorite youtube channels. Please when you get the chance watch Conan O'Brien's Clueless Gamer of the Witcher 3 if you have not seen it. I have a feeling you will nerd-out just like I did.
yennefer is my absolutely favorite character from the franchise and to an adaptation manages to make me annoyed by her just shows how they are doing stuff BAD
The sad thing is that the Witcher games take place after the events of the books and thus are composed of story lines completely made up by CD Projekt Red, yet manage to seamlessly depict the very essence of the Witcher universe. The Netflix show in the meantime, is working with the source material! Yet instead of the Witcher universe, Lauren has managed to script some sort of a spinach-and-onion-pudding sad excuse of actors on film. And the tragic thing is, all the actors are actually doing a really fine job. The plot direction/script is simply so awful that you can not help but bleed from your eyeballs.
There's quite a lot of abandoned book story lines that cdprojekt completed in the witcher 3. The whole wild hunt story thing was abandoned iirc. Which makes me worry about the show because the wild hunt aren't really important in the books.
Well put. I tho k Henry is doing an amazing job as Geralt and in every interview with him he talks about how much of a Witcher nerd he is. Definitely the writers not the actors
@@StabStabStabStabby Have you heard (or read) the interview where Lauren says Wild Hunt will be the Thanos of Witcher? Yep she's gonna take even more "creative freedom". It doesn't bode well, especially since her reveal of the Wild Hunt having human like looks was so lackluster... like why? People are supposed to think they look like horrifying spectres out of nightmares for seasons to come, not know that they are humanoids -__- She just took all the intimidation away from them yet she somehow wants to build them as even more intimidating than in the books. Hell smart viewers are able to sum up that since: Voleth Meir --> part of the hunt and Voleth Meir is an elf = Wild Hunt are elves.
Never read the books in my life and only played TW3-- and I literally can't agree more. I went into this season excited and open minded after S1... but the storytelling & dialogue were so utterly godawful that I couldn't even make it through Episode 6.
Completely agree. I'm not against profanity, I swear far too much myself, but in writing it has to serve a purpose and often shows the type of character they are. Out of context, if you just write "yeah, we were attacked by a firefucker", you're going to think it was a low born or dock worker or someone like that in fantasy. Not a classy, 100 year old, witch. I feel like we've gone back to using naughty words and jokes to get cheap laughs and I don't like it.
The Lady of The Lake is easily one of my favourite books ever, so it really disappoints me just how many elements from the end of the series were screwed up this early on.
The main issues I had with season 2 is how the character of Yennefer became... one dimensional. Only interested in power and nothing else. Her relationship to Geralt was almost forgotten, not to mention the one with Ciri. Like you said as well the swearing is an issue in itself, it became almost parodic at some point. It just looked like at some point, they went in such a different direction from the books, I was no longer recognizing any event in there, or almost none of them.
Yeah and the worst thing is that the overlap between the 2 audiences is pretty meaningful. There's going to be a lot of miserable people because it's piling up
The Witcher was doomed from the start given its long and troubled development under Netflix before the first season began. There was just no vision, or even much of a director who understands the material. It's exactly like how much Disney had handled Episodes 7-9; a bunch of writers screwing around and when it got so bad behind the scenes, the execs stepped in to frankenstein the mess. At least the Game of Thrones guys knew what they wanted to do (up until you know when) with putting A Song of Ice and Fire onto TV. So they had the graces of, and the senses to collab with, the bloody author of the whole books to keep a cohesive narrative on point........ up until they naturally ran out of book material. If the Witcher books are comparable to ASOIAF, then Netflix's Witcher is comparable to the last 2-3 seasons of Game of Thrones. Out the gate borderline unwatchable for me and uninterested to follow up on any further. I'll just stick with the games if I wanted to see these characters and setting *as detailed in the books* do original things with the lore.
The writers wanted to make jokes when Roach died and Henry provided an alternative. It was on short notice if it was up to him he would've rewrote the whole thing I believe 😅🤣😂
@@adamsirin7249 lol how is he not the right build? hes like 6'2 215 ... if anything hes actually too big to be geralt and should be leaner in the 200 range
@@onebuffalo5402 You answered your own question lol. Exactly, he isn't in the right build of a lean, flexible swordsman. He has the body of a gym rat. And it looks ridiculous when he fights. Stiff as a board with a bum the size of California.
This show gives me a vibe of poorly written piece of fan fiction. I can't help but feel sorry for the actors - they are doing a great job in the given circumstances. I am from Ukraine, so I guess I am allowed to say that the show sadly fails to create decent semblance of slavic mythology and atmosphere. Thank you for the video! I always enjoy watching your content)
"Everything woke turns to sh*t!" I forgot who said it, but it definitely was a smart fella. ;) The Witcher isn't the only epic fantasy world that has been defaced by Netflix or Amazon.. The Wheel of Time was at least as bad as The Witcher, if not worse, and the biggest disaster is gonna be the LotR show... Who hires the idiots that come up with these productions? There are tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars on the line and they choose to put people in charge that don't care about the original stories and the lore in the slightest, all that matters to them is to meet their woke quotas and the best way to virtue signal to people that don't even watch these shows...
@@diegoolivaresgonzalez42 I know. Here is what I said: "The Witcher isn't the only epic fantasy world that has been defaced by Netflix or Amazon.." " The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" too, btw.
i would exclude no. 1. was weird that ciri was there, but everything considered a good adaptation. was quite disappointed after watching the rest of the season though...
@@maxmustermann369 i wouldnt, Nivellen part was still less than a half of the episode while we had to watch other miserable plotlines, and because of that it wasnt even close to be as good as in the books. I didnt expect him to give this long speech about all the chicks he had, but the mystery with bruxa couldve been handled much better. In the end, this episode wasnt as frustrating as others but still bad
unfortunately the ratings of the show on various websites like imdb and rotten tomatoes do not reflect a single problem. Every episode except for the one in which Eskel died had a rating of 8 and above. The casual viewers are apparently enjoying the show, either we're being too nitpicky or they are not seeing beyond what they're seeing.
@@lola-to9om To play a young Ciri, Eva Green is way to old... But for Yennefer, she has the right age, the right face and _(if you seen 300: Rise of an Empire)_ the right attitude plus the perfect body. *The woman is made for this role.*
Spot on, as always. I tend to be harsher in my criticism, but it definitely comes from a good place. I wish it had respected the lore a bit more, but they did not. I also wished they stuck to their internal rules, even the ones they pulled out of their ears, and they could not even do that. Like you said: they do not know what they want to do with this. It is life, I suppose. This is not the first story ruined by incompetent writers and decision-makers, and it surely won't be the last. Such are the times...
Sapkowski did such a great job with his world building in his books. Adding huge amounts of backstory to the world. Characters with their of fully fledged out story who exist just to be killed, like the courier. Such characters make the world come to life, make you feel the world is more than just the main characters. As you say, the Netflix show completely does away with all that world building because they completely skip over everything to fast-travel between locations.
You got one point perfectly correct: Yen's problem is not the swearing, it's that her swearing is her answer to everything! Just like a stupid teenager who cannot control her mood swing. Every situation she's in in S2 she just swears to it, and runs away, and does something dramatic....
Yup, 100% agree with all the points you've stated. I think all this has happened majorly due to the fact that the show is clearly lacking a Lore Master. There's noone clearly looking over the scripts and checking whether it meets the lore, or even if there is deviation, checking whether the logic and reasoning is consistent throughout the series. Game of Thrones show while Benioff & Weiss were showrunners, I heard they relied heavily on Bryan Cogman who oversaw the season scripts overall for any errors, contradictions etc. Obviously no one in The Witcher writing room, so it's no wonder these contradictions, errors in characterization are rampant all over the place.
While I do agree with you regarding a brilliant Witcher adaptation needing someone heavily lore-familiar to look over scripts and stuff, I'd like to stress that the show's writing is of bad quality generally no matter lore inconsistencies. I mean, if you just look at the series for what it is... say you're someone that has never read a Witcher book, you wouldn't possibly consider the series to be well-made, it's arcs and plot twists are quite frankly absurd or boring.
@@afrobossi8360 That does not contradict - they still should have some kind of Lore Master. Even if you do not stick to the lore of the books, you should stick to your own "lore" (and ideally have someone that oversees that). But they do not - obviously no one checks for inconsistencies. So while they do not follow the books, they are not consistent even with their own content, which results in a bad show even for a viewer unfamiliar with the books.
You guys have clearly not read or heard Lauren's statements. This is 'her' own thing and making shit up and defying the lore is her own powerplay, basically.
One of the geographical mistake from season 1 is Ciri's journey between Cintra and Brokilon Forest. There must be Yaruga River here. This is why Nifgaard wants to take Cintra, to pass Yaruga. The show doesn't explain any of them.
I refused to watch this season and I regret watching the first one. This review just confirmed all I expected. I am the books purist and I won´t stand for any of this bullcrap. For me, the only adaptation I might consider is the original Polish one, even if the author hates it. At least, it has the right Geralt, music and atmosphere. Watched it 20 years ago and even now I recall some scenes, the first Netflix season I watched 2 years ago and all I remember is embarrassment. Phew. Now, I need to soothe my nerves in The Witcher 3 game.
I regret watching the show as well. Just started novels, about to finish BoE, but I feel like I have a predisposition for hating Yennefer based solely on the show. At least I wasn't invested enough to picture these characters while reading (though I think Henry Cavill does a fair job). Now I'm waiting on finishing the novels before another playthrough of Witcher 3.
The writers could really learn some things from your videos. Too bad they probably saw the immediate popularity of the show and thought they were geniuses
When I first saw Yennefer in the witcher 3, my first thought was " Eva Green should play her if a movie ever appears " . She would portrait Yennefer`s attitude 100% . Same goes with the looks.
@@markusbisma5015 exactly henry should've been the producer, he has played the games read the books and is a huge fan he sure would've done a far better job .
After season 1 I genuinely wanted to give the show runners the benefit of the doubt. Now with season 2 I can't help but join in on all the criticism. Back when I still wrote fanfiction I was so careful to be consistent, for my story to make sense, for the characters to be true to the original. How come a room full of professional writers fail to do the absolute basics? Season 2 really was a joke for most of the time.
I guess that the worst mistake is not staying true to the source material 😅 As a Polish guy I feel especially sad since A. Sapkowski had to have signed an NDA saying he can't complain or some such and all he can do is praise.
I think he's mentioned several times that he's simply indifferent to both TV and video games in general. The only things he's really seen with regards to either the games or the show are the paychecks he received for the rights.
He obviously only stares at his money he gets. So he doesn't give a damn about the adaptions. Like he even said (years ago) in a interview when someone asked him about the games: "Did you ever play or look at the witcher games? - AS: what games, i dont care about games, don't even want to see it, I don't care" Can't believe that such a person like him, wrote a epic, emotional story.
Because he knows he won't go any higher now. He's on the Netflix platform, being watched all around the globe, but he fails to acknowledge what CDPR has done for him - if it wasn't for the games, the western audiences wouldn't really read any of the books (they started being translated only after the success of the games; btw, even ex-president Obama was gifted Witcher II by the Polish when he came here). Had he acknowledged that (I believe deep inside he knows, but is too stubborn to say that), he would've done so much more and we could've had so much better of a production instead of this woke and unfaithful garbage.
@@mateuszliszewski he really doesn’t care. He views games and other media only as adverdisement for the books. For him games are only fanfiction and have nothing to do with jos story. Same with the netflix show. It serves only the Purpose to get the witcher name out there. Even if the show is bad people will defend the books which are his work. I don’t find the setien bad, it is like the games, just another spin on the stories sapkowski wrote.
At the end of the day people who know nothing about this lore will probably enjoy the show which is probably the majority of people watching, while fans that know the lore will dislike it. So we're basically fucked if we expect them to become more accurate to the lore
@@skrawl8374 I've only Read Blood of Elves and played a little bit of the Witcher 3. I hated this show before doing either of those for many reasons, and I hate it more. Frell me, imagine if I knew more.
"Why the obsession with mutated monsters and not using the regular ones first?" Thank you! It´s nonsensical. If the viewer hasn´t even experienced how dangerous the variety of regular monsters can be, the elevated threat of mutated monsters runs completely empty. It´s just an ego mistake by the writers to make everything more extreme and highten the stakes. But it has no meaning without reference.
I can already tell you now that Ciri and Yen will be two tough, strong girl bosses who don't need Geralt at all because he is a man. Also they will be mom and daughter somehow despite Yen attempting to sacrifice Ciri and Ciri knowing what she was doing (along with Geralt who would kill Yen for even thinking of it)
My main problem with the show is that the creators do not feel the audience and the world of the Witcher. If in the 1st season I am ready to turn a blind eye to many problems, unfortunately in season 2 many problems have opened up in their own lore and plot. If they are going to build their own universe, then let them follow other projects, and do not pretend that they are somewhere in the background. I don't know what they will come up with in the Blood Origin, but I have big concerns about this show. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. And of course they will be waiting for your analysis!
"My main problem with the show is that the creators do not feel the audience and the world of the Witcher. If in the 1st season I am ready to turn a blind eye to many problems, unfortunately in season 2 many problems have opened up in their own lore and plot. " I haven't watched the Netflix show, but this is what I respect in the 2002 Polish show - they gave a different background and characters, but they stay consistent.
Regarding mother daughter relation between Yennefer and Ciri well...what the show did here with the whole Yennefer taking Ciri away, in hopes of sacrificing her and regaining her power should have SERIOUS impact and some real trust issues between the two characters to overcome from now on!! Seriously that should be the most obvious thing, Ciri should be angry and ill disposed towards her from now on, now Yennefer is supposed to teach Ciri harness her power! Even though so far Ciri did so instinctualy! And it might or should be even worse than the initial reaction of Ciri towards Yennefer in Blood of Elves book! We're talking here about a serious event, Yennefer just changed her mind at the last moment! Lying to Ciri playing on her feeling towards Geralt in the show...if they hanwave that in season 3 then it will truly show lack of care or sense in their writing! Regarding worldbuilding, geography, and geopoltiics, it was horrible! THe show managed to make the most intriguing and interesting political subplots from book into total borefest! The audience really has no reason to care at this point, they should have made it more interesting, also how they treated various rulers and kings, their plots and plans, some of which in the show make no frickin sense! How is Redania supposed to take over Cintra in the show?! Claiming Ciri just to marry her off to Vizimir as Dijkstra has it?! It makes no sense, not to mention that Redania is going behind the back of all other kingdoms, that are not even reconizeable enough, they are just there in the background. Kingdoms should no seek alliances nad make their plans to counteract Nilfgaard's expansion but everything the politicians do in the show is unfeasible most of the time or completely out of whack, even the brilliance of intelligence head Dijkstra is dumbed down I mean Dijkstra's plans in the show have slim chance of success or are not making any sense! The whole deal with elven spy and so on is not well thought out. Somehow the Game of Thrones managed to portray the vastness of world, multiple far flung locations and so on, at least in the earlier seasons, even the journey was given enough focus to depict it is time consuming and so on.
cause they don't know the source material... this is with many book adaptations. I quite liked GoT for example (the early seasons, not that parody in the end), but my friend that has read the books said there are many things different and therefore didn't like it. It is usually the same story: "A good show for newcomers, a hell for fans"
In my opinion, three the worst things that happened to the Netflix witcher are: 1. Lauren Schmidt Hissrich 2. Lauren Schmidt Hissrich 3. Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
how i felt about this season... don't even know what to say, it was hell of a Clown fiesta. Writers and directors probably didn't have anything else to do and decided to "give it a try" which is a terrible approach towards this iconic franchise and a huge disrespect of fans in my opinion.
I totally agree with all of your points. It seems like this show was made for Mainstream people who have no knowledge of the books and have a basic understanding of the game (Like it's a videogame where he hunts monsters and have political bullshit). So whenever they hear inconsistencies, they don't care as much. Since to them, this is new information and just brush it off. The show is basically, let's use the Witcher to make our own version of the "Witcher" and tell the people: "Look guys! Monsters! Witchers! Politics! Inclusion!" And here we have poor old Henry sprinkling a few "Canon" lines here and there, just for us actual fans of both the game and/or the books. The director being someone who don't care about consistency just goes with it thinking that "Yeah! That'll make the nerds happy!" Fuck man. It's a good "Main Stream" show, I suppose. You just have to turn your brain off, sadly.
I don't even think its a good main stream show. If it had been made well people who weren't fans would have got in to it but as it is, the plots are terrible, a confusing mess that nobody wants to deal with. What a waste of Cavill.
yeah, mainstream - bad mainstream... and because of this i think they won't be able to adopt any of Ciri's storylines any more... much to outdated and sexist... even when picturing a strong women in a way this kind of art did back in the days... - so i really don't wanna know what they are up to with the wild hunt... as it can't be the real wild hunt.... because of political correctness, and them including this Voleth Meir-char... which doesn't fit to the story at all in my opinion... an who can explain me, how witchers, who are barely able to do their signs - and never had any other magic abilieties... were able to create such a big magical trap then this hut ??? and when she is just an elven mage... as being part of the wild hunt.. why not just kill her? and why all this was the entrance in an elven temple? did witcher work for the elves? were they even created at this time? and why there were no witcher - stop do not entry signs in this temple? just some elven things?.... i really don't get that part of the story...
I didn't even finish season 2. Such a shitfest. The writers really don't care a bit about this universe. At least they managed to cast random black people for slavic characters just for the fuck of it. Netflix should have probably let CD Project write and produce the show at this point. They at least know what they are doing with this franchise. Worst thing is people on reddit and youtube are still defending this clusterfuck of a show it's a disgrace to call yourself a Witcher fan while defending this abomination. Not even gonna bother watching the third season. There is no hope they save this show at this point without changing the writers. When they made the show even worse after the first season.
The showrunner and the "adult" writers destroyed the series. Period. I believe the lord of the rings: the rings of power in Amazon will be the next victim. Thanks for your hard work. I always enjoy your reviews.
Such a disappointment. The first episode was pretty good. I tapped out after the second episode after they did Eskel so dirty. I've watched all your reviews and while your reviews are always great, I feel like I didn't miss anything at all by not watching the rest of the season.
Some of Lauren's interviews are so awkward and cringey, almost all her explanations just don't make sense. God, such a pity, this universe deserves so much more...
To be cynical, since it's been two years since season 1, maybe Netflix hoped we forgot all about it, lol... Now, seriously... I think part of the problem with the story, inconsistencies etc is also the fact that every episode is/was written by a different person. For some reason unknown, Netflix really likes this and does a lot, it can be seen in other shows. If it is too much for one person (and I personally see no reason, since they had a lot of good source material that should have been just adapted like LoTR or first seasons of GoT), isn't it better to keep that one writer and just give him/her some assistant writers? That way, you have a person to keep in mind the main story line and some others to help with the ideas, so inconsistencies could be avoided? Anyway, I hate this show almost as much as it hates babies (considering how many babies were killed in it) and I quit watching it with 0 intent of doing it ever. What for? To watch Ciri scream more than a bruxa and it all just falling in place after that for no reason? I don't know... I just can't digest what Netflix did and that's it...
Your review series on Season 2 was significantly more thought out and passionate than the show and I appreciate that so much. Thank you for reviewing the show even though it was so disheartening for diehard fans.
To think that I was so happy that season 2 was coming out :') Now I'm just so disappointed. I don't mind changes in the source material when they make sense, but in season 2 there was barely any source material. I think that if they followed the books it would have been a slower season (which I honestly don't mind), but they were afraid of going in that direction. Which resulted in this absolute mess. At least it jumped the shark in the beginning and not after six to seven seasons like Game of Thrones
Couldn't have summed it up any better. I'm starting to think the Henry Cavill leaving rumours might be true. As a fellow witcher fan he'll no doubt feel the same. Watch Netflix try to get Yen and Geralt back together next season. As if Geralt ever would after what she did. Once you have a sword against your gf's neck, I doubt there is any coming back from that. Thanks for all the effort you put in. Looking forward to going back to some more pleasant content😊❤️
It'd be kinda funny tho and can hardly make it any worse. Sure it would be great if they somehow managed to save the show, but I don't know if that's even possible at this point.
Again, an amazing video with a lot of truth. Hey, at the end you even say that Yennefer betrayed Ciri and Geralt, and this is also one of Triss' arcs in the books XD She just steal everyones story ;) I often said here that I truly dislike the show, sure I am a giant book fan and this can be the major reason here, but even without book knowledge the show is imo just medicore. You made a good point with the missing world building, imo the moment where Netflix failed with world building and character development was the very first episode of season one. I know I stay in the minority with this opinion but this episode really missed the mark on story telling. And yeah, I also though what Netflix took from the actual book lore, and it was like... 10% or so and even those 10% were heavily changed, so in the end as you said before, the book covers should remove the Netflix artworks... PS: Do we want to bet that in season 3 some random guy makes a "selfaware" joke to one of Jaskier's ballads, that the people in the ballad travel large distances too fast?
You know why Yen is acting like a teenager? Drinker puts it very nicely: "today shows are written by children..." I'm not surprised whatsoever by this show. Wasn't expecting much, wasn't given much
YES! Been waiting for this one! Honestly though...It's still a shame that an adaption of one of my favourite things is this poorly written and constructed. But I guess that's par for course of Netflix adaptations. I wonder how Henry feels? There's also gonna be a Bioshock Netflix adaptation, and I can smell the shit from 5 miles away.
That's my fear with Amazon's LOTR series, I loved the Witcher but Tolkien's universe is my favorite and I have the feeling they will do to it what Netflix did to the Witcher.
@@roymercer1996 I concur. I think it will be best to only give it a go after reading some reviews. Both Netflix and Amazon don't come to mind when thinking about companies that produce shows for the sake of their story and immersion.
@@roymercer1996 i am sure the amazon lotr will be even worse than the witcher, even if only by demonstrating the lack of ability to even bring an homage to the original 3 films. Even the hobbit trilogy felt really forced at times... this amazon thing will be a teenage series with tolkein cosplay, from what it s showing so far. Also forgot to mention - that is not even to mention that it will never come close to the books in any way
The worst mistake of the Witcher series is that it was entrusted to be filmed by people who absolutely do not understand the lore of the universe, whose goal is simply to film something (indistinct, illogical and uninteresting)
I feel that with S2, the one thing that brings it down is the writing, yeah there were some funny moments, but the characters feel completely different from the source material, even the previous season. it just seems to hop about all over the place, and as a result, the pacing feels so quick for a series like this.
The three mistakes are- The show is called the witcher; Henry Cavill is in the show; fans trusting the writers to improve even when they did a lot of character in s1 dirty.
How can a TV show be so sloppy as to constantly contradict _itself_ , let alone the movie that's supposed to be in the same continuity? Overall, it's okay as a TV show I guess, but an abysmal adaptation.
I usually give a bit more latitude than most with adaptations if they're able to tell a coherent story and they stay true to the original characters. That's why my biggest problem is Yen's arc, and her portrayal, in Season 2. It's just undermines so many facets of the story.
I personally enjoyed in some places S1 and more Nightmare of the Wolf. But I disliked in many ways S2 because of mistakes and inconsistencies between projects. I personally thought that Vesemir anime brings more lore to the world than S2 does. I was disappointed and maybe the picture of what they want will become clearer. But now I'm in a lot of confusion...
I mean S1 wasn't super good, but i watched it all. As a fan of series it was fun to see those characters come alive, fight scenes of Geralt were really good. Jaskier was good, it had its moments. I actually stopped watching s2 halfway. I was dying of cringe. Everything is wrong and nothing makes sense it's the worst show I've watched. Not only a bad adaptation but also a terrible show on its own. Some of the actors are also beyond terrible, i googled them and all are, no offense, from very low level actors to 0 experience ones. Like where did the budget go..? Is the director buying herself cars and houses with all the show money? The anime was pretty good on the other hand. Liked it more than any seasons of the show. It built a lore based on stuff books didn't explain much. And characters, writing, fights were pretty good.
Thank you very much for your work on this season xLetalis, I always follow your videos with pleasure. To end on a positive note, I would like to say that, although I absolutely hated this season, it at least made me want to rediscover the books I had read years ago. They were even better than I remembered. What a great universe than that of The Witcher, what a beautiful story ! I have no doubt that one day, we will get a faithful adaptation.
Anyone else besides me think that big chunks of the problems with 'Rings of Power' are actually bastard leftovers from Netflix's Witcher? I mean 'damn!' Galadriel is basically S2 Yennifer just with (thank whatever merciful god for TV14) all the edgy swearing removed!
My favourite part of this show is when Vessemir at Eskel's funeral says: "That doesn't make any sense", because it was me while I watched any part of this show
Netflix butchered Witcher series pretty bad. Terrible writers that don't want to follow original content, but lacks the skills to create even something remotely good.
Funny, I just realized that in Witcher 3 it's exactly the other way around. Eskel is at Vesemir's funeral and is in disbelief.
I had the same thought when watching The Two Towers, when of Sam Gamgee and Frodo were taken to Osgiliath by Faramir, and Sam's says "We shouldn't even be here!", which is correct of course as they never went there in the book.
@@rick1901 thank for making me laugh out loud once I made the realization
@@cactuslietuva They know enough to promote "the message"
I agree, I don't mind deviations but at the very least a show should be internally coherent with its changes, and own lore.
Deviations are a risk.
You want to cash in on a existing fanbase and brandname yet won't follow the original.
That can work, but it need to be good. Otherwise it feels as though you are disrespecting the original.
RIP Eskel
But why deviate so strongly when you’ve already got a provenly popular source material to draw from
Either they’re too incompetent to even try, or they’re so arrogant so as to believe they can create something better
@@warlordofbritannia The latter
They have no respect toward the books
I think id they were going to do these deviation s then you just go all in on it and don't tie them to the books at all, im sure they're are plenty of good witcher stories you can come up with without following the books and butchering it along the way, while deviating it extremely from the books you're trying to follow.
@Football-Pundit if you say so
I had this discussion already a hundred times idc
Enjoy "shitgaard" quotes
The funny thing is, I watched this show without any knowledge of this fantasy world and story whatsoever, never played the games or read the books - and even I noticed the issues with Yennefers character, the inconsistency of the plot, the geography and travelling....so it seems like this could be only thoroughly enjoyed by turning one's brain off. A pity, really, seems like there was a lot of potential for great storytelling there!
Means my brain has been turned off until season 3 which I hate 😂
Mistake 1: The Witcher on Netflix
Mistake 2: The Witcher on Netflix
Mistake 3: The Witcher on Netflix
Worst mistake was making season 1 fallow books, then season 2 throwing that all to toilet
I actually feel sad for the poor people who are watching the show but have never read the books. I really cannot understand why often writers feel the - apparently desperate - need to change so much from an incredible source material (and creating something far worse).
That being said, if we consider The Witcher show like a different story with respect to the books (which is true except for some contact points) it is still a story that gives the idea of having potential but not being able to exploit it. The inconsistencies are HUGE BLACK HOLES and a lot of characters have a story arc which doesn’t make any sense, if not to create some action and events to fill some minutes (see “Fringilla”, “Francesca”, “Cahir”, even “Vesemir”) just to end up at the same point as the beginning basically. In general, the show doesn’t give that feeling of being a serious show but rather of being a stupid-jokes-action show (in perfect Disney style).
I hope one day you make review of polish tv show (2001), its too far from source material as the netflix show, but in some moments its so much better, than netflix. Golden Dragon episode is my favorite, its actually much closer to source material than any episode in netflix show and i love it
I did like the show's portrayal of Mother Nenneke and the Temple of Melitele. She is not how i pictured her when reading the books (but so what?) and unfortunately she had to do a lot of exposition (remember *Show* don't *Tell*), but she came across as wise and mentally tough and they touched on the fact she knew Geralt, which was welcome (surprised she was not therefore also killed by a monster of the day like Eskel! Jeez!).
I *really* liked the idea that the young Witchers-in-training would come to the Temple of Melitele to learn their signs. It makes total sense to me. It is not in the books but does not contradict anything. Nice touch.
The fight scene in the Temple of Melitele was excellent, as in the choreography was brutal and smart. However, fights in shows (unlike real life) are usually one way to advance the story... which did happen with this fight, but i just didn't buy the story it was telling.
i don't read the witcher books, i just played all of the witcher games, which is extraordinary good. And then i watched this netflix show, i didn't expect it to be precisely the same as the whole story that i've already know, since the show is just "adaptation" from the book, but after i finished watching the show there is so many thing that felt so wrong and so annoying. One thing that really annoyed me the most is vesemir characther, how in the world that he became stupidly unwise grumpy old bastard, this is not vesemir that i know.
As a Slavic person myself, I get a feeling that they totally messed up the atmosphere. Wither 3 conveys this bitter, gloomy and desperate feeling of being stuck in a hopeless world, full of evil, where decent people eventually get either killed or devoured by their dark side. The reason why I love the game so much is that CDPR did a great job creating this atmosphere. The players always get a sense that whichever decision they make, it can never truly be right - it's a constant struggle to choose what is "the lesser evil", nothing more. This is what makes the Witcher universe unique and beutiful in its own rather sad but impressive way.
The show, on the other hand, "westernized" the story completely, stripping it off everything Slavic and converting it into another typical Netflix project. They just kept the characters' names, really, everything else just feels wrong to me, with a couple of rare exceptions. Like, come on, humans hated elves not simply becasue of the shape of their ears. In the books, the historical and economic reasons for the tension between elves and humans are described in detail, once again showing that there were no "good" or "bad" people involved in this conflict, making it a much more complicated matter.
A better example of the difference between Slavic and western understanding of things is the story of Nivellen. Books are ready to accept that even a man who has raped a pristess can have a good side to him and may deserve compassion. Generally, as I stated above, virtually every character in the book is complex, and not one can be lablled as only a hero or only a villain. However, the western discourse can't allow that to happen. Netflix is set on showing the viewer exactly what behaviour is encouraged and what is to be frowned upon. This is not a Slavic way of doing things.
Yet for me the worst thing they did is butchering Ciri's relationship with... well, basically everybody?.. In the books, she meets Geralt before they both know that they are each other's destiny, so their bond develops even without this knowledge. That is why when book Ciri finds out she and Geralt are connected, she already has a good reason to trust and love him. However, in the show she just meets this guy she's never even seen before, falls into his arms happily, like... why?.. Ok, he might be her destiny and all that, and her grandma told her to search him, and she has no one else to turn to at the moment. But she has no reason to either love or trust him. Not yet, anyway. The father-daughter chemistry between them in season 2 doesn't seem very good, either.
And don't even get me started on Yennefer, the dynamics between them in the show is just awful and it's clear for everyone to see, I guess. Yennefer is probably the worst character in the show anyway, so whatever. I can see my good man Henry is doing his best, though. They really should have let him run the show.
Hey there, thank you for the extensive comment! Well said
Great points. Thank you.
Yes. They showed the Elves as if the Elves were some kind of saints, but the Elves were also involved in several crimes against the humans. The war between Elves and humans isn't simply a race thing, there's no "good" side to that war.
I am from the UK and I one thousand percent agree with everything that you have written. I love the game and the books, and The Witcher deserved so much more
As a person loves Russian novels and can understand more or less how their mentality works, i totally agree with everything you said. Especially the lack off Slavic atmosphere! Kept telling something is wrong with the show and it wasn't just about choice of actors and actress' but also the spirit of books. You wrote down whatever i wanted to👍🏼
When I first saw Yen interacting with Ciri in The witcher 3 when she arrived at Kaer Morhen (before knowing anything about the books) i thought hey that's a beautiful moment, but nothing special. After I read the books, seeing how yennefer called Ciri ugly all the time and how their relationship developed, I immediately burst into tears when i heard Yen say "My, you've grown beautiful" in the game. That's how you make a good adaptation. And this is just one small example
Exactly
1st mistake: Making this script
2nd mistake: Thinking the script is good
3rd mistake: Forcing the actors to act out the script
4th mistake: giving hack writters millions of dollars to make this garbage
5th mistake : I don't believe Netflix kill Roach
I'm so glad i didn't even start watching this show lol.
The story is already there, and cast members such as Henry Cavill seems very passionate to tell it. So why not just tell it? The writers for this show are horrible, there’s no other way to say it.
How do these people get paid trying to (and failing at) flex their nonexistent writing skills by worsening a completed, well thought out and consistent story? They seem so confident in their writing abilities that they present it to a respected and popular franchise, despite only an idiot not realizing all they did was ruin the story they’re trying to improve. How egotistical and delusional isn’t that? And forcing your cast to act out these terrible scenes you made, despite them clearly not wanting to.
One of the dumbest things I read about was that the writers tried to have Geralt make some smart arse joke at Roach’s death. Cavill talked them out of it, but still.
I mean, seriously you clowns, Geralt *isn’t* some weisenheimer, quick with a bon mot or other snappy patter. He’s a grumpy, posing as cynical killing machine. He doesn’t *do* one liners!
Honestly, Henry Cavil is the sole pillar holding that series together and making it watchable. If it wasn't for his mostly accurate, solid performance everything else would be too lack luster to attract fans of the franchise. Although I do have to say I really like the actresses' portrayal of Ciri, but that alone isn't enough to hold the show together.
Cavil is one of the many reasons I cannot stand the show. His personality is nowhere close to book Geralt and only mildly closer to game Geralt. The actor is a sweet person, however, and I'm sure he tries hard because he loves the games. It just isn't quite enough for me. Ciri, yes, the only actress that I totally agree with, she looks and acts just like I imagined Ciri from the books, she's wonderful and feels lost among the many acting dilettantes.
yeah, them two are great.. - and Yen-actress was well done in season one as young Yen... but ... as grown-out witch she doesn't stand a chance to save this miswritten charakter...
or she can't display a century old charakter like Liv Tyler did back then... or it is just me being older now...
but i can't help... when i hear witch... i think of Eva Green as Morgana ... still think she would have given a much better old Yenefer...
and with being much more in Henry Cavills age i could enjoy the love scenes much more... i just don't buy those too...
Who would you rather have been cast as Geralt.
"Henry Cavil is the sole pillar holding that series together and making it watchable"
Fast forward 9 months later: oops.
@@raymondl9320 I was looking for this comment ^^
We need to rescue Henry Cavill and put him in a new adaptation that's actually faithful and respectful to the books
The actress that does Tissaia works for me. I think she did a good job.
For real. I had such high hopes for the show when I found out that he was involved.
@@186bingo She is amazing, but I wonder why there's no indication of her being the superior, and a very old, sorceress .. Ah, just so many missed opportunities
@@186bingo too bad even her script was bad sometimes and she doesn't even say much
@@186bingo agreed, Geralt and Tessaia are the only saving grace of this show. I liked yen's actor, but she does not represent Yen at all
The Netflix team are treating the show, like I've treated most of my jobs. With the attitude of:
"I don't know. I don't care. I only work here. Where's my paycheck?"
It's bad fanfiction. That's what Season 2 is. Inconsistent. Lore breaking. Bad writing. And either boring or confusing. Action =/= entertaining. Nivellen was the only episode that felt like the Witcher.
it's not even fanfiction... fan would know better... it's someone who read synopsis' fiction
that really was the best episode from both seasons and it was because thats the one that they changed the least from the short stories....
Man, Nivellen was good. There are bright spots. Rience's actor and Djikstra are good.
uhhhh...whats with u rewriting the ENTIRE comment you left?
seriously - you made a comment ....then changed it after you got a lot of followers
Number 1 mistake: Killing Eskel
Number 2 mistake: Yennefer's overall categorization
Number 3 mistake: The show as a whole
aswell i think - at least for me - killing Eskel is not that much of a deal - but inventing a bunch more witchers beforhands and not killing them but Eskel, just to kill them all in the last episode without giving them anything to do in between...
@@zoefezius6615 Killing Eskel shouldn't bother anyone, he appeared in the books for a like a paragraph at most. The worldbuilding, weird baba yaga character (I have no idea how they're gonna tie that back into the Wild Hunt), and general weird choices are far more of a problem. I'm mildly hopeful that they do seem to listen to feedback from fans and make changes, so hopefully they can figure some things out (Maybe their covid pause allowed them to flesh the script out more).
It does seem like they're under pressure from netflix to just be another GoT as a cashgrab, which is disappointing, but I'm still hopeful they can pull it together
@@nikeaddict55 it would bother anyone who played Witcher 3. Eskel is involved in the game and killing off a character that may be familiar to anyone who read the books or have played the game is just a bad choice especially when the show has so many nameless Witcher’s that could have been killed instead of eskel. It just upsets fans who assumed they may see more of a character they enjoyed.
@@MrJayza89 They could still "fix" it, by just doing their shitty writting and write Eskel back in next season, in a way that he was never possesed, but Leshen took his form, kinda like Doppler, and won a fight against Eskel. Then took his clothes, medallion and got inside Kaer Mohren but real Eskel would be alive. Ofc it would be dumb plot, but it's not dumber than killing him off, just because originally casted actor had covid so they recasted him with someone else who can't act.
@@majorbombas They don't care about the source material enough to bother with such fixes.
Ok I'm done with Season 2, thank you every one for watching.
Thank you, this reviews are funny and very enjoyable... unlike this series.
PS.I started Blood and Wine on January and I defeated Detlaff thanks to you.
Game Geralt has missed you......
Thanks a lot for your work on these videos! You've fully convinced me that I don't need to watch season 2 hahaha
God bless you. You deserve a break from it lol
Question is : are you done with this mediocre series ? There are 5 more seasons right ? Are you going to keep screaming silently while watching your favorite lore getting butchered by the minute ?
If Cavill really introduced the line "Destiny isn't sufficient, something more is needed", then he's literally the only one who actually GETS it. Because that line is arguably the most important line in witcher lore.
:(
@@xLetalis "Am I your destiny? Say it, Geralt! Am I your destiny?" "You are more than that. Much more."
That line moves everybody reading the books and that line is why everybody cried when they saw the flashback in Witcher 3 when we finally find her again. If you don't get THAT moment, then you don't get anything at all about The Witcher.
@@xLetalis it's also the meaning behind the entire "The last Wish" quest in Witcher 3... Yennefer wants to find out if it's just destiny or "something more". NONE of the relationships work if THAT line isn't understood.
Don't worry guys, Eskel will be back for season 3. When it's revealed that Ciri's tears can resurrect any dead characters.
Remember when we said that no TV shows writing could be as bad as Game of thrones? 😂😂😂. I mean you have 5 books with a finished and coherent story. How do you fuckity fuck the fire fucker up?
So D&D may not have been that bad
🤔
Well seems whee where wrong 😂😂 they even have more Rush than got final X)
Answer is Lauren
@@munken7673 D&D were very good at adapting the story when they had the books... well, first three books. But the fourth and fifth one met critism and the other two are not even published.
I think in the books Yennefer is a character who never loses her dignity, whose spirit is never broken. Even when she is tortured by Vilgefortz, her clothes torn, bleeding - she holds her head high and won't let herself be broken by such lowly beings. She seemed way more wise, collected and experienced as in the series. I often admired her way of carrying herself and speaking in the books and games and I don't get that same vibe from her in the show.
Another thing that I hope we see in S3 is more dark academia aesthetics, more scholars and maybe the Oxenfurt university. I also wish they did something for the history nerds and bring up some nice looking banners, armour, buildings, agriculture etc, because I'm sorry but not only the Nilfgaardian armour still looks bad compared to anything they came up with in the games. Especially Emhyrs armour looked not very dignifying - don't they have it in their budget to buy (or have made) proper looking armour for at least the important characters? I understand that they have very limited money, but there must be something they can do to get out of the worbla-looking stage.
good points
like it's so hard to look up some fuckin artifacts or manuscripts or effigies etc. for reference for arms and armour lol :D thats what the games did (really well imo) it's the easiest way to get functional looking armour and not some random stupid shit that "looked cool" for them.
To sum up your point about Yennefer: In the books, she is a character. In the show, she isn't.
B-b-but, she swears! That's what the kids want right?
Yennefer has a character in the show, but different from how she was in the books. In the books she is an aristocratic entitled passive-aggressive bitch. In the show she's a traumatized ambitious woman who manipulates people to get what she thinks she wants.
@Football-Pundit Even Geralt is not in the half of the books, maybe even more lol. Yennefer is definitely the third most important character of the books. And the fact you don't like her doesn't change that 😂
and she had mystery, which they killed by going too much into her back story and making up badly written events.
In this show, she's first a millennial political tool, & she's a woke hollywood view of a teen idol second. Simple, this show is like if you put Riverdale in a fantasy earth's 1300's.
About geography...
S1E7: In Sodden, one merchant informed Ciri that she could reach the coast on a fast horse in about one week..
So trip from Cintra to KM should take at least two months
if that scene was in season 2 he'd tell Ciri that she will get to the coast in few hours and from there swim to Skellige in a minute
ok, and take 8 episodes to show them traveling... There's not enough time to tell a decent story what makes you think they will take the time to show days/weeks/months of travel? Kinda impractical.
indeed!
@@celticbabs3105 they don't have to show they can tell. Except they didn't. It is implied that they got to kaer morhen overnight because if the trip actually did take enough time that would mean that Baba Yaga was possessing Ciri for like a month or more
@@celticbabs3105 what the hell are you talking about? They don't have to show them travelling, they just have to be consistent and logical, if it takes them two months then acknowledge it took them that long to reach there, not skip the timeline entirely and act like you got there overnight.
One of the first things that Yennefer does in the first season (once she become a sorceress) is to feel sorry for herself... (Wagon scene) You won't find a single line in the books of her feeling self pity. Is the absolute opposite of the character. I don't know what are they doing, but not a good adaptation that's for sure. I remember a director who left the project in the early stages... He clearly saw something messed up.
I don't think that's a flaw itself since they did add a lot of content that wasn't there with her background. It makes sense that she wasn't always exactly the same, especially for a sorceress who can have a very long life. Her character was built overtime and developed into... well, yes, whatever the fuck season 2 yennefer was, but the point stands that season 1 yen makes sense
Book and game Yen had so much class and gusto. netflix's version is just a whiny girl.
Do you have a link about that director? I googled it but there are only news about the witcher 3 director who left cdpr because of workspace bullying.
@@Ivan-ov2yc Alik Sakharov
@@totalpichatron8787 I looked him up the guy turned out to be a legend man. He directed Sopranos, Rome, game of thrones, house of cards, ozark... No wander he left witcher he is too good for this show.
I think at least a part of the problem with trying to create a mother-daughter bond between Ciri and Yennefer in the show is that the characters are so close in age. They aged Ciri up to at least mid-teens, and Yennefer looks and acts more like a young woman in her mid-twenties at best. With that small an age gap between them, the dynamics between them should be more like sisters than mother and daughter, if they want to make it look plausible - but of course they can't do that, because the narrative is already set up for them having a mother-daughter bond. So what we're getting instead is this hybrid compromise that feels forced and somewhat awkward.
One last thing i will add here is that, the witcher books are morally complex. You cannot distinct what or who is good and evil, there is consequences to your action even when you are being neutral. Even the CDPR manages to put this messages into the videogame. Netflix witcher on the other hand is trying to look like it has morally gray charachters or the world but instead it has good and evil morality. They just trying to convince people that by making charachters do first good and then the next episode or season evil thing that makes them morally gray charachter. NO, its just makes them dumb.
Yup. And it is infuriating to someone like me who is spending a frell ton of time trying to convey the morality of characters in my own setting, from cultures that are vastly different to our own. Like, one of the "lawful good", actually the only lawful good, characters in my world is going to effectively exterminate a species of sentient and thinking beings, because his people have been their cattle for hundreds of years. Or this other guy, who's whole thing is liberating men from a brutally matriarchal society only to institute an even worse patriarchy in response to the brutality of the women running the matriarchy. And these are the simplest guys, as things like slavery and homophobia are fairly rampant in this world due to it being medieval.
yeah that was more or less one of my Top 3 Worst Things in Season 1
Francesca's morality switches back and forth from good to evil like someone punched a metronome.
@@xLetalis thank you so much for all these reviews. You are one of my new favorite youtube channels. Please when you get the chance watch Conan O'Brien's Clueless Gamer of the Witcher 3 if you have not seen it. I have a feeling you will nerd-out just like I did.
It's hard for writers who think they're always right to do morally grey characters...
yennefer is my absolutely favorite character from the franchise and to an adaptation manages to make me annoyed by her just shows how they are doing stuff BAD
The sad thing is that the Witcher games take place after the events of the books and thus are composed of story lines completely made up by CD Projekt Red, yet manage to seamlessly depict the very essence of the Witcher universe. The Netflix show in the meantime, is working with the source material! Yet instead of the Witcher universe, Lauren has managed to script some sort of a spinach-and-onion-pudding sad excuse of actors on film. And the tragic thing is, all the actors are actually doing a really fine job. The plot direction/script is simply so awful that you can not help but bleed from your eyeballs.
There's quite a lot of abandoned book story lines that cdprojekt completed in the witcher 3. The whole wild hunt story thing was abandoned iirc. Which makes me worry about the show because the wild hunt aren't really important in the books.
"spinach and onion pudding sad" that's the most British thing I have ever read xd
Well put. I tho k Henry is doing an amazing job as Geralt and in every interview with him he talks about how much of a Witcher nerd he is. Definitely the writers not the actors
@@StabStabStabStabby Have you heard (or read) the interview where Lauren says Wild Hunt will be the Thanos of Witcher? Yep she's gonna take even more "creative freedom". It doesn't bode well, especially since her reveal of the Wild Hunt having human like looks was so lackluster... like why? People are supposed to think they look like horrifying spectres out of nightmares for seasons to come, not know that they are humanoids -__- She just took all the intimidation away from them yet she somehow wants to build them as even more intimidating than in the books. Hell smart viewers are able to sum up that since: Voleth Meir --> part of the hunt and Voleth Meir is an elf = Wild Hunt are elves.
@@KanohiVahi aye! I agree...and in the Books it will wrote, the the wild Hunt are elves....uhh
Never read the books in my life and only played TW3-- and I literally can't agree more. I went into this season excited and open minded after S1... but the storytelling & dialogue were so utterly godawful that I couldn't even make it through Episode 6.
The amount of swear words in this just shows how immature, classless and even incompetent the writers are
Unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste!
Definitely, if I ever hear “Fire fucker” one more time…
Dont be a fire fucker...
if yen ever swore in the game, shit was real and dangerous. In the show it's just Tuesday
Completely agree. I'm not against profanity, I swear far too much myself, but in writing it has to serve a purpose and often shows the type of character they are. Out of context, if you just write "yeah, we were attacked by a firefucker", you're going to think it was a low born or dock worker or someone like that in fantasy. Not a classy, 100 year old, witch.
I feel like we've gone back to using naughty words and jokes to get cheap laughs and I don't like it.
The Lady of The Lake is easily one of my favourite books ever, so it really disappoints me just how many elements from the end of the series were screwed up this early on.
Number 1 Mistake: it was mine, I shouldn’t have watched it.
actual Witcher fans agree
Yes! I will make damn sure not to touch the third season unless xLetalis encourages to do so
No, that's still no. 2.
Number 1 is that they made it
Piracy is the way to go for season 3
Thankfully I didn't
The main issues I had with season 2 is how the character of Yennefer became... one dimensional. Only interested in power and nothing else. Her relationship to Geralt was almost forgotten, not to mention the one with Ciri. Like you said as well the swearing is an issue in itself, it became almost parodic at some point.
It just looked like at some point, they went in such a different direction from the books, I was no longer recognizing any event in there, or almost none of them.
good point about her relationship with Geralt
Well looks like LOTR fans are gonna share the misery of the Witcher fans. 😭
Oh oh the misery
Yeah and the worst thing is that the overlap between the 2 audiences is pretty meaningful. There's going to be a lot of miserable people because it's piling up
@@Attilablabla Yep. Love both the LOTR and Witcher book series. Oh, the pain....
@@helenline1790 Everybody wants to be my enemy
So much misery that we are going to become that Stephen King's movie... How is it called?
The Witcher was doomed from the start given its long and troubled development under Netflix before the first season began. There was just no vision, or even much of a director who understands the material. It's exactly like how much Disney had handled Episodes 7-9; a bunch of writers screwing around and when it got so bad behind the scenes, the execs stepped in to frankenstein the mess.
At least the Game of Thrones guys knew what they wanted to do (up until you know when) with putting A Song of Ice and Fire onto TV. So they had the graces of, and the senses to collab with, the bloody author of the whole books to keep a cohesive narrative on point........ up until they naturally ran out of book material.
If the Witcher books are comparable to ASOIAF, then Netflix's Witcher is comparable to the last 2-3 seasons of Game of Thrones.
Out the gate borderline unwatchable for me and uninterested to follow up on any further. I'll just stick with the games if I wanted to see these characters and setting *as detailed in the books* do original things with the lore.
The writers wanted to make jokes when Roach died and Henry provided an alternative. It was on short notice if it was up to him he would've rewrote the whole thing I believe 😅🤣😂
How you know that?
He isn't that great either. Couldn't even get into the right build for the show.
@@adamsirin7249 lol how is he not the right build? hes like 6'2 215 ... if anything hes actually too big to be geralt and should be leaner in the 200 range
@@onebuffalo5402 You answered your own question lol.
Exactly, he isn't in the right build of a lean, flexible swordsman. He has the body of a gym rat. And it looks ridiculous when he fights. Stiff as a board with a bum the size of California.
@I may have a small penis but, Oh. But it is. There's just SO many other issues with the dumb show that you've been desensitised to it.
This show gives me a vibe of poorly written piece of fan fiction. I can't help but feel sorry for the actors - they are doing a great job in the given circumstances.
I am from Ukraine, so I guess I am allowed to say that the show sadly fails to create decent semblance of slavic mythology and atmosphere.
Thank you for the video! I always enjoy watching your content)
I can't even express how much I wished for atleast decent adaptation for this amazing world, well... life is full of disapointments
yeah i feel the same
the polish adaptation was a masterpiece compared to this
The biggest lose for witcher fans was that netflix got the show instead of HBO.
"Everything woke turns to sh*t!"
I forgot who said it, but it definitely was a smart fella. ;)
The Witcher isn't the only epic fantasy world that has been defaced by Netflix or Amazon..
The Wheel of Time was at least as bad as The Witcher, if not worse, and the biggest disaster is gonna be the LotR show...
Who hires the idiots that come up with these productions? There are tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars on the line and they choose to put people in charge that don't care about the original stories and the lore in the slightest, all that matters to them is to meet their woke quotas and the best way to virtue signal to people that don't even watch these shows...
The Wheel of Time is Amazon's
@@diegoolivaresgonzalez42 I know.
Here is what I said: "The Witcher isn't the only epic fantasy world that has been defaced by Netflix or Amazon.."
" The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" too, btw.
@@dh510 House of the Dragon by HBO too.
I agree.
I wish. The problem with the show isn't a bunch of actors with the wrong skin colour, it's the complete lack of story and consistency.
The worst mistake was giving the rights to Netflix.
Exaaaaaaaactly
Lmao yeah you're right. They pump out like ten "original shows" every month. And all of them last two seasons then get cancelled.
And hiring Hissrich.
True.
I think HBO would've done a much better show out of the witcher
In my opinion there are 8 worst mistakes in season 2 on netflix. Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
i would exclude no. 1. was weird that ciri was there, but everything considered a good adaptation. was quite disappointed after watching the rest of the season though...
Nah, episode 1 was decent
@@maxmustermann369 i wouldnt, Nivellen part was still less than a half of the episode while we had to watch other miserable plotlines, and because of that it wasnt even close to be as good as in the books. I didnt expect him to give this long speech about all the chicks he had, but the mystery with bruxa couldve been handled much better. In the end, this episode wasnt as frustrating as others but still bad
unfortunately the ratings of the show on various websites like imdb and rotten tomatoes do not reflect a single problem. Every episode except for the one in which Eskel died had a rating of 8 and above. The casual viewers are apparently enjoying the show, either we're being too nitpicky or they are not seeing beyond what they're seeing.
I am as disapointed as a man can be when his favorite story gets a very poor adaptation.
*cries in LoTR*
3 worst mistakes?
1. Doing season 1.
2. Doing season 2.
3. Not having Eva Green as Yennefer.
Eva Green probably would've made a better Yennefer and she's English too. Could've been a variable of things why not though.
i always thought of her when i saw ciri in the game idk about yen
@@lola-to9om To play a young Ciri, Eva Green is way to old... But for Yennefer, she has the right age, the right face and _(if you seen 300: Rise of an Empire)_ the right attitude plus the perfect body. *The woman is made for this role.*
Mistake number 5: Dandelion (or Jaskier) didn't wear his hat for more than 2 seconds.
The best thing about the Netflix version is it made me read the books for the real stories.
Spot on, as always. I tend to be harsher in my criticism, but it definitely comes from a good place. I wish it had respected the lore a bit more, but they did not. I also wished they stuck to their internal rules, even the ones they pulled out of their ears, and they could not even do that. Like you said: they do not know what they want to do with this. It is life, I suppose. This is not the first story ruined by incompetent writers and decision-makers, and it surely won't be the last. Such are the times...
amen, such are the times
The writers don't care about someone else's lore, they care about thie own "genius". LoTR will be the same I am sure.
LOTR series will be the next dumpster fire
Sapkowski did such a great job with his world building in his books. Adding huge amounts of backstory to the world. Characters with their of fully fledged out story who exist just to be killed, like the courier.
Such characters make the world come to life, make you feel the world is more than just the main characters.
As you say, the Netflix show completely does away with all that world building because they completely skip over everything to fast-travel between locations.
Top 1 Mistake: there's no sign of my favorite type of magic. Excellent video as always! :D
Lesbomancy?
I mean there were some signs of it :)
🤣🤣
@@xLetalis indeed, yet I can hardly count that as there was zero chemistry between them :(
Nonsense. Best magic is Tyromancy.
You got one point perfectly correct: Yen's problem is not the swearing, it's that her swearing is her answer to everything! Just like a stupid teenager who cannot control her mood swing. Every situation she's in in S2 she just swears to it, and runs away, and does something dramatic....
Yup, 100% agree with all the points you've stated.
I think all this has happened majorly due to the fact that the show is clearly lacking a Lore Master. There's noone clearly looking over the scripts and checking whether it meets the lore, or even if there is deviation, checking whether the logic and reasoning is consistent throughout the series.
Game of Thrones show while Benioff & Weiss were showrunners, I heard they relied heavily on Bryan Cogman who oversaw the season scripts overall for any errors, contradictions etc.
Obviously no one in The Witcher writing room, so it's no wonder these contradictions, errors in characterization are rampant all over the place.
While I do agree with you regarding a brilliant Witcher adaptation needing someone heavily lore-familiar to look over scripts and stuff, I'd like to stress that the show's writing is of bad quality generally no matter lore inconsistencies. I mean, if you just look at the series for what it is... say you're someone that has never read a Witcher book, you wouldn't possibly consider the series to be well-made, it's arcs and plot twists are quite frankly absurd or boring.
@@afrobossi8360 That does not contradict - they still should have some kind of Lore Master. Even if you do not stick to the lore of the books, you should stick to your own "lore" (and ideally have someone that oversees that). But they do not - obviously no one checks for inconsistencies.
So while they do not follow the books, they are not consistent even with their own content, which results in a bad show even for a viewer unfamiliar with the books.
You guys have clearly not read or heard Lauren's statements. This is 'her' own thing and making shit up and defying the lore is her own powerplay, basically.
They don't want a lore master, that would admit the old is best instead of their new "writing" and "story crafting".
One of the geographical mistake from season 1 is Ciri's journey between Cintra and Brokilon Forest. There must be Yaruga River here. This is why Nifgaard wants to take Cintra, to pass Yaruga. The show doesn't explain any of them.
I refused to watch this season and I regret watching the first one. This review just confirmed all I expected. I am the books purist and I won´t stand for any of this bullcrap. For me, the only adaptation I might consider is the original Polish one, even if the author hates it. At least, it has the right Geralt, music and atmosphere. Watched it 20 years ago and even now I recall some scenes, the first Netflix season I watched 2 years ago and all I remember is embarrassment. Phew. Now, I need to soothe my nerves in The Witcher 3 game.
I regret watching the show as well. Just started novels, about to finish BoE, but I feel like I have a predisposition for hating Yennefer based solely on the show. At least I wasn't invested enough to picture these characters while reading (though I think Henry Cavill does a fair job). Now I'm waiting on finishing the novels before another playthrough of Witcher 3.
The paradox of the old series is truly how people appreciate it after so many years when they see the Netflix one.
Hello, do you know where I can find the polish serie?
I'm surprised you lasted a season. I couldn't stand more than one episode.
It also has exclusivley slavic actors, which look actually slavic...
The writers could really learn some things from your videos. Too bad they probably saw the immediate popularity of the show and thought they were geniuses
Eva Green will always be my perfect casting for Jen. Anya is too young, and the writing only makes things worse.
When I first saw Yennefer in the witcher 3, my first thought was " Eva Green should play her if a movie ever appears " . She would portrait Yennefer`s attitude 100% . Same goes with the looks.
The whole show was a mistake if only Henry Cavill have been the director. It would have been a banger!
But then he is still not the writer
@@markusbisma5015 he would have hired better people that's for sure
@@xylypotatohead3947 that's the producer's job
@@markusbisma5015 my bad he should have been the producer then. But that isn't really an option sigh
@@markusbisma5015 exactly henry should've been the producer, he has played the games read the books and is a huge fan he sure would've done a far better job .
After season 1 I genuinely wanted to give the show runners the benefit of the doubt. Now with season 2 I can't help but join in on all the criticism. Back when I still wrote fanfiction I was so careful to be consistent, for my story to make sense, for the characters to be true to the original. How come a room full of professional writers fail to do the absolute basics? Season 2 really was a joke for most of the time.
I guess that the worst mistake is not staying true to the source material 😅 As a Polish guy I feel especially sad since A. Sapkowski had to have signed an NDA saying he can't complain or some such and all he can do is praise.
I think he's mentioned several times that he's simply indifferent to both TV and video games in general. The only things he's really seen with regards to either the games or the show are the paychecks he received for the rights.
He obviously only stares at his money he gets. So he doesn't give a damn about the adaptions. Like he even said (years ago) in a interview when someone asked him about the games: "Did you ever play or look at the witcher games? - AS: what games, i dont care about games, don't even want to see it, I don't care"
Can't believe that such a person like him, wrote a epic, emotional story.
Because he knows he won't go any higher now. He's on the Netflix platform, being watched all around the globe, but he fails to acknowledge what CDPR has done for him - if it wasn't for the games, the western audiences wouldn't really read any of the books (they started being translated only after the success of the games; btw, even ex-president Obama was gifted Witcher II by the Polish when he came here). Had he acknowledged that (I believe deep inside he knows, but is too stubborn to say that), he would've done so much more and we could've had so much better of a production instead of this woke and unfaithful garbage.
@@mateuszliszewski Yup , no witcher games = no audience wanting to read the book
@@mateuszliszewski he really doesn’t care. He views games and other media only as adverdisement for the books. For him games are only fanfiction and have nothing to do with jos story. Same with the netflix show. It serves only the Purpose to get the witcher name out there. Even if the show is bad people will defend the books which are his work. I don’t find the setien bad, it is like the games, just another spin on the stories sapkowski wrote.
I wish you were a consultant on the series. They completely messed it up.
At the end of the day people who know nothing about this lore will probably enjoy the show which is probably the majority of people watching, while fans that know the lore will dislike it. So we're basically fucked if we expect them to become more accurate to the lore
Yeah, my dad likes the show but I hate it because I know the actual story!
@@skrawl8374 I've only Read Blood of Elves and played a little bit of the Witcher 3. I hated this show before doing either of those for many reasons, and I hate it more. Frell me, imagine if I knew more.
@@shadowofhawk55 the single good thing that this show did for me was making me so angry that I had to start reading the books again.
Accuracy to the lore? Is there any lore? This show is inconsistent even with itself!
@@metalchemik The original lore..
"Why the obsession with mutated monsters and not using the regular ones first?"
Thank you! It´s nonsensical. If the viewer hasn´t even experienced how dangerous the variety of regular monsters can be, the elevated threat of mutated monsters runs completely empty. It´s just an ego mistake by the writers to make everything more extreme and highten the stakes. But it has no meaning without reference.
1 mistake with the show in my opinion: the show
Yes, I’m a crybaby.
3 Worst Mistakes:
1- Netflix
2- Politics over everything
3- Choose one. Your mileage may vary
I can already tell you now that Ciri and Yen will be two tough, strong girl bosses who don't need Geralt at all because he is a man. Also they will be mom and daughter somehow despite Yen attempting to sacrifice Ciri and Ciri knowing what she was doing (along with Geralt who would kill Yen for even thinking of it)
My main problem with the show is that the creators do not feel the audience and the world of the Witcher.
If in the 1st season I am ready to turn a blind eye to many problems, unfortunately in season 2 many problems have opened up in their own lore and plot.
If they are going to build their own universe, then let them follow other projects, and do not pretend that they are somewhere in the background.
I don't know what they will come up with in the Blood Origin, but I have big concerns about this show.
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. And of course they will be waiting for your analysis!
Blood Origin looks ultra woke, that's for sure.
"My main problem with the show is that the creators do not feel the audience and the world of the Witcher.
If in the 1st season I am ready to turn a blind eye to many problems, unfortunately in season 2 many problems have opened up in their own lore and plot. "
I haven't watched the Netflix show, but this is what I respect in the 2002 Polish show - they gave a different background and characters, but they stay consistent.
Regarding mother daughter relation between Yennefer and Ciri well...what the show did here with the whole Yennefer taking Ciri away, in hopes of sacrificing her and regaining her power should have SERIOUS impact and some real trust issues between the two characters to overcome from now on!! Seriously that should be the most obvious thing, Ciri should be angry and ill disposed towards her from now on, now Yennefer is supposed to teach Ciri harness her power! Even though so far Ciri did so instinctualy! And it might or should be even worse than the initial reaction of Ciri towards Yennefer in Blood of Elves book! We're talking here about a serious event, Yennefer just changed her mind at the last moment! Lying to Ciri playing on her feeling towards Geralt in the show...if they hanwave that in season 3 then it will truly show lack of care or sense in their writing!
Regarding worldbuilding, geography, and geopoltiics, it was horrible! THe show managed to make the most intriguing and interesting political subplots from book into total borefest! The audience really has no reason to care at this point, they should have made it more interesting, also how they treated various rulers and kings, their plots and plans, some of which in the show make no frickin sense! How is Redania supposed to take over Cintra in the show?! Claiming Ciri just to marry her off to Vizimir as Dijkstra has it?! It makes no sense, not to mention that Redania is going behind the back of all other kingdoms, that are not even reconizeable enough, they are just there in the background. Kingdoms should no seek alliances nad make their plans to counteract Nilfgaard's expansion but everything the politicians do in the show is unfeasible most of the time or completely out of whack, even the brilliance of intelligence head Dijkstra is dumbed down I mean Dijkstra's plans in the show have slim chance of success or are not making any sense! The whole deal with elven spy and so on is not well thought out. Somehow the Game of Thrones managed to portray the vastness of world, multiple far flung locations and so on, at least in the earlier seasons, even the journey was given enough focus to depict it is time consuming and so on.
I still not understand why so many people like this show ?
cause they don't know the source material... this is with many book adaptations. I quite liked GoT for example (the early seasons, not that parody in the end), but my friend that has read the books said there are many things different and therefore didn't like it. It is usually the same story: "A good show for newcomers, a hell for fans"
Couldn’t even finish season 2. So glad I didn’t waste my time with this.
I'm sad that you're done. Gonna miss these videos. I always look forward to the show...just so I can get you're season reviews lol 😆
I will likely be back for Blood origin this year
@@xLetalis OH that's right! Completely forgot about that one. I will be looking forward to it 👍
In my opinion, three the worst things that happened to the Netflix witcher are:
1. Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
2. Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
3. Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
how i felt about this season... don't even know what to say, it was hell of a Clown fiesta. Writers and directors probably didn't have anything else to do and decided to "give it a try" which is a terrible approach towards this iconic franchise and a huge disrespect of fans in my opinion.
I totally agree with all of your points. It seems like this show was made for Mainstream people who have no knowledge of the books and have a basic understanding of the game (Like it's a videogame where he hunts monsters and have political bullshit). So whenever they hear inconsistencies, they don't care as much. Since to them, this is new information and just brush it off. The show is basically, let's use the Witcher to make our own version of the "Witcher" and tell the people: "Look guys! Monsters! Witchers! Politics! Inclusion!"
And here we have poor old Henry sprinkling a few "Canon" lines here and there, just for us actual fans of both the game and/or the books. The director being someone who don't care about consistency just goes with it thinking that "Yeah! That'll make the nerds happy!"
Fuck man. It's a good "Main Stream" show, I suppose. You just have to turn your brain off, sadly.
I don't even think its a good main stream show. If it had been made well people who weren't fans would have got in to it but as it is, the plots are terrible, a confusing mess that nobody wants to deal with. What a waste of Cavill.
yeah, mainstream - bad mainstream... and because of this i think they won't be able to adopt any of Ciri's storylines any more... much to outdated and sexist... even when picturing a strong women in a way this kind of art did back in the days... - so i really don't wanna know what they are up to with the wild hunt... as it can't be the real wild hunt....
because of political correctness, and them including this Voleth Meir-char... which doesn't fit to the story at all in my opinion...
an who can explain me, how witchers, who are barely able to do their signs - and never had any other magic abilieties... were able to create such a big magical trap then this hut ???
and when she is just an elven mage... as being part of the wild hunt.. why not just kill her?
and why all this was the entrance in an elven temple? did witcher work for the elves? were they even created at this time? and why there were no witcher - stop do not entry signs in this temple? just some elven things?.... i really don't get that part of the story...
Honestly even for being a "mainstream" show it is not *very* special.
Best line of the season:
"Normally I'd tell you to shit twice and die"
Yeah love this guy
@@aA-hq4km one of the "few" good ones.
yes
lmao, that guy is the reason I found this video. I put "witcher smells like shite" in the search bar.
I didn't even finish season 2. Such a shitfest. The writers really don't care a bit about this universe. At least they managed to cast random black people for slavic characters just for the fuck of it. Netflix should have probably let CD Project write and produce the show at this point. They at least know what they are doing with this franchise. Worst thing is people on reddit and youtube are still defending this clusterfuck of a show it's a disgrace to call yourself a Witcher fan while defending this abomination. Not even gonna bother watching the third season. There is no hope they save this show at this point without changing the writers. When they made the show even worse after the first season.
Eskel, Deathless mother plot, Yennefer losing her powers.
If they were going to kill eskel the should have give him some some screen time with geralt and ciri and have him die later on
The showrunner and the "adult" writers destroyed the series. Period. I believe the lord of the rings: the rings of power in Amazon will be the next victim. Thanks for your hard work. I always enjoy your reviews.
Such a disappointment. The first episode was pretty good. I tapped out after the second episode after they did Eskel so dirty. I've watched all your reviews and while your reviews are always great, I feel like I didn't miss anything at all by not watching the rest of the season.
First episode is basically Season 1 still ;]
Some of Lauren's interviews are so awkward and cringey, almost all her explanations just don't make sense. God, such a pity, this universe deserves so much more...
To be cynical, since it's been two years since season 1, maybe Netflix hoped we forgot all about it, lol...
Now, seriously... I think part of the problem with the story, inconsistencies etc is also the fact that every episode is/was written by a different person. For some reason unknown, Netflix really likes this and does a lot, it can be seen in other shows. If it is too much for one person (and I personally see no reason, since they had a lot of good source material that should have been just adapted like LoTR or first seasons of GoT), isn't it better to keep that one writer and just give him/her some assistant writers? That way, you have a person to keep in mind the main story line and some others to help with the ideas, so inconsistencies could be avoided?
Anyway, I hate this show almost as much as it hates babies (considering how many babies were killed in it) and I quit watching it with 0 intent of doing it ever. What for? To watch Ciri scream more than a bruxa and it all just falling in place after that for no reason? I don't know... I just can't digest what Netflix did and that's it...
Your review series on Season 2 was significantly more thought out and passionate than the show and I appreciate that so much. Thank you for reviewing the show even though it was so disheartening for diehard fans.
the number 1 problem si Lauren Hissrich she just cares about her politics instead of telling a good story
What is it with Hollywood these days coming up with female characters that are so whinny and straight up angry? It just makes them look so annoying.
You can split the whole show in three parts. Then you'll have 3 mistakes.
To think that I was so happy that season 2 was coming out :')
Now I'm just so disappointed. I don't mind changes in the source material when they make sense, but in season 2 there was barely any source material. I think that if they followed the books it would have been a slower season (which I honestly don't mind), but they were afraid of going in that direction. Which resulted in this absolute mess. At least it jumped the shark in the beginning and not after six to seven seasons like Game of Thrones
Couldn't have summed it up any better. I'm starting to think the Henry Cavill leaving rumours might be true. As a fellow witcher fan he'll no doubt feel the same. Watch Netflix try to get Yen and Geralt back together next season. As if Geralt ever would after what she did. Once you have a sword against your gf's neck, I doubt there is any coming back from that. Thanks for all the effort you put in. Looking forward to going back to some more pleasant content😊❤️
With this elder blood witcher making stuff i really really badly hope, that they don't try to make a "Geralt is an elf" storyline 🤣🤣🤣
It'd be kinda funny tho and can hardly make it any worse.
Sure it would be great if they somehow managed to save the show, but I don't know if that's even possible at this point.
I'm amazed you were able to trim this down to just 3 mistakes.
Again, an amazing video with a lot of truth. Hey, at the end you even say that Yennefer betrayed Ciri and Geralt, and this is also one of Triss' arcs in the books XD
She just steal everyones story ;)
I often said here that I truly dislike the show, sure I am a giant book fan and this can be the major reason here, but even without book knowledge the show is imo just medicore.
You made a good point with the missing world building, imo the moment where Netflix failed with world building and character development was the very first episode of season one. I know I stay in the minority with this opinion but this episode really missed the mark on story telling.
And yeah, I also though what Netflix took from the actual book lore, and it was like... 10% or so and even those 10% were heavily changed, so in the end as you said before, the book covers should remove the Netflix artworks...
PS: Do we want to bet that in season 3 some random guy makes a "selfaware" joke to one of Jaskier's ballads, that the people in the ballad travel large distances too fast?
Thank you :) and yeah I didn't even talk about that selfaware joke...
You know why Yen is acting like a teenager? Drinker puts it very nicely: "today shows are written by children..." I'm not surprised whatsoever by this show. Wasn't expecting much, wasn't given much
YES! Been waiting for this one!
Honestly though...It's still a shame that an adaption of one of my favourite things is this poorly written and constructed. But I guess that's par for course of Netflix adaptations. I wonder how Henry feels?
There's also gonna be a Bioshock Netflix adaptation, and I can smell the shit from 5 miles away.
That's my fear with Amazon's LOTR series, I loved the Witcher but Tolkien's universe is my favorite and I have the feeling they will do to it what Netflix did to the Witcher.
@@roymercer1996 I concur. I think it will be best to only give it a go after reading some reviews.
Both Netflix and Amazon don't come to mind when thinking about companies that produce shows for the sake of their story and immersion.
@@roymercer1996 i am sure the amazon lotr will be even worse than the witcher, even if only by demonstrating the lack of ability to even bring an homage to the original 3 films. Even the hobbit trilogy felt really forced at times... this amazon thing will be a teenage series with tolkein cosplay, from what it s showing so far.
Also forgot to mention - that is not even to mention that it will never come close to the books in any way
The worst mistake of the Witcher series is that it was entrusted to be filmed by people who absolutely do not understand the lore of the universe, whose goal is simply to film something (indistinct, illogical and uninteresting)
You said it perfectly, it feels like they just wanted to finish filming
I feel that with S2, the one thing that brings it down is the writing, yeah there were some funny moments, but the characters feel completely different from the source material, even the previous season. it just seems to hop about all over the place, and as a result, the pacing feels so quick for a series like this.
Never clicked so fast haha
The three mistakes are- The show is called the witcher; Henry Cavill is in the show; fans trusting the writers to improve even when they did a lot of character in s1 dirty.
How can a TV show be so sloppy as to constantly contradict _itself_ , let alone the movie that's supposed to be in the same continuity?
Overall, it's okay as a TV show I guess, but an abysmal adaptation.
I usually give a bit more latitude than most with adaptations if they're able to tell a coherent story and they stay true to the original characters. That's why my biggest problem is Yen's arc, and her portrayal, in Season 2. It's just undermines so many facets of the story.
I personally enjoyed in some places S1 and more Nightmare of the Wolf.
But I disliked in many ways S2 because of mistakes and inconsistencies between projects.
I personally thought that Vesemir anime brings more lore to the world than S2 does.
I was disappointed and maybe the picture of what they want will become clearer.
But now I'm in a lot of confusion...
My exact thoughts
I mean S1 wasn't super good, but i watched it all. As a fan of series it was fun to see those characters come alive, fight scenes of Geralt were really good. Jaskier was good, it had its moments.
I actually stopped watching s2 halfway. I was dying of cringe. Everything is wrong and nothing makes sense it's the worst show I've watched. Not only a bad adaptation but also a terrible show on its own. Some of the actors are also beyond terrible, i googled them and all are, no offense, from very low level actors to 0 experience ones. Like where did the budget go..? Is the director buying herself cars and houses with all the show money?
The anime was pretty good on the other hand. Liked it more than any seasons of the show. It built a lore based on stuff books didn't explain much. And characters, writing, fights were pretty good.
Thank you very much for your work on this season xLetalis, I always follow your videos with pleasure.
To end on a positive note, I would like to say that, although I absolutely hated this season, it at least made me want to rediscover the books I had read years ago. They were even better than I remembered. What a great universe than that of The Witcher, what a beautiful story ! I have no doubt that one day, we will get a faithful adaptation.
Thank you for your great reviews.
Anyone else besides me think that big chunks of the problems with 'Rings of Power' are actually bastard leftovers from Netflix's Witcher?
I mean 'damn!' Galadriel is basically S2 Yennifer just with (thank whatever merciful god for TV14) all the edgy swearing removed!