Netflix’s The Witcher Season 2: It’s so boring and Meh…

What made me got interested in The Witcher series was because of Henry Cavill and DAMN! he looks great as Geralt of Rivia. Before this, I have never been a fan of him when he was in the Zach Snyder’s Superman films. But as a Witcher in a white wig, the muscles…well sir, you have my attention now. 

I have no knowledge of The Witcher lore and never read the books. The only thing I know about the series was though playing the game, Witcher 3, which I actually did enjoy playing it. Despite not knowing anything in-depth, I really enjoyed watching Season 1 of Netflix’s The Witcher. It has a nice balance of a serious, dark-fantasy story and tongue-in-cheek moments, which made it more watchable for me. The ending of S1 made look forward in seeing all of the characters reunite and go on adventure together to fight against evil, like Lord of the Rings style! Well…unfortunately, season 2 is a complete letdown and it so boring. What happened!? 

The storytelling is clunky and unfocused. The first half of the series moves too slow and it does not progress to any new information nor it gave us any new character develop. There were many dialogues that we’re complete waste of time and kept repeating the same phrases like, Ciri is special, destiny, premonitions, and Chaos. Lot’s of questions on top of more questions and we’re not progressing anywhere different. But I did like the father-daughter relationship between Ciri and Geralt. I find it very enduring. It’s just too bad that there is only short amount of time to develop that relationship, by the time we get to the end of S2, it didn’t felt genuine.

Some of the character’s motivation felt inauthentic and didn’t make any sense. In the end of S2, the characters’ goals had failed and now we’re back to square one. So, what was the point of going through all that struggle? I’m disappointed with how they handled Yennifer’s arc. She was willing to sacrifice Ciri to get her magic back. But she quickly changes her mind. Leaving Ciri and Geralt wondering if they can ever trust her again. It’s going to be really awkward that she’ll be staying with them and has to rebuild her relationship with Geralt, which was already complicated enough, all over again. I’ve heard that in the original story, Yennifer becomes a mother figure for Ciri and that would have been be a more interesting arc to explore, instead of this mess above.   

I’ve been reading articles on how the Witcher fans felt about S2. And, it’s not good. Many are disappointed that it deviates away from the books, some of the character’s motivation don’t make sense, and anger over a death of a certain character. I completely understand where they're coming from. We’ve seen this same pattern before, Hollywood takes big franchises and they screw it up. Yup, it sucks!

If the creators of this show felt lost and didn’t know what to do, all they had to do was just follow the original source material. Also, they have Henry Cavill. He’s a big fan of the series and he’s more knowledgeable about The Witcher lore, all they had to do was ask him for his advice. I feel sorry for him because he puts a lot of passion and hard work supporting this project. If you were surrounded by incompetent creators, like what can you do? 

Anyway, if season 3 gets greenlit, then they have a lot of making up to do. S2 has become a forgettable arc and wasted its’ own potential. With any adaptation, I don't expect it to be 100% accurate to the source material. I don’t mind if the creators wants to add something new, as long as it makes sense within the context of the story. They have to be very carful not to turn this into a bad fan fiction writing. At the end of the day, everybody wants to see a good show succeed. Do better next time and do it for Henry Cavill! 

Trailer
 Adaptation  Novel series by Andrzej Sapkowski
 Released  Dec.16.2021
 Director  Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
 Cast  Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra, Freya Allan
  Where  Netflix