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SirKicksalot
Member
Watched 3 episodes. Yep, it's The Witcher. Yen is a highlight. I'm surprised they don't explain the use of signs and potions, which is a good thing. They don't assume the viewer is retarded.
Punished Miku
Gold Member
You guys hyped me!
Denton
Member
First episode was mostly good with some misses (bad battle, bad nilfgaard armors, distracting diversity castings, too truncated lesser evil). Second was even weaker, it legit bored me in places. Third was fantastic. Loved it. Fourth I am in the middle of and liking it for the most part (Brokilon is just WTF, I am not buying harlem dryads. I want my green dryads).
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SLB1904
Banned
Walledhouse
Member
I was worried before watching that they would be making a mess by changing some pivotal characters ethnicities around. Particularly I was worried they would make the royals of Cintra dark-skinned; which I figured would confuse Ciri’s parentage. The characters that have changed though so far are fine.
As
Denton
mentioned, I didn’t know what was going on with the forrest people. It didn’t occur to me that they were supposed to be the green dryads. Pretty weak that whole part too; I don’t like the Ciri stuff so far; it’s boring.
The sorceresses don’t look like their counterparts; can forgive them but I wish they’d put a red wig on Triss; it’s just such a distinguishing feature in the games. She has some freckles though; but doesn’t feel like Triss yet. And Yennifer, it is too early for me to tell if she feels right; need her to talk to Geralt.
As
Denton
mentioned, I didn’t know what was going on with the forrest people. It didn’t occur to me that they were supposed to be the green dryads. Pretty weak that whole part too; I don’t like the Ciri stuff so far; it’s boring.The sorceresses don’t look like their counterparts; can forgive them but I wish they’d put a red wig on Triss; it’s just such a distinguishing feature in the games. She has some freckles though; but doesn’t feel like Triss yet. And Yennifer, it is too early for me to tell if she feels right; need her to talk to Geralt.
Fuz
Banned
Fucking nope.
Fuz
Banned
Watching it now. The big battle is ridiculous. The dialogues are mostly embarassing. Calanthe is a terrible actor - seriously, she's so bad it's unbelievable.
Cavill is great. Ciri is pretty good too.
Meh.
Edit: finished the first episode. For some reason I kind of mildly enjoyed it, but my god, the writing is abysmal. Fanfic level. Embarassing.
Cavill is great. Ciri is pretty good too.
Meh.
Edit: finished the first episode. For some reason I kind of mildly enjoyed it, but my god, the writing is abysmal. Fanfic level. Embarassing.
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New Yorks Finest
Banned
Wish this had the Norm Netflix 10ep series, but no, it had to be 8..we can't have great things 
(I'm on 2nd ep, it's freaking gorgeous in 4k HDR
)
(I'm on 2nd ep, it's freaking gorgeous in 4k HDR)
Sygma
Member
I like that they're sticking to Sword of destiny with some changes in places, it's really not that distracting. Also like that the tone is more akin to Witcher 1 than the two other forgettable stories, they're nailing that part quite nicely
Fucking swear to god they better not fuck up the Wild Hunt if they go down that road, boy was it bad in the game
Fucking swear to god they better not fuck up the Wild Hunt if they go down that road, boy was it bad in the game
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RPGCrazied
Member
Just finished it. Pretty great. I like the actor that played Geralt. Did the character justice. I like how he talked in a low voice like he does in the game. Can season 2 have the wild hunt?
MagnesG
Banned
Adaptation more loose than the games. Timeline are downright messy.
Pallas
Member
So it takes place before Witcher 1?
MagnesG
Banned
Of course, from the start of the books with their own twist.
BaneIsPain
Member
This show is pretty good. A bit weird on casting but most of it on spot. Can’t imagine foltest is fat at all
Strife In a Teacup
Member
Didn't mind the first episode at all, definitely reminded me of Witcher 3.
Stopped after chapter 2 (The Swamp)? Because I did, goddamn that is the worst chapter in any rpg. Luckily Witcher 2 was much better I played that through solidly, Witcher 3 took me a bit to come around because of the combat weirdness, but with the alternate mode and in 4k/HDR I finally beat it this year.
Nice introduction on how he gets the name 'Butcher of Blaviken'
Stopped after chapter 2 (The Swamp)? Because I did, goddamn that is the worst chapter in any rpg. Luckily Witcher 2 was much better I played that through solidly, Witcher 3 took me a bit to come around because of the combat weirdness, but with the alternate mode and in 4k/HDR I finally beat it this year.
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EverythingsOverrated
Member
Witcher 1 is one of my favorite flawed games ever. The swamp had some really rough parts, but god damn I still loved it. Probably my favorite thing about that game is that you actually felt like a detective piecing clues together while trying not to fuck up. I completely understand why people don't dig it, it has a lot of weird ass clunky shit going on.
As for the show, haven't peeped it yet, but I'm pretty hyped about it. I'm going to see if I can trick my girlfriend into watching it now.
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IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Watched the first episode.
Cavill’s good all around, and his fights are choreographed very well.
Writing, acting, effects, ballsack armor...leaving a lot to be desired. The king and queen are both fighting at the front lines? Their cavalry stands around while infantry charges into them? C’mon now.
Sufficiently witchery, will continue.
Cavill’s good all around, and his fights are choreographed very well.
Writing, acting, effects, ballsack armor...leaving a lot to be desired. The king and queen are both fighting at the front lines? Their cavalry stands around while infantry charges into them? C’mon now.
Sufficiently witchery, will continue.
vaibhavpisal
Member
Games are not great for inspiration for stories especially if you want to adapt for television.
Books are primarily used for telling stories and are much better at it. Especially in these novels there is so much fine detailing, it would be difficult to present.
EverythingsOverrated
Member
It kinda reminded me of the opening battle scene in Braham Stoker's Dracula lol.Jup I think it was there
EviLore oh thank god someone else saw that shit with the cavalry. The whole battle scene felt very dated.
The episode definitely had some rough spots, but most importantly, I'm already sold on Cavill as Geralt. Excited to see where this goes. The vibe seems pretty spot on so far
Malakhov
Banned
Wait till you see episode 3, what and how he fights in that episode looked straight out of a b horror movie
But I fell in love in that episode though...
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After six episodes - judging it as an another generic fantasy show - watchable and fortgetable. However as the witcher series it's just shit. They follow the books very loosely, holding to some main plot points, but changing almost everything in between. A lot of characters and their motivations has been changed(or just straight out butchered) without any good reason. The writing is quite bad which is sad, because the dialogs are the strongest point of the books.
The casting and the acting is also not very good and some characters totally do not fit their book image (gypsy fortune teller Triss, Istredd, they couldn't event get Calanthe's hair color right). Cavill looks good with the sword, but the rest of his acting, as my friend pointed out, looks like Joey Tribbiani's smell the fart acting.
They put a lot of the original content there, and most of it you can recognize very easily because it stands out in it's own pointlessness (like Dara), stupidity (just mentioned cavalry scene), or boredom (Ciri trying to find Geralt, and almost all Yennefer content before meeting Geralt). Main story doesn't really come anywhere, and the way they jump between timelines is straight out confusing if you don't know from the books whats is going on, again for no good reason really.
The good things:
- Music - heavily inspired by TW3, could be played more often
- Sword fight in Blaviken
You can really feel that the show has been written by people who do not care about the source material at all. And it's a shame.
The casting and the acting is also not very good and some characters totally do not fit their book image (gypsy fortune teller Triss, Istredd, they couldn't event get Calanthe's hair color right). Cavill looks good with the sword, but the rest of his acting, as my friend pointed out, looks like Joey Tribbiani's smell the fart acting.
They put a lot of the original content there, and most of it you can recognize very easily because it stands out in it's own pointlessness (like Dara), stupidity (just mentioned cavalry scene), or boredom (Ciri trying to find Geralt, and almost all Yennefer content before meeting Geralt). Main story doesn't really come anywhere, and the way they jump between timelines is straight out confusing if you don't know from the books whats is going on, again for no good reason really.
The good things:
- Music - heavily inspired by TW3, could be played more often
- Sword fight in Blaviken
You can really feel that the show has been written by people who do not care about the source material at all. And it's a shame.
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GreyHorace
Member
3 episodes in and I like it so far. Cavill continues to be solid, though some reviewers claims he's wodden. I find that hilarious, as he's playing the character as we've always known him from the games. A stoic monster hunter with occasional bouts of sarcasm and genuine emotion. That's the Geralt of Rivia I know, though I understand people's tastes may differ.
My main complaint though has to be the 3 interspersed narratives of Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer. Especially since each of their stories occurs in 3 different time periods! Yennefer's is probably the oldest narrative, Geralt's next and Ciri's in the present. I understand that the showrunners wanted to bring Yen and Ciri's stories to the forefront rather than later and it's obvious that the point they are making is that each of the 3 principal's destinies are intertwining until they meet. But man does it mess up the pacing and would probably confuse viewers who've never read the books. I could follow it easy enough but other people will probably be confused as all hell. They really should have focused on Geralt first and left Yen and Ciri for later.
Not all is bad though. Geralt's quest to cure the striga (based on the very first Witcher short story) was adapted nicely with a great emphasis on the horror element. But I think the standout of the last two episodes has to be:
I'll admit to being one of those not enthused by Anya Charlotra's casting as Yennefer. But I'm willing to eat crow after the fantastic performance she gave. The show really makes you feel sympathy for her character and better understand why she's such a bitch that we meet later in the novel series and in The Witcher 3. Poor girl's had it rough her whole life and had to claw and scratch her way to the place of prominence among the mages of the Continent.
My main complaint though has to be the 3 interspersed narratives of Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer. Especially since each of their stories occurs in 3 different time periods! Yennefer's is probably the oldest narrative, Geralt's next and Ciri's in the present. I understand that the showrunners wanted to bring Yen and Ciri's stories to the forefront rather than later and it's obvious that the point they are making is that each of the 3 principal's destinies are intertwining until they meet. But man does it mess up the pacing and would probably confuse viewers who've never read the books. I could follow it easy enough but other people will probably be confused as all hell. They really should have focused on Geralt first and left Yen and Ciri for later.
Not all is bad though. Geralt's quest to cure the striga (based on the very first Witcher short story) was adapted nicely with a great emphasis on the horror element. But I think the standout of the last two episodes has to be:
I'll admit to being one of those not enthused by Anya Charlotra's casting as Yennefer. But I'm willing to eat crow after the fantastic performance she gave. The show really makes you feel sympathy for her character and better understand why she's such a bitch that we meet later in the novel series and in The Witcher 3. Poor girl's had it rough her whole life and had to claw and scratch her way to the place of prominence among the mages of the Continent.
teacupcopter
Banned
What level of nudity are we talking in this show? How much do I have to explain to the wife?
Scopa
The Tribe Has Spoken
After watching the first episode, I have to say, I think it looks like a cheap production. 95% of the backgrounds are fake and filmed in front of green screen. I understand why, but you at least have to put the effort into foreground objects to set the mood for a fantasy world like this. Just comes across as amateurish.
The much talked about Netflix Forced Diversity™ sticks out like dogs balls already. It’s like they have it written into contract that every scene has to include the gamut. It’s laughable. If they really cared they’d be front and centre, but it’s usually just, check the background extras. Asian? Check. Indian? Check. Black? Check. Middle Eastern? Check.
Nilfgaard armour. Just seriously. What highly paid exec signed off on that trash? Did they bring their seeing-eye dog to the meeting?
Even though the showrunner insisted multiple times that they didn’t take inspiration from the games, Geralt’s armour and the music are heavily lifted from the games.
On the positive side. Geralt’s wig doesn’t look half as bad as the initial teaser poster suggested, Henry Cavill’s performance is ok and I think I saw a boob.
Not sure I’ll continue watching even though I love the books and games. I know I’ll chuck a bottle at my tv when I see the elves.
The much talked about Netflix Forced Diversity™ sticks out like dogs balls already. It’s like they have it written into contract that every scene has to include the gamut. It’s laughable. If they really cared they’d be front and centre, but it’s usually just, check the background extras. Asian? Check. Indian? Check. Black? Check. Middle Eastern? Check.
Nilfgaard armour. Just seriously. What highly paid exec signed off on that trash? Did they bring their seeing-eye dog to the meeting?
Even though the showrunner insisted multiple times that they didn’t take inspiration from the games, Geralt’s armour and the music are heavily lifted from the games.
On the positive side. Geralt’s wig doesn’t look half as bad as the initial teaser poster suggested, Henry Cavill’s performance is ok and I think I saw a boob.
Not sure I’ll continue watching even though I love the books and games. I know I’ll chuck a bottle at my tv when I see the elves.
down 2 orth
Member
Well the third episode was nothing short of glorious. I agree with the gripe about Triss though. They say in that very episode that sorceresses are recreated as works of art, but that's not exactly how I would describe how Triss looks...
Fuz
Banned
Yeah, bothered me too.
AeonGaidenRaiden
Member
Yeah first episode is a slow burner, gets better afterwards. I think Calvil also has a great voice, sounds almost the same as the in game voice actor.
BadBurger
Is 'That Pure Potato'
I read most of the books, I think, and after watching the first two episodes this seems reasonably faithful to the source in spirit. Cavill is far, far better than I thought he'd be. My largest complaint is that it is ugly dreary in colors. The novels painted an extravagant world right in color. That dance ball scene in episode one was a few shades of green and a little muted reds and oranges.
Portugeezer
Member
Watched 3 episodes and I'm enjoying it. What's with the weird camera blur on the top and bottom edges though? A bit distracting.
Psykodad
Banned
Not gonna lie, Yennefer in that sex-scene as a hunchback was still sexy af.
Helios
Member
Watched the first episode and it's really good. Especially that last fight scene at the end was great.
I've already complained about this back when I first saw the reveal but the armor design is definitely a weak point which is unfortunate as the video games have been doing great in that regard.
I've already complained about this back when I first saw the reveal but the armor design is definitely a weak point which is unfortunate as the video games have been doing great in that regard.
Caffeine
Member
but you know ciri will do some shit in season 2