The story of The Witcher it is particular: in the mind of its creator it has always been Wiedźmin, the witcher, even while in 1985 he participated in a literary competition. Just it gave the right space to Andrzej Sapkowski to proceed and develop first short stories, then real novels. From there a successful crescendo - partly due to the video game by CD Project Red - brought Geralt of Rivia to become a recognized fantasy hero, culminating his parable in 2015 with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a game that has garnered more than 800 awards (becoming the most successful game in the history of the GOTY Awards). It was obvious that, sooner or later, someone would take this now famous saga to gamers and fantasy lovers (more for the hero than for the name itself) and transposed it to a film / TV series: after having seen 5 episodes , we can tell you our opinions on The Witcher, The series Netflix.
One for three and three for one
The Witcher, in its purest concept, it is a dark fantasy: fantastic creatures inhabit medieval-fantasy landscapes, but a thick blanket of (figurative) darkness envelops everything. Everyone thinks for themselves, people are mean, and double-dealing is so common that it makes honesty seem wrong. In this world travels the Witcher, product of a bygone era, created by man to defeat monsters, until he himself becomes so detached from the world as to be a mere spectator and, sometimes, a mercenary. Obviously, the Witcher will meet various characters along his path, all finely characterized (thanks to an exhaustive background of books), making the reader discover more and more of the world in which the saga is set and, at the same time, showing Geralt how much not need to be monsters to be defined as such. Tricks and deceptions are around the corner, and this is finely replicated in the series.
We find in the shoes of Geralt un Henry Cavill centered in the character, dark and cynical enough but also open to some remnant of feeling (be it carnal or spiritual). Next to him, two plots intertwine: let's talk about Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) and her origins as a witch, and of the princess Characteristic (Freya Allan) and its secret. Obviously there will be really well characterized secondary characters such as Dandelion (some of you will know him as Dandelion or Dandelion), Geralt's friendly bard, and the Queen Calanthe. Obviously, another character is part of the cast: let's talk about the setting, quite lively and full of details, but not enough in comparison to what it really could have been (remember that the world of The Witcher is in constant political turmoil, full of battles and scenario of a great rivalry between two populations).
These three plots will intertwine easily, slowly building a castle made up of many pieces of the puzzle, very understandable and interesting to reveal. The various episodes, reconstructing on Geralt's stories, replicate the plots that readers will already know (while the gamers a little less): in fact, characters such as Renfri, Stregobor, Fringilla and Triss appear in the eight episodes, all finely characterized ( even if some casting choices were more courageous than they should). All in all, the episodes flow by quickly, interspersing battles, well-structured dialogues and some twists. If we have little to say about the last two (also because, as mentioned, they follow the book very well), the fights instead are inspired by the game's Geralt move set, showing a really comfortable Henry Cavill in the role of the Strigo.
I am Geralt
Deepening precisely the theme of interpretation, Cavill's Geralt maintains all the characteristics of the character: dark, cynical, with a deep voice and devoid of emotions, he immediately manages to make it clear how the character is interested - apparently - only in money. It is opposed to him Cirilla, Princess Ciri, in all her weakness during the events that will unfold throughout history. Yennefer, on the other hand, with her origin story, shows a very different plot from Geralt's resolve or Ciri's fear, revealing himself to be the easiest character to understand empathically.
The casting, as mentioned, is also well chosen in the courageous choices: it would have been easy to choose a girl with bright red hair for Triss, while instead the actress is much more subdued in the dialogues, in the clothes and also in the appearance. This is because, it must be clarified, Netflix's The Witcher is inspired by novels: it is not a re-adaptation of the re-adaptation, but takes Sapkowski's words and reworks them, adapting the adaptable to a TV series. All this makes the product very digestible, but at the same time close to the competitors in the game.
So if we find ourselves in front of an excellent Geralt, a fantastic Ciri and an acceptable Yennefer, we cannot say the same of the secondary characters, relegated to simple spots, although connected by advancing in the story to a much more articulated plot. Surely time (and the second season) will give us a new space for these, which for now are collapsing in comparison to their written counterparts.
One product, more lives
The book fascinated with its words, the game with its gameplay: this series, really beautiful from many points of view, has media-related defects. First of all, the locations and the monsters: despite being meticulously cared for, sometimes they seem too artificial, crossing the border between TV series and fan movies: however, this is really very limited, and with the progress of the series it constantly improves until it disappears (at least in the first 5 episodes). But the real magic has been done on what matters: weft.
Understand seeing it, but to follow Netflix's The Witcher well you will have to understand many things about the development of the plot, deliberately mysterious and which is revealed more and more with the progress of the episodes. There political plot - the battle between Cintra e Nilfgaard - and the way in which these characters move in this geopolitical environment, has been simplified by removing unnecessary information, without losing coherence and clarity, but rather making everything chewable even by those who have never seen it.
