Yakoob on 23/12/2019 at 23:05
So I just finished the new Witcher series on Netlfix, and have opinions, gasp :O
I haven't posted much on TTLG recently, so what better way to break the silence than spewing opinionated opinions on subjects I have opinions about???
SPOILERS AHOY
Overall, I feel the show is kind of all over the place quality wise. There's some amazing scenes and acting, juxtaposed against a bit of sloppy delivery and contrived plot points. However, I do feel the show gets better with each episode, and I am curious how they'll tackled the next season
The good
The cinematography is fab. There's so many shots where the set design, lighting and composition are just beautiful! All the wide establishing shots also do an amazing job of giving a sense of space and mood. The show definitely does a good job of creating an atmosphere
I also like the show bringing up some of the deeper themes in the books: sexism, evolution/survival of the fittest, racism, destiny vs. free will, desire to reproduce, corruption of power, etc. It's one of my favorite thing about Sapkowski's books and I am excited to see them represented in the show as well.
While I am not entirely sold on the new Geralt, there's many scenes that work great and capture his character. Like the Geralt and Calanthe exchange during the ball was just perfect. The two riff off of each other so well. I just love Calanthe so much, she's awesome, half bitch, half loving mother, half strong ruler of necessity. She does an excellent commentary on traditions and shows her own conflicted viewpoints. Honestly, even tho I say "bitch" i don't mean it in an insult in her case, it's what she has to be to survive in her role.
With Ciri, I feel she is different from the books, but I don't mind as much. Fantastic casting job, just her presence immediately makes you feel she is important. I love Yennefer's backstory, and I feel more for her than I did in the books and games.
I also like the fact they boiled down the books into 3 parallel stories that eventually come together.
That being said...
The Bad
I feel the show suffers from a few issue, particularly Geralt's relationship with Yennefer and Jaskier. The pacing is just really contrived and seems to skip important details.
For example, Geralt meets Yen, they sort of fall for each other, so far so good. Then next episode they randomly bump into each other, act all weird for the whole episode, then they fall madly in love promising each other, and 10 minutes later Yennefer never wants to see Geralt again. WTF? That whole thing should have been built up over few more interactions, not a 20 minute block (IIRC in the books they had a long-standing on-and-off relationship with many encounters). It just felt really contrived.
What makes this worse is that some stuff just isn't explained clearly and ends up confusing. The reason Yen was ignoring and flirted with a handsome knight (to make Geralt jealous) was because he left her after the Djinn episode because hew as afraid of commitment and admitting he has human feelings. But was any of that explained? No, it was just a throwaway line when they were in bed about him leaving her, awkwardly set up him NOT leaving her this time.
Similarly with Jaskier, Geralt goes from meeting the random dude to suddenly being world-famous in one episode and it's not really explained how much time has passed (if any). The two kinda get chummy together and the events described happened pretty closely to how they went in the books but... it kinda felt like they left out all the "buddy buddy" moments and just left the "annoying each other" moments so it comes off more antagonistic than it should be.
(also where the fuck is his plum hat???)
I found the show also does a lot of this thing where it kind of introduces a concept, but does explaining it till like half an hour later. Like when the "Law of Surprise" is invoked and everyone gets in a big fight over it. But it's not even explained wtf they're fighting over, until like half an hour later when Geralt is leaving. I can't tell if the writers were trying to be mysterious and leave people guessing, or if it just isn't best writing, but I had a few instances where I was like "what?"
Lastly, the acting is kinda hit and miss. Some of Geralts funnier lines fall flat because of poor timing/delivery/setup (like the Ox kicking Jaskier's balls). I definitely Geralt felt more like Geralt as the show goes on, but the beginnings are rough. Triss Merigold feels way off too for some reason, like she's not convinced of her own role at all. Meep.
EDIT: Also, to clarify, I read the books (in Polish) and loved them, tho that was almost a decade ago so I am fuzzy on all the details.
Renzatic on 23/12/2019 at 23:30
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Overall, I feel the show is kind of all over the place quality wise. There's some amazing scenes and acting, juxtaposed against a bit of sloppy delivery and contrived plot points. However, I do feel the show gets better with each episode, and I am curious how they'll tackled the next season
I read a quote that summed up my feelings of it quite well. To paraphrase:
"It's almost always at least good. Sometimes, it's incredible. Though there are those moments when it's straight up Xena Warrior Princess."
That's about as succinct as you can get. When the show's firing on all cylinders, it's amazing. Everything you'd hope it would be. But then it suddenly forgets itself, and the cheese ramps up to ridiculous degrees, like they had to bring in the D team to write a few scenes to save some cash.
Yakoob on 23/12/2019 at 23:54
Haha that's a good way to take it. I had a few "this feels like an 80s filming/CGI" moments so the Xena Warrior Princess sums it up well xD
Renzatic on 24/12/2019 at 00:19
We're likely both thinking of that gold dragon right about now.
Yakoob on 24/12/2019 at 03:52
Haha yea after GoT its hard to look at that and not think "ok... that's a dragon." Oddly the ep1 opening fight in the swamp also felt very "SyFy channel cgi" to me.
Renzatic on 24/12/2019 at 06:40
Yeah, it was a little rough, though not as bad as that gold dragon.
That assassin guy? That's the way a kikimore is supposed to look.
Yakoob on 24/12/2019 at 19:49
Yeah the Kikimora was great. That whole chase sequence was solid (and again shows great cinematography and set design), especially when Yenn gets pissed at the girl and just abandons her :p
Also another thing - I thought the boob shots were so unnecessary, they weren't even trying to make any sort of point with it. It's like "well GoT did it, so we HAVE to have boob shots!" Especially when no balls being shown, it was very one-sided... very clearly just trying to get attention of male viewers.
Renzatic on 24/12/2019 at 20:52
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Also another thing - I thought the boob shots were so unnecessary, they weren't even trying to make any sort of point with it. It's like "well GoT did it, so we HAVE to have boob shots!" Especially when no balls being shown, it was very one-sided... very clearly just trying to get attention of male viewers.
To be fair, it's in theme with the games too. It's like here's some naked boobs, cuz why not? And for some added edginess: HUNCHBACK BOOBS!
Also:
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/ZgPZpUJ.jpg
Yakoob on 25/12/2019 at 02:05
Not quite cause the games did it to show how much sexy time geralt gets. But here the boob shots had nothing to do with that, they just seemed arbitrary (like the transformation or the djin summoning). The orgy might be the only one that makes sense but even so the women were more undressed compared to the men.
Not that I mind boobs in my shows, it just felt unnecessary to the scenes being portrayed.
And that image is great xD
Renzatic on 25/12/2019 at 04:46
I'd argue the transformation scene was the only scene where it was justified, given what was being done. Everywhere else? Yeah. Totally gratuitous. It was just throwing naked people around for the sake of having naked people around.
I don't think of it as any better or worse than the games, because really, there weren't any particularly pressing reason to have nudity there either. Those succubi could've worn tops.