The Witcher is a Book Adaptation of the novels of Andrzej Sapkowski and is about a Monster Hunter called Geralt of Riva and his struggle to survive in a dark Fantasy World filled with Monsters, Racism, Intrigue and betrayal. There is also magic, love, the tragedy of losses and a lot of critical annotations about wealth and warmongering et cetera.

So overall a great story which is very cleary hinted as to take place in central, eastern and northern european folklore. There are for Example Werewolves, Vampires, European Dragons, living Trees, Spirits of Rivers and Forests, Berserkers, norsemen and so on, while it is mostly lacking of asian, african or american creatures. Even the city names are a complete reference to eastern Cities. Combine Stalingrad and Novgorod and you get Novigrad for example.

I only mention this because it is very irritating to see a cast that is mostly black, brown or asian in a world so totally dominated by medieval eastern europe. In this aspect the books and games have been 'diversed' or should i say 'netflixxed', because we all knew before this was bound to happen.

It is also quite annoying that the white characters are mostly the villains in the show. Despite Geralt and Ciri there are almost no 'good' white characters...

But now to the real critics: One aspect that is so annoying that i just cannot ignore it is the lack of detail. The Witchers were never supposed to be beautiful, Geralt and the other witchers are mutants. Even in the games the characters look way too good but here they look even better. The Idea of the whole book series was that half-Monsters hunt Monsters. The Witchers are creatures with pale skin, cat eyes, inhuman reflexes, veins popping out, children hide from them. They are mostly being treated like dangerous dogs and therefore lack any empathy for humans, elves or dwarves and are only interested in payment. Geralt occasionally being the EXCEPTION not the average. This was totally forgotten in the show.

Also the Monsters themselves. A Witcher prepares before facing a monster and not just randomly walks in on them. A whole episode with 50min length should be about Accepting a job, preparing for it and completing it. Instead the monsters only take a few minutes of screen time if they even appear at all. This is the story of a monster hunter is it not? A guy that hunts monsters for a living. So please show us how he does it and not the drama of wizards, courts and princesses. Show us how he gathers herbs, sets traps, talks with locals, reads in books. Show us the victims of the monster attacks. Create some tension, add some action scenes and in the middle of it you can have your sidestories.

As i asked before in the header: Is this really the witcher? When a knight in shining armor, that looks and acts like a Prince saves Princesses or other people from monsters without ever getting injured and not preparing for them at all? No not in my opinion. Only the name is there.