I have never played the game nor read the books, so I went into this knowing nothing of the main character or the universe. I love fantasy and I like Henry Cavill's work, but it took me two sittings to get through the first episode, but I've now made to episode 5, albeit grunting and cursing more than a few times.

Henry Cavill's portrayal of Geralt is convincing and enjoyable to watch, but it too often feels like that's the only solid thing in this show. Time and again, I'm pulled out of the story by dialogue that sounds odd, cheesy, or sometimes even downright nonsensical. Now that's not the actors' fault, and Cavill's performance has to be lauded here because he manages to hold our suspension of disbelief despite the not-so-great material he is being asked to work with.

That being said, there is also a lot of shaky acting peppered throughout the show that makes the viewing experience really tough. Ciri's grandmother the queen, the Nilfgaardian villain and the doppelganger in episode 5 come readily to mind.

The storyline has been decried for its lack of clarity and I cannot disagree here. I was mildly disoriented at the episode 2 mark, but by episode 4 (the banquet) I was utterly lost and swearing heavily. This is coming from someone who thoroughly enjoyed Westworld. I think it has to do with pacing and how you transition in and out of different time frames. Where Westworld managed to keep me only mildly disoriented so as to be entertaining and suspenseful, The Witcher seems to keep wanting to push me around not caring whether I'm following or not.

As I make a list of all the things that I find lacking, I realize this is a show I wish I could love, because there is potential. The costumes, props and sets look great and make me want to know more about the world, but frustratingly little of it is ever showed. As another review said, names of places are tossed around but none of them ever really stick. It still very much feels like a generic fairy tale where names of places and people are mentioned in passing, but we never get to find out or even get a sense of what or who they are.

In the end, I wish this series had been blessed with better writing and directing (and maybe casting, but I believe most "acting" problems could/should be solved by good directing). It seems to me that the hype around The Witcher is largely due to the video game's success and I doubt the series would have fared as well had it had to win over a totally new audience.