Season 2: 8-Stars This season dramatically improved on the first. The actual show follows closer to the books/games and we see more of a stronger development on characters of Ciri and Geralt and their relationship (father/daughter-esque) which feel more akin to the where we're at in the games or at least just before. We even get more monsters and more of those Witcher battles using tactics from the games and books like smelling salts, potions, magic, etc. THIS FEELS LIKE THE WITCHER. My only issue is that the season is too damn short and I don't want to wait another 2 years for more of the story to develop.

Season 1: 1-Star Basically a Xena: Warrior Princess with Witcher in the main role. It's literally on the same level with effects as a 20 year old syndicated series. Now before anyone says "Well this doesn't have the same budget as GoT" Oh... yes it certainly does/did. GoT capped out at $10mil an episode by the final seasons, up from $4-6 mil, where as Witcher is starting at $10mil right off the bat. So why does this look mediocre in comparison? Cavill is a perfect Geralt, no doubt there, but Triss and Yen are horribly cast compared to the only other visual representations we've been canonically given (the games). It would've been nice to see some similarities between the game characters and their on-screen counterparts, but I guess they got Yen's hair color right... at least. The script writing is dreadful, pacing is slow and dull at times. Enough to make you realize how bored you are with the current scene, vs a comparable series like Game of Thrones that kept the pacing steady and the action consistent. I was somewhat reserved going into this show, simply because I didn't want to compare it to Game of Thrones all the way through, even through reviewer sites prior to its release claimed it would dethrone GoT and surpass it, but I'm definitely not seeing it happening. I have no loyalties to any of the characters besides Geralt, which shouldn't be when we're being spoon-fed three different timelines with three different focal point characters that overlap each other depending on episodes. If season two is bound to happen, they need to go back and read the books again, maybe play through the games. Ditch the cheap effects, and work out the budget a bit better to provide more of a "witcher" atmosphere. Using strobe lights through windows as a stand in for lightning, and a big flood light behind a character to portray some sort of dramatic build up is cheesy garbage I'd expect from a 1990's daytime drama. I know I'm focusing a lot on the low quality effects effort, but I felt like this was the weakest point of the whole series and needs definite work if I'm going to bother sitting through another slew of episodes next year.