Review written upon completetion of season 1. First of all, I have not read the books, but I am familiar with the game trilogy, although haven't fully finished any of them. Yet. At the end of the 1st episode I did re-install "The Witcher 3" immediately. "The Witcher" series were long anticipated - I wasn't sure what to expect, wasn't sure about Henry Cavill, wasn't sure about anything really. Well, here goes:

Being a fan of medieval action, adult fantasy and such & having seen loads of examples, I'd put "The Witcher" somewhere between "Vikings" and "Game of Thrones", NOT rating or quality wise, but style, theme/s and substance wise. The first episode was, frankly, a little underwhelming (but it did end with a bang) and I fully stopped raising eyebrows only after episode three. The qualities that got introduced & remained great throughout the whole show are as follows: awesome bloody action, top tier level cinematography and FX, fitting original score, enjoyable acting performances. The qualities that improved with time: some of the characters, most notably the Witcher himself, about whom I wasn't sure of at the start. Nearing the end, I, admiteddly, had gotten quite fond of the ever-amusing Henry "Deep Voice" Cavill's awesome looking Witcher. The man has prepared, the love for the role can be felt. Did you know he also didn't use even one stunt double? The casting is pretty good, can't complain about anyone really, Yennifer and Ciri (the other two main leads) have done a great job & so has the rest of the ensemble. What always stayed more or less the same & is very likely the main fault of the series is the story. It is interesting and broad enough, and, as far as I can tell, respects the books and the games in various, both big and subtle, ways, BUT, however, it feels like a conventional, surface-level (at times) type of story. The plot sometimes develops a little slowly & never goes as bonkers as I'd want it to. It's definitely not an HBO level story, if I might say so. Also, the dialogue is often gravitating towards "bland" rather than "sophisticated" - and I don't mean to describe specifically the Witcher's dialogues. Despite my negative remarks on the story, there's one cool thing about it all that I can't quite pinpoint or put in words. Basically, "The Witcher" might be one of the few things I've seen that really justifies the word "fantasy" in my eyes - the huge variety of characters, the monsters, the names, the many little trivial things, it all does remind me of a game's world, pleasantly so. It's a little cool vibe frequently surfacing among all the story flaws. To sum it up on the plot, it's well above average television and below the greater examples. Returning to the positivities, I want to once again compliment on the action, all of it is well done, violent, awesome, just golden, and with a few diamond scenes among the gold. I wish there was more action, though, feels like there could've been a bit more throughout.

"The Witcher" is an R rated show which, sadly, sometimes feels like a pg-13 kind & I'm not talking about the any and all aesthetic factors. I was happy to realize that at the end of the last episode I really wished there was more. I hope these series do well and grow tall, there's a good foundation. And it's finally time to continue the game. My rating: 8/10.