The Witcher was one of my most anticipated tv events of the year and in all honesty from previous trailers i was very worried about this adaptation being particularly bad.As it turns out there are certain aspects of this first season of The Witcher that are enjoyable and well done however certain decisions from those in charge of this production had me scratching my head in confusion.

The Witcher TV Series is neither an adaptation of the games nor an adaptation of the books. There are simply far to many changes in this series for this to be considered an adaptation in any sense of faithfulness. Many of these changes were changes for changes sake. Story arcs and scenes being altered to the point of being irrelevant such as the whole Broklion story arc that completely felt pointless in the TV series and i am sure would have had the majority of watchers scratching their heads at why it was even included in the series.

The Witcher has some great cinematography, The main cast do a good job with the limitations of the script they are given. Particularly Yennifer, Jaskier and Geralt do a good job in this series. Ciri is well acted however has very little to actually do and the scenes with her in are easily the least memorable and watchable. These scenes also differ greatest from those depicted in the novels. The comedy in the series is rather good and certainly fitting of the characters. The fight choreography is impressive and certain fight scenes feel real and Geralt displays a believable level of finesse with a sword befitting a Witcher.

The costumes are a mixed bag, some look good, others serviceable but many just feel cheap and more suited to a stage production than a high budget tv series. The lighting often contrasts the locations and lens flare is often depicted in scene obscuring the view of the camera. The special effects are also all over the place. Early on the effects are good but it seems they ran out of budget and those last few episodes seriously look awful. GOT season 1 also had a low budget but they managed to use their budget to a degree that never stretched it beyond what it was capable of. In Witcher season 1 they basically snap their own budget and end up with CGI scenes that would have been awful 10 years ago. The story is all over the place, with 3 differing timelines running at the same time. Having read the books i was able to follow what was happening but others may have been very confused. Episode 7 basically rehashed many scenes from Episode 1.

This isn't a total disaster and there is potential here for season 2 to be much better however certain changes made to important characters and story arcs that differ so greatly from the novels may alter the trajectory of this show to such an extent that it relies almost entirely on the writers of this series as opposed ot the novels and in all honesty those writers did a horrific job with the aspects altered from the novels.