The Witcher (2019) is a Netflix adaptation of the popular fantasy novel franchise which immensely gained new traction after the video game trilogy based on it from CD Projekt Red was released. I was introduced to this world because of those amazing games more than a decade ago (still haven't played Witcher 3 yet, though, a mortal sin I know) and with the release of Season 2 coming up, I decided to finally give Season 1 a watch, especially since I started reading the books and finished The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny beforehand considering this season is mostly based on those two books.

What I loved: Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia. He was perfect. He had the feel and style of Geralt nailed down and since he is a fan of the games, he emulated the voice from them and it was awesome. He gave a great performance as the famous witcher. He looked the part too albeit a bit beefier version. Also, some of his fight scenes were brutally thrilling and well-choreographed.

The song "Toss a Coin to your Witcher" from Jaskier/Dandelion was an absolute banger and Dan Vasc's Metal cover of it is even better. Still can't get it out of my head.

What I liked: Joey Batey as Jaskier/Dandelion (I wish they called him dandelion in the series), he was a fun companion to The White Wolf and I enjoyed their interactions and his injection of comedy alongside Geralt's dry wit. Would have liked it more if the writing gave him more smarts alongside the comic relief aspect as it is in the books but who knows, maybe in the next season. Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, might not look the part that well but I sure did enjoy her performance, she had some intense moments in this season and she brought out her acting chops. Freya Allen as Ciri wasn't bad either and whatever shortcomings I felt had more to do with the writing and not the actress.

Seeing some of the locations such as Cintra, some monsters such as The Kikimora and Striga, and some magic with good production values was entertaining. Also, some events which weren't elaborated on in the book being shown in the series was cool.

The soundtrack was good and clearly had influence from the games although not at that level.

What I didn't like/Hated: The way the story was structured, I wasn't a fan of it for a lot of it. Instead of taking their time with Geralt's short stories they were adapting from the books and introducing the viewer to the world and giving them proper breathing room by focusing earlier episodes on each story, they half-assed it in order to cram in other characters and plot elements that ran concurrently alongside the witcher stories in pretty much every episode and because of that, so much was cut or altered, some downright butchered (Sword of Destiny, for one). Also, some decisions made with the out-of-order timeline felt extremely misplaced basically giving you a spoiler first and then building up to it and I wasn't a fan of it.

The visuals were very inconsistent. Some episodes clearly had more budget than others. Elements such as the Brookilon Forest and Dryads or the dragon from the story The Bounds of Reason looked downright bad (and the adaptation of these stories equally sucked).

Overall, I enjoyed it for some of the elements I mentioned above but I was certainly hoping for better adaptations of the stories, which is something I wish they'd remedy in Season 2. Now, would I have enjoyed this more if I had not read the books? Perhaps, but I can never know that for sure, I guess one gives up that factor when one has experienced the source first. Anyway, if you haven't watched it yet, I'd still recommend giving it a try regardless of whether you have played the games or read the books or are completely new to this fantasy world. If Netflix doesn't screw it up in the subsequent seasons, this could have the potential to be as big of a hit as Game of Thrones and the books are finished so there's that edge as well. And if I were to rate the first season, I'd give it a 6.5/10.