Season 1 of the Witcher left me extremely disappointed. I patiently waited for season 1's release for ~2 years. I did not listen to the naysayers, and I gave support to the showrunners. I was let down and legitimately felt embarrassed for having recommended it before it came out.

Season 1 was so bad I didn't bother to review it, didn't expect to watch the series further, and expected to chalk this IP up as another favorite sacrificed on the altar of woke agenda. My issues with season 1 are: with the copious amount of source material available in the books and the games, it was shocking so little of that material was used in constructing the live-action mythology beyond, essentially, Geralt as a dude that hunts monsters. Monsters. And Witches. It suffered from the burdensome weight of following a split-timeline story-telling approach, which I'm sure the showrunner thought was clever and suspenseful, but was not executed with even the slightest technical agility or mastery. Next, most of the dialog was just mediocre--again, considering the wealth of source material available, it's weird the dialog felt like modern-day conversations with only a smidge of context-accurate speak. Then, the action and fight scenes were either completely missing or laughably bad, with a few notable exceptions. Next, the bizarre choice of non-Polish looking actors in a Polish-centric fantasy-world where many of the characters are already very well known visually to fans of the games. For example, anyone who loved Triss Merigold from the game would not be able to pick her out of a line-up from the live-action series. The worst offense committed, however, was the over-focus on the witches, especially Yennefer, and not on Geralt.

All of these issues are the fault of the showrunner, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who clearly had very little involvement in season 2, other than providing team spirit on Twitter. The changes deliver in spades because there is marked quality improvement in the script, the cinematography, the fight scenes, the humor, and the direction. I applaud Netflix for pulling this show back on course.

P. S. I knew immediately on episode 8 that Lauren was lead writer because a character's dialog was very Phoebe Waller-Bridge "comedy". Or, a quasi-soliloquy that was hyper-vigilant, judgmental, and too high in self-disclosure. It was a meant-to-be-cute commentary, but when given from an older, straight male actor the dialog seemed too anxiety-laden and insecure to be authentic. If that's how women speak, and think that's cute, then fine. But give the dude authentic dude dialog. Then, of course, she gave Dandelion too much responsibility (which throughout the series, responsibility has made him extremely annoying and unlikable) and his "jokes" were also noticeably unfunny and annoying. She side-lined Geralt, again, in favor of a borderline personality Yennefer; I will give her credit here because that decision seemed to make sense, but, again, not Ciri or Yennefer's story.

With the improvements, Fringilla really showed-up as a very talented actor. So did the general and Cirilla (wow!). I think, however, more ruthlessness would have played better, but this was extremely good. The addition of Francesca also played well. And the writer's somehow made Dandelion a cool character, except in the last episode (which was a reversion to season 1).

There were weaknesses. I don't think Yennefer is interesting as written, the actress is not that great, well-cast in the role, and the same goes for Triss Merigold, but at least the Triss actress is better. Vesemir was also a letdown. However, again, this is MILES above season one and gives me hope for season three.

Season 1 = 6.5/10 Season 2 =8/10.