While the production values are suitably high, that's undoubtedly the best thing one can say about The Witcher. One would have thought that after 8 seasons of Game of Thrones Netflix would have collected some pointers about what's needed to build a realistic and believable world, but apparently they forgot to take notes or just never watched it.

While the production is of a suitably high quality, the whole thing reads as a historically illiterate American's uninspired take on Eastern European Late Medieval period. The sets are nice, but they don't look lived in. Rather they look like what they are: movie sets. The costumes are nice too, but again they all too often look like costumes. They may be dirty at times, but they too don't look "lived in".

The dialogue is awful, just awful. Exactly no effort whatsoever appears to have been put into crafting believable colloquy. Full of modern colloquialisms it is about as immersion-breaking as can be. Likewise, Jaskier's songs lack any sense of coming from the repertoire of a medieval troubadour, sounding instead like those of a comedic american singer-songwriter suffering from a case of severe mediocrity.

Nor does 2-day stubble, fancy contacts and long, grey hair transform Henry Cavill into a believable Geralt; he ends up rather like a less meek Clark Kent. While a sumptuous collection of scars have been plastered on his body, his overly chiselled features leaves no impression of a life full of constant hardship and tribulations.

Without a doubt the two best and most compelling characters of this first season are Freya Allan as Ciri and Anya Chalotra as Yennefer of Vengerberg. Both charcters are interesting and well acted, but they are far from able to save the season by themselves. Various side shows also do a good job: Jodhi May can always be relied upon and makes a good Queen Calanthe, while Shaun Dooley's King Foltest is just right.

Overall though, as someone who enjoyed the books and games a lot I found The Witcher a huge let-down.