After the - at times - 'bumpy' first season that had problems with it's internal structure (four different timelines, at times centuries apart, that run parallel) I was relatively hopeful that Season Two would be a great follow-up:

The show was a financial success, popular with audiences and thus secured a big budget


The showrunners pledged to stay closer to the fantastic books that they are adapting




After S2E1 I found myself vindicated. The Episode stayed very close to one of the best short stories from the novels, the CGI was fantastic and produced exactly the quality that I had dared to hope for.

...

And then it all went downhill. At this point, it is hard to even call this an adaptation anymore. It is, at best, inspired by the universe of the Witcher. At times it feels like some high-production value fan fiction. Cheesy, childish dialogue, unnecessary sex scenes for that desperate 'Game-of-Thrones-Factor', a main plot that is ... well, to put it politely, confused & incoherent and several completely uninteresting secondary storylines that have little to no bearing at all on the main story and feel like nothing but fillers.

The characters are nothing but shells of their former selves, at times bearing little more than a name in common. The wise & grandfatherly Vesemir, for example, a man of deep convictions and warm affections ... turns into a creepy middle aged man who has 0 chemistry or connection to any of the Witchers nor Ciri and the morale compass of a mad scientist.

The Witchers - superhuman killing machines, magically created mutants - are reduced to disposable henchmen for soulless CGI monsters.

And while the CGI is at least done well, the editing is horrendous and destroys all sense of immersion. Characters teleport over vast distances for plot conveniences - not that it would make much of a difference on the flavourless & utterly interchangeable sets - and arrive always exactly in the right second to safe the day.

The show even goes so far as to include an obvious author self-insert having a childish tamper tantrum over the critic of the first season, breaking the fourth wall to effectively show the audience the middlefinger.

It would have been okay to change the source material. I want to stress out that my main complaint here is NOT a deviation from the books, but a lack of quality.

The writing is horrendous, dialogues copy the worst of late-season Game of Thrones (going so far as to have entire scenes devoted to potty-humour) and the characters are flipped upside down from Season One. The woman desperately wanting motherhood more than anything else? Willing to sacrifice children for personal gain. The cruel warlord burning people alive to use them as weapons? Suddenly BFF with the downtrodden.

At this point the show has become unsalvagable. Internal logic is thrown out the window for mere visual spectacle, in-universe rules are set up and then almost immediately discarded.

Even the figh-choreographies - one of the biggest strengths of Season 1 - are now lacking quality, exchanging believable physical effects for cheesy Michael-Bay-esque CGI.

This show had to potential to be the next Game of Thrones. It has, instead, turned into another crude and generic action show.

If you are after mass-produced popcorn-entertainment where you get some action scenes every half hour this is for you. Otherwise, I'd probably stay off of this and find a better medium to immerse yourself into the fantastic world of Geralt the Witcher.