The story and characters remind me of something you'd find on a channel like "The U" or "The CW". The story is a bit amateur and there are quite a few cheesey points. I lost some faith after the cheesey grand debut of the new Yennifer (like ugly girl becomes prom queen cheesey cliche type stuff) and really fell off with the introduction of hedgehog man (forehead face-plant).

Despite the cheese, the acting quality is actually fantastic as are the special effects. You can definitely see a lot of money is being put into production. Definitely worth a 9 star rating there.

The story itself is fairly entertaining, though again, feels quite juvenile. I understand the show is based on a book but I havent read the book, so I don't know how much of the juvenile undertone was the author's doing or the shows' writers.

In conclusion, I'm interested enough to finish watching the season, but I'd be embarrassed to recommend it to friends or family. The curren rating of 8.8 is most likely carried by the book's / game's cult following. I'm inclined to think those without prior familiarity will be much less generous with their rating.