First of all, this is my very first IMDB review, and I did so because I think most of the reviews are skewed and does not reflect the show in a proper way.

I am a die-heart witcher fan. I have played the games so I understand why the casting is questionable, even put aside the Slavic origin. My problem is, the characters simply does not reflect their personalities and we all imagined them to look like in the book series, even for those who have not touched the games.

All the casting aside, the writing of this series is horrendous. I truly think people who have not read the book series or play the games would simply get lost during the first 4-5 episodes. The way these story lines unfolds is misleading, given the chronicle and geological gap between them. Especially for those who are not familiar with the witcher universe, it could be devastating. At least most of my friends found them unable to keep track of what is actually happening.

All these aside, I simply cannot believe this is a high budget show. The vfx feels cheap (the lighting and overall scale of Brokilin forest, the dragon, and the jinn scene). I got a feeling that all the scenes are played out in a way that does not reflect the scale of how they were described in the books. The actions and fighting sequences are not bad, but lots of the scenes happened in the book are dumbed down in the show, in a bad way. I never had the feeling while watching GOT or TLOR. Maybe my expectation was set to0 high, but given the budget, this should not have happened.

Overall, I think this is a very mediocre show and can no way compete with the likes of game of thrones or even vikings. I am immensely disappointed because the books were so good and this could be so much more than just Henry Caviil's one man show.