The Witcher is a legend in the world. It wasn't until the game series made this knowledge accessible to everyone (not that it wasn't, but, there's no denying the massive spike in popularity following the game). The game was great - 100s of hours of content. The books? Also great. Same amount of content.

This is a problem, especially with those who are fans of high fantasy and world building. When a series is as beloved as the Witcher, people 'expect' the books or the games. For all of you who wanted this, understand that this is unreasonable. 8 hours. That's how much time this season had. Do you think people would have watched the series if Villentretenmerth spent an entire episode ordering food and hanging out in a tavern? Because they wouldn't. That's how much time the books spent on it. Great scene in the book: bad television.

Now, to the review. The first time I watched the series, I will admit that I, like so many others, was a bit lost to the timeline. This was annoying. Let me say, on my 8th time through, it is incredibly charming and I absolutely love it. There are bits of dialog that are missed that make me say "Gah! So obvious what was going on!" that I truly enjoy. Now, I'm not recommending people watch it 8 times. Most of these revelations came on the second go through. It was not a one watch and I'm glad for it because I enjoy it more and more each time.

Acting...I think people are ridiculously harsh. It was grade A. Henry Cavill was obviously outstanding but Dandelion and Yennefer and Ciri and so many others were just perfect. The other actors around were standard, medieval fantasy B grade or better. Calm down everyone. This is a high budget fantasy show. I know, you could always watch...GoT again? Or...Merlin? Or Seeker? "Mr. Frodo!!!" Right, because the acting in each of those was always flawless. I think overall, the acting was completely acceptable and will only get better with time. Except Geralt. I cannot see how he could get better.

The story...some of the episodes were so closely tied to the books it was startling how much information they packed into such a small amount of time. Some of them made some changes that I would have loved to see played out. Remember the movie scenes of the barrow downs? And Tom Bombadil? The sacking of the Shire? Yeah...me either. Sometimes, be it budget or just the way it played out, it doesn't work. It doesn't mean it isn't good. It just means it was different. The approach they took to story telling was incredibly brave (and polarizing). They needed to get several main characters into the plot quickly. Most of the story is about Geralt but that doesn't mean the other characters aren't interesting. The character development approach of blending stories and timelines served its purpose: lots and lots of facts and info thrown at you quickly and in various order to further the understanding of a characters' plights. I love how people are frustrated with "character development". This MUST be coming from people who didn't read the books because there is essentially none in the first book. It was written VERY much like the show (plus adding Ciri to get some amount of plot moving). I was thoroughly impressed with how much history they tried to cram in. Remember-these characters are VERY old. They've lived several lifetimes so in order to get to Ciri (the crux of the plot) you need to cover a lot of ground quickly. Butcher of Blaviken doesn't mean much without the background. Sterility doesn't sell unless you can understand the hows and whys it is like it is. Do we need to know about Yennefer's time in court? No...but it helps understand her motivations. Anyway, the show's creator said they were not going to do the timeline jumping anymore. That was a one season gag so those of you that hated that you didn't have all the information given in order: don't worry. It's all done now.

The quality...I'll keep it brief because there are two kinds of people out there: those who think Merlin had great effects and those who didn't like that Captain America's shield didn't have the correct amount of light reflecting based off the amount of power being directed at it given the light conditions when Tony Stark fired his hand lasers at it. Graphics were great. Not perfect but better than 99% of fantasy shows that have ever been made. Fight scenes were outstanding. Sets were fine - good enough. I think the production quality was great. I actually like the blending of CGI with actual prosthetics. It looked good!

The bad...I touched on a little of it. I think that the timeline jumping was polarizing. I'm glad they did it, but it definitely hurt the series so I wish they hadn't because I REALLY want them to keep making this show. I'll give into the masses to keep a high budget, high fantasy show on air.

...The dragon was bad. Terrible actually. I thought by this point 'dragon' CGI would be available on fiver. I don't know why they did it they way they did, but coming off the heels of GoT, people were definitely going to be judging the dragon. I liked the episode but yeah...cat-like well done dragon he was not. Also, the Zerrikanians were completely wrong. They were supposed to be powerful and strong willed but not....boring.

...Netflix-ification. I'm not going into details. If you don't know what this is, you're lying or you're blind. If you do, you already know what I'm going to say. I really wanted was a snow skinned, red haired, overly flirtatious Triss. Nothing against Anna Shaffer, she's just not...lets say Becca Scott.

Anyway, I loved the show. Loved it. Every episode. This show is worth two watches. If you say "I'm lost so I hate it" just stick it out for the guts and glory and try to grab as much as you can the first time and watch it again, knowing that there is no good fantasy show coming out for a LONG time. If you are watching this, you like fantasy. Be honest...you want to love this show. And you will if you understand that the first time through you may be a little lost.