In some respects, this was better than the series itself, though I may be a bit biased because I love this sort of "behind the scenes" documentaries. I devoured all extra materials on LotR and Hobbit DVDs, so it was definitely quite interesting to watch a similar material about "The Witcher." It was engrossing but I guess it is only fun for people who like this kind of documentary. The showrunners do not justify their more controversial decisions about the plot of the show, though. This is a bit disappointing, although perhaps not much could have been expected from such short a form. I enjoyed the show very much, but I watched it before reading the entire Witcher saga, and now I understand that certain changes they introduced to the show make no sense in the light of the source material and they were definitely changes for the worse. The worst thing I guess is the fact that in the show, there is really no emotional connection between Geralt and Ciri when they meet in the finale, whereas in the books, Geralt has already met Ciri in Brokilon Forest, where they spent quite a lot of time and a strong bond formed between them. This is completely missing from the show, and the Ciri Geralt meets is really a stranger, a girl he knows is his child surprise but not someone he really cares for, as it is the case in the book. I hoped that maybe this documentary would explain why this profound change took place but I was disappointed as far as it is concerned.
The documentary is very good for training English listening comprehension as you can hear various accents of the cast and crew, coming from different countries and parts of the world. I am Polish and it was really interesting to hear how Tomasz Bagiński speaks English, and how it sounds a bit "flat" in comparison to the native speakers such as the showrunner and the actors. I guess this is what I may sound like when I speak English. There were other accents of non-native speakers as well, quite interesting to hear.
Review by ladysherlockianBlockedParentSpoilers2020-11-06T21:32:05Z
In some respects, this was better than the series itself, though I may be a bit biased because I love this sort of "behind the scenes" documentaries. I devoured all extra materials on LotR and Hobbit DVDs, so it was definitely quite interesting to watch a similar material about "The Witcher." It was engrossing but I guess it is only fun for people who like this kind of documentary. The showrunners do not justify their more controversial decisions about the plot of the show, though. This is a bit disappointing, although perhaps not much could have been expected from such short a form. I enjoyed the show very much, but I watched it before reading the entire Witcher saga, and now I understand that certain changes they introduced to the show make no sense in the light of the source material and they were definitely changes for the worse. The worst thing I guess is the fact that in the show, there is really no emotional connection between Geralt and Ciri when they meet in the finale, whereas in the books, Geralt has already met Ciri in Brokilon Forest, where they spent quite a lot of time and a strong bond formed between them. This is completely missing from the show, and the Ciri Geralt meets is really a stranger, a girl he knows is his child surprise but not someone he really cares for, as it is the case in the book. I hoped that maybe this documentary would explain why this profound change took place but I was disappointed as far as it is concerned.
The documentary is very good for training English listening comprehension as you can hear various accents of the cast and crew, coming from different countries and parts of the world. I am Polish and it was really interesting to hear how Tomasz Bagiński speaks English, and how it sounds a bit "flat" in comparison to the native speakers such as the showrunner and the actors. I guess this is what I may sound like when I speak English. There were other accents of non-native speakers as well, quite interesting to hear.