The second season of Netflix's "The Witcher" has gotten much more positive reviews compared to the first one, which I had rather mixed feelings on. Seeing this trend and being a big fan of the series, I decided to continue with Season 2 and see what's up. To that I will say that the most glaring of Season 1's flaws have been taken care of, though the show still struggles with some things I will cover in more detail.
"The Witcher" wants to be one of those series that wants to stray away from its source material and have its own identity, except that it stays in this weird area of being about 60-70% loyal. It follows the general plot and characters, but the changes that are made never serve to give its own identity and are only confusing. They are not all bad, but those other examples still exist. My biggest gripe has to do with some of the character writing, an aspect that requires more work yet. Ciri being one of the lead characters, with a role about as major as Geralt's in the tale, should not be as mediocre as she is here. Frankly, I just cannot get behind Freya Allan's performance, and I am not sure if I am to blame her entirely. Perhaps it's direction, perhaps it's the writing. Perhaps it's all three factors. Ciri is a charming brat with a lot of personality in the source material. I don't buy any excuse for the portrayal here, for one simple reason - she's boring. Indeed, she has seen a major improvement from the previous season where her entire character boiled down to a screaming machine that was chased about all the time. In fact, she even has many charming moments here. Not enough to capture just how great the real Ciri is however. They also seem to be constantly avoiding the tomboy part of her personality for some reason, one I can maybe only explain as a weird attempt to avoid comparisons to Arya Stark from "Game of Thrones"? Comparisons which would be ridiculous as Ciri predated Arya by several years, but never mind that.
A big shout-out to Henry Cavill for being the greatest strength of the show. He's the perfect casting for Geralt, and with some behind-the-scenes info given, the greatest asset all-around as a fan of the series.Joey Batey comes straight after him as one of the best actors of the series. His eccentric performance steals the focus of any scene he's in, a statement that completely disregards how strong his emotional scenes are as well. One in particular sticks with me still - the conversation they have with Yennefer in the ship about losing one's talents. I like Anya Chalotra quite a lot as Yennefer, and while she differs from who she is in the books, I honestly enjoy seeing this version. Chalotra is able to carry out the sass, aggression, and bottled up emotions of the sorceress. Her plotlines sometimes fail to deliver their reward, but I have to admit they were entertaining and I enjoy seeing this vision of who she is.
A big issue with all of these fantasy adaptations I have has to do with both the studios and the fanbases of respective series. Clearly, everyone is trying to find the next "Game of Thrones". People denying this are wilfully ignorant, a kind of naivette I find obnoxious, but understandable. Media newslets won't shut up about how much each show compares to GoT. They are not GoT - so why do they keep trying to be? Yes, there are differences, but the strong focus POV characters, politics, and death scenes directly opposes the true spirit of the Witcher. Sapkowski can suck off Netflix all day if he wants to, guess he found something in common with all those prostitutes he wrote about. He screwed his deal over on the games, I can see why he is salty, but those truly understand the strength of his material, and even are able to improve on this. Netflix's "The Witcher" continues to double down on the epic elements of this tale, which were never its draw; the down-to-earth moments are what give it its soul. There are more of those moments thankfully, but they still feel insufficient. Episode 1 was great altogether, but goddammit, the campfire scene at the end where Ciri and Geralt's relationship shined - Cavill was the one who pushed for it.
We get a bigger focus on the witchers here, an interesting choice. One that dabbled with its quality. The idea to develop these characters more than in the books is solid, but the execution fails. Lambers is an annoying prick, that much is accurate, but I found his attitude written poorly a lot of the time. Vesemir was more flawed than his book counterpart, a bit of an unbelievable trait, seeing as he is supposed to carry much wisdom. Still, I found his portrayal solid otherwise. Eskel suffered from a major writing flaw, one I need to delve into spoilers to discuss. [spoilers]The person shown here has nothing do with Eskel, who wasn't an all that major character in the books. Fine enough, but why would you make him such an obnoxious edgelord the viewers are actually supposed to care for? It is only after his death that we get a glimpse of the brotherhood between him and Geralt, something that should have come beforehand.[/spoilers]
Cahir is someone I enjoy seeing more of, his arc takes on a lot of turns and I like that. Istredd continues to thread into the story, something completely different from his limited role in the books. I like that. Elven lore is exlpored further here and I found it quite engaging.
The fight choreography was great here and improved on from the first season, one of many common complaints they improved on. Similarly, the CGI has seen betterment, though there are still weak spots that are beyond apparent. The finale was where I was able to be genuinely impressed, I will give this credit in particular as it is due. There are no "experimental" timeline shenanigans here, the plot is fairly straightforward.
And before I finish this, the music remains good.
Season 2 greatly improves on its predecessor, but still suffers from an attempt to make the Witcher something it is not. Overall, I enjoyed watching this and hope the series continues on an upward trajectory. If you're looking for something engaging to watch, give this a shot, but it's by no means essential. The quality is a lot more consistent, I'd say I was hooked at about episode 4, and the first episode was great as well. Some weird decisions bring it down, but altogether, a step in the right direction.
Season 10 had a somewhat tumultous run due to the pandemic, but I finally got around finishing it. Season 9 was a return to form for the show after the mess of Season 8. So what of this one? I'll say it very much continues, if not even improve a little on its predecessor.
You could say the show is split in roughly two halves and I'll treat it that way to avoid spoilers. The first half is fantastic; dangerously addicting and with a great deal of complexity to make the show have not just a heavily satisfying, but also an emotional grip. The Whisperers are developed even further and honestly stand as one of the best antagonists the series had had to offer. As for our protagonists, the older crew keep being engaging and human. Even a character like Rosita has somehow become bearable, a feat I did not know was possible. One of my newer favourites is definitely Judith - her childlike optimism, combined with her grim upbrining, turn her into someone with great potential.Cailey Fleming is a fantastic actress and is able to stand her ground against all her older co-stars. Other oustanding performances include, but are not limited to: Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Danai Gurira, Seth Gilliam, Khary Payton, Ryan Hurst, Thora Birch, Samantha Morton, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Many of these actors have shown us their sheer skill in previous seasons, so there's not much new to say here. Just to reaffirm what is already known.
The second half of the season is much less consistent and has quite the episodic nature to it. This tends to divide TWD fans quite a lot, and I will come out to say that I actually enjoy it when the show takes on a slower pacing. It is something that hits the right spot for me, but I will acknowledge that others may see it as an example of the show at its worst. A few episodes might have breached decency, true, but I don't think it affected the season that badly overall.
Practical effects are great here as always. There were some rough CGI scenes, but I can shrug them off mostly. The action was great if you don't count the forced tension every time a walker comes up to a character, then the character loses their weapon and have to get it back to kill the walker. Yeah, I'm sure they are going to die a stupid death. Thankfully, that doesn't actually happen, the show did go down that road before though.
Really, a weakness of the season has nothing to do with it, but what occured previously. A great deal of the main cast is gone, and these newer survivors don't always make the cut. Magna is particularly horrible, I genuinely hate her character. She always brings some drama to the front that doesn't need to be there in the first place, and the big issue - nobody gives a damn. Compared to some of the tension Carol causes, where she gets in quite the conflict with some people (and herself), this is absolutely ridiculous. Connie has potential and has a very positive screen presence. Yumiko is someone I'm still neutral on. Altogether, this doesn't amount to the sheer variety we used to have in the character roster. It seems they might on the right track with someone like Princess however. She's one of my favourites right now.
Altogether, I really did enjoy this season quite a lot. It dipped a little around the end, but I still had a good time watching it. And the major arc that continues here is an absolutely riveting watch. I highly recommend fans continue with this season, it's a great time. I just hope the show can really tie things up moderately well with Season 11. That will be quite the task. I guess I might as well just wait and see.
Season 6 started off fairly well. I genuinely enjoyed a good half of the episodes. The plotlines were decent, giving a decent development to most people involved. Pretty much all of them had their flaws, though. Currently, I watch the Flash mostly as a sort of mediocre trash show that can be quite entertaining. I've grown to like most of the characters and find the series at its best when it focuses on its humourous aspects. The issue is with the polar opposite - the drama. Frankly, the Flash has almost completely failed to deliver in that department since Season 2. I used to legitimately cry back in those first episodes, the reason likely being how humane the events involved were. It was easy to relate to the problems the characters faced, whereas now they throw a fit or cry every time some difficulty arises. The melodrama here made me want to put my fist through the screen at some point, I was baffled by how sappy it could get for what I found to be unbelievable reasons. There a few improvements, most noticeably with the lack of an ongoing seasonal villain. There are two main villains this time around, which lets the storylines feel more fulfilling and resort to filler less often. Due to the circumstances this year, the season ends somewhat abruptly at 19 episodes, although it ended up being for the better in my opinion, as the ending offered something different and an amusing cliffhanger.
The FX can be hit-or-miss, depending on the budget of individual episodes. I can't offer too much praise for them either way. The music is fine. I enjoyed the acting, with occassional flubs. All in all, I found Season 6 to be a mostly amusing watch, one not as irritating as Season 5. It's alright, but I can't deny I've developed far too much disdain for The Flash at this point, and could see myself dropping it next season unless there are marginal advancements in its many departments. It's repetitive and mind-numbing at this point, resorting to the same formulaic storytelling it keeps getting criticised for.
