Is this true? Probably not, but who knows? We just jumped into the Witcher universe and it’s not quite clear what the rules are yet.
#THE WITCHER REVIEW FULL#
He’s also deeply paranoid about some prophecy called the Curse of the Black Sun, which says that 60 women born during a full eclipse will grow up and be servants of a demon named Lilit, who will destroy the world. Stregobor is a weird, shady wizard who uses magic to populate his secret lair with fake naked women. On one end, you have Stregobor (Lars Mikkelsen, Sherlock star and brother of Mads). It’s here that The Witcher basically becomes a fantasy take on Yojimbo, with Geralt caught between two sides that are similarly morally compromised. But as he quickly learns, there’s other work to be had if he doesn’t mind getting his hands a little dirty. Unfortunately for Geralt, he killed the wrong monster the bounty was actually for a graveir ( which looks nothing like a kikimora, but whatever). The trade-off is that everybody hates them, even as they reluctantly rely on them for difficult jobs a regular person couldn’t do. ( The witcher, even.) The premiere doesn’t quite come out and explain this, but witchers are essentially monster hunters for hire, raised for the job from childhood and granted extraordinary supernatural powers that included super strength, night vision, and an extended lifespan. The fight is going badly for Geralt until it isn’t he stabs the kikimora in the head and wanders off to a town called Blaviken to collect a bounty for it. Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) - a white-haired, cat-eyed, spell-casting vagabond who carries two swords, and is quick and deadly with both of them - is squaring off against some kind of giant spider monster we’ll later discover is called a kikimora. Given the complexity of The Witcher’s world, it’s probably for the best that the show’s actual introduction is so simple. Good or bad, this show will require the kind of patience that cancel-happy Netflix hasn’t recently seemed inclined to give (which is why it’s a hopeful sign that it’s already green-lit a second season).įor better or worse, “The End’s Beginning” is surprisingly light on exposition, throwing a bunch of weird-sounding fantasy names at the audience and expecting us to keep up.
#THE WITCHER REVIEW TV#
My point? It’s rare that a TV show knocks it out of the park with its first episode - but it’s especially tricky for a fantasy show like Netflix’s own attempt at the “next Game of Thrones,” The Witcher, which has to introduce a bunch of characters and an entire fantasy world with its own history and rules and politics. Even the Game of Thrones premiere that did finally air - while reportedly much improved - isn’t exactly the show’s finest hour, with reams of clunky exposition designed to define the boundaries of a whole sprawling world for an audience that will likely have no context for it.
The show’s original pilot was famously disastrous, requiring extensive recasting and reshoots just to be comprehensible to audiences. LeGuin’s Earthsea, Patrick Rothfuss’s The Kingkiller Chronicle, and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time have all been snapped up with an eye toward a splashy debut on the small screen.īut Game of Thrones wasn’t always Game of Thrones. It’s why Amazon paid a truly absurd amount of money for Lord of the Rings why HBO developed four distinct Game of Thrones spinoffs before picking one and why the rights of properties like Ursula K.