Shaerrawedd

I started the 3rd season, and thought...bahhhh. This first episode is...meh.

Towards the end of it I realized I needed to rewatch the 2nd season again; I'd forgotten a lot. It'd been almost 2 years since it came out, after all. I'm SO glad I did. Also, it's such a bad ass season to see again.

Rewatched S3 ep1 when finished (I may have skipped through the slow bits) and it made for much better viewing since the history of the 2nd season was fresh. Especially it's last scene; made more sense since I had completely forgotten who that dude was. (Hint: Ciri's recovering hedgehog of an average looking guy father)

Are there melodramatic dialoguing moments? Yesh. (I mean, is it possible to portray elves as anything other than moping, thwarted, and too serious for their own good? I'm just saying, it's old hat.)

Fantasy screen writers continue to lean their illogical, overly heroic, exposition dialog (eye roll...cue Jaskier) but that aside, it's worth tolerating for those smoldering Witcher stares.

Cavill, your replacement will never match your particular brand of Geralt broodiness. Wish things could've worked out.

Let's hope the rest of S3 does.

Except for the first episode S3E1, that was feeling like butter spread over too much bread, the episodes 2 - 5 are entertaining and sometimes thrilling. Unfortunately, it is not the story of the Witcher anymore. It has became a romance in a fantasy world with elves and mages, a drama with more words than action. Did you think that a witcher earns his living by killing monsters? Not in this movie. But you will learn some new exciting steps for your next dance party.

And one more thing - please make the actors pronounce words understandably, unless the producer thinks the dialogs are not worth understanding. It was not such a big problem in LOTR, so one can clearly understand many fantasy races.

When looking at Season 3 of The Witcher, I had to make sure I had an open mind, not getting influenced by all the drama regarding Henry Cavil leaving and the change of direction. What if the direction is good? What if the show actually gets better moving forward? I kept an open mind, hoping to be surprised.

Unfortunately, Season 3 starts in a manner that can only be described as plain bad. No sugarcoating, no silver lining, it is just poorly produced. Forget the acting, just at an editing level the pacing of the show is an absolute mess. Even something as simple as Yennefer closing a door has 2-3 unnecessary cuts, as if you are watching a cheap YouTube video, not a NETFLIX TV Show. That is just a small example among hundreds of weird and very noticeable editing styles that stick out like a sore thumb, it does not fit the show, the aesthetics or sports any consistency with the previous seasons.

The dialogues have also gotten significantly worse, seriously what happened? The execution is also poor, as if the direction behind the actors is now devoid of all passion.

This is such a sad downfall of a great franchise, at least we have the video games.

The writers and producers thought they could write better than Andrzej Sapkowski. They can't end of story.

Another miserable flop from netflix.

This team has put a lot of effort in making this unwatchable for 99% of the audience.

Apart from Henry, the show has no more reasons to continue to watch it, the world is wrong, the story is boring and floppy, the characters in need of a deep dive don't get it the ones that get it are completely off and goofy.

Diversity is bigger than delivering something watchable.

The fact that writers and producers win over a beloved actor who knows and respects the lore is the sole reason to belive this show has nothing more to deliver besides misery.

Within the first 15 minutes of this episode, it became brazenly apparent to me why Henry Cavill felt so strongly as though his only viable option was to leave the show... Because it is utterly dreadful (wasting talented cast & crew) - & a damn shame, seeing what the series' become when it began with so much potential; originally, a dark fantasy series which could've perhaps rivalled HBO's "Game of Thrones" or "House of The Dragon" (& a major hit for Netflix) reduced to a shallow, parody / imitation of its former self.

Less of a story & rather just *more* content for the streaming service to churn out mindlessly (for viewers to play in the background whilst checking their phones), I can safely say the narrative's lost its appeal & although the central premise remains compelling, the stale execution is irrefutably lacking.