The Hexer

This show captures all the philosophical internal conflicts the characters have and the hard choices they must make at every step - not limited to the global conflicts and intricate political schemings that fate and circumstance subject them to.

It is a chronicle of loneliness in the service of mankind and the rise of heroic traits that clash against destiny with tragic consequences, yet through relentlessness, not without an offer of retribution.

The show's very structure, with recurring dreams and visions, reflects back to the psychedelic, trance-like witcher transformation, paired with a spot-on music score, solo voices, ideally suited to fog creeping upon fields and hills and ruined strongholds at morning's dew.

It is everything that the Netflix version isn't:

• The bard sings touching ballads that are beautiful and wise.

• The magic is actually mystical and mysterious and unique, unlike mass produced fireballs every modern show for no apparent reason copy pastes.

• It is much more about family, even though it doesn't explicitly utter the word "family" every few scenes.

• The aesthetic is murky and worn out, and yet there are moments where intense colors of splendor - gold, navy, greens - meet in stunning shots, matching the thoughtful tone of the subject matter. Unlike the mass-produced, average aesthetics of modern fantasy with unlimited budgets.

• The fight choreography makes up for the era it was made in and the budget intelligently. The actor playing the Witcher has completely distinct swordsmanship (Samurai style) compared to every other European knight, with proper actual swordsmanship techniques instead of random flashy moves. I think this shows the difference in skill better than what Netflix does.

• Women are powerful in feminine ways, instead of having to act like men to appear powerful.

• They used actual medieval armor and period accurate clothing so arguably that is much better costumes than fake-looking plastic and generic brand new fabrics from Netflix who had infinite budget

I was skeptical of this show and never intended to watch it when I heard Netflix was preparing season 1 of The Witcher... However, what they did across all seasons, especially 3 and 4, made me seek a quiet retreat - a chill show with poor costumes and no special effects.

But I was not prepared for such beauty and wisdom.

I liked this series better than the Netflix version (2019). Made cheaply, rubber monsters and bad graphics. But made with love and watch interesting. Dandelion is shown to be truly a friend, not an annoying fly. 5.7 undeserved rating and should be higher.

Yeah, it has it's flaws, like Geralt's katana, cheap monsters, but it follows the books story quite nice, so yeah give it a chance ;) Actors are matched perfectly, especailly if you look at that Netflix's Yennefer or dead stare Ciri xD Here we can feel genuine bond between Geralt and Ciri, they don't swell from one point to another repeating "it's destiny bro, trust me".

Hmm watch out for the dragon in E4 :P

And admire the locations, it's all filmed in Poland, and when they travel the fields and forrests, I feel like home, the climate is mesmerizing ;) I don't know how they translated Jaskier's songs but in Polish they're beautiful and complex about Geralt's life, not just One liners about tossing coins ;)

I think this series is the best film adaptation of the witcher, and Michal Zebrowski is the best witcher.

If you watch the polish series today as I did, without any nostalgia most fans seem to have, you'll notice a lot of issues. Given the small budged and time when it came out, I'd fully excuse the funny practical effects, and perhaps even the weird choice to have the witcher carry around an eastern katana-like sword. Back then it was probably cool, so OK.

The Series, as the Netflix Adaptation, is best when it sticks to the source material as close as possible. The stories about the first encounter with Yen, the Striga or the Devil are all good. My issues are with the themes the series decided to introduce. You can pretty much skip the first two episodes and you'd be better of doing so. For some reason Kaer Morhen is depicted to be a quarry, even though there are loads of castles they could have used in Poland (and in fact, they feature castles in later episodes). More over, there are a lot of Witchers and for some reason, they claim not to have any feelings while Geralt is wrong for having them (although every witcher gets visibly emotional multiple times in the episode) and for some reason, they don't know what a woman is? The depiction of Kaer Morhen, Vesemir and the new themes introduced by the series are nonsensical and should have been left on the cutting floor. The Polish Series however manages to stick to the books more often than not, and as such is superior to the Netflix series. Dandelion/Jaskier is painfully miscast, but Zebrowski does a very good job as Geralt. All in all, this isn't an essential series every fantasy fan needs to see, but to a Witcher fan I'd say it is a pretty inoffensive fun adaptation. You'd still be better off spending your time listening to the audiobooks instead though.