Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials

The banquet is a very prominent story that delves back in the past and sets up a lot of the future storyline. Adding Jaskier to it felt like a good move, although I felt they could have utilized him a bit better. The other changes weren't major and worked well enough. Again, I feel the short stories are (or at least feel) a bit rushed, but I think that was always gonna happen being translated to television. Something the writers are struggling with, is really integrating the humour into this dark and gritty world. At the moment, it feels like they are two separate things and that makes that the mood and setting sometimes change so drastically, it almost doesn't feel natural.

Something that annoys me a little, is the lack of external world-building. Characters just throw names of nations and cities out there, such as Temeria, Cintra, Lyria, Aedern and Nilfgaard. That's all well and good if you've read the books and therefore understand where they are and what their connections may be. I can imagine that for new viewers however, it feels like a lot of information that isn't really connected into a living world. I hate the comparison, but on this front, the show can and should learn from the first few seasons of Game of Thrones - were they did a really good job of not just throwing names out there, but making sure you understood what it meant.

All in all at this halfway-point, I am certainly enjoying the show. As it's the first season, there are always gonna be points of improvement. There is definite potential here, I just feel like the writers need to grant certain aspects a little bit more breathing room to develop and really dive into the potential of this world and it's characters. At times it feels too much like a fast-paced, generic fantasy show, which the Witcher really isn't.

Okay, things are on-track now. This is my favorite episode yet, and not necessarily because things are becoming clearer. Because it was genuinely good as a whole. Everything was interesting. What's going on with Ciri is becoming more interesting to watch now, maybe because we have more information regarding her, indirectly. Yennefer's part in this episode was just as interesting as everything with Geralt but felt pointless. Like it didn't have any meaningful purpose. But it was still the second-best part of the episode with Geralt's part being the obvious best. All three of their storylines are gradually getting better. I think everything will truly begin, starting with the next episode onward. I'm looking forward to it.

For me the best episode so far A mix of emotions from scene to scene The most adventuring episode of the first half

Not having read the books or played the game - yet, it was a confusing start with the timeline. This episode made it a bit clearer with what was what. I find it fun to have those aha! moments when it clicks into place, plus it allows us to see all the characters at once. If it followed a linear timeline, it would be all one character for a long time until another came into the story. I do wish it was clearer with the different nations and how they relate to each other so I am hoping time will tell on that. Can't wait to finish the series, it has me pumped to play the games!

Some people are easy annoyed.

For others though, this is a fantastic way to loop around events and intertwine stories and people so that we see everybody and are introduced to them in equal measures. This is the only way to do this as if not we'd get a ton of Yennefer of Vengerberg story before we even see Geralt of Rivia nevermind Ciri. All of the context and The Law of Surprise are all in the books, but to put a TV show together that introduces us to the 3 main characters (4 if you include Triss Merigold) right away, you can only do it in this style. On to this episode though (I've only seen up to this one so far), but I thought it was excellent. It has some really great moments and I can't wait until the 3 storylines converge.