Bottled Appetites

From the score I can see that a lot of people seemed to like this episode, but for me this felt like the first slip in an otherwise solid season. The plots of previous episodes have had events unfold in a way that felt very organic given the rules of the world and the personalities of the characters. So things may have been fantastical, but it was easy to suspend disbelief and imagine that it could have happened the way they portrayed it.

But in this episode felt like the writers needed everyone to get from A to B so they just kind of had people do stuff to make it happen, even if it wasn't consistent with previous behavior. Geralt, who was in previous episodes an extremely practical person, has a rather straight forward problem. But instead of trying to solve it in a straight forward way, he suddenly decides to try an absurdly over-the-top solution. It makes so little sense that they even felt the need to have one of the other characters comment on it, pointing out that Geralt's actions didn't seem in line with someone trying to solve his problem.

The other issue I had was with Yennefer, who started out as a sympathetic character earlier in the season but really becomes borderline unlikable here with her constant self-pity and cynicism and an overall "me first" attitude. Her character doesn't feel in the right place for establishing the beginning of the epic story her and Geralt are creating in the lore of the world. But despite that other characters like the bard just do a complete 180 and immediately get on board with lofty proclamations by the end that seem disjointed and unearned.

Needless to say, this is just all my opinion, and I'm still loving the first season, but for me I wasn't crazy about the flow of this episode.

I am still somewhat confused and there are so many plot holes. I was thinking I would read the book, so it could fill in the gaps, but that does not even interest me now. I am going to rough it out because of all the hype, but I am having a hard time finding any interest in the story or the characters. I suspect all the RAVE reviews are from book readers. They will love the show no matter what. As for going in cold turkey, enter at your own peril . Haha! ;-P

The Witcher succumbs to the spell of a lustful witch, but not for long

The only reason this episode isnt perfect for me is because the climax/most intense scene drags on a little too long and starts to lose its drama.

I'll spare you the full details, but it was similar insofar as I was looking after a friend who was incapacitated somehow, and somehow it led to me getting with a "very sexy, but insane" witch, and if you want to know anymore than that, you'll have to track me down and ask me yourself.

Anyway, disregarding my personal nightly affairs with witches, this episode is kind of a trade-off with the previous one. While there's not really any pointless stuff in this one, I also don't think it's as well directed as the last episode.

But in addition to there not being any pointless stuff in this episode, there's also nothing I didn't at least enjoy. Ciri's parts are kept to a minimum and are getting a little more interesting to me, and Geralt and Yennefer's plotlines converge for the first time here, and what ends up happening is pretty cool.

I guess I did find Jaskier a little annoying this time, and there was a part of a particular scene that honestly made me burst out laughing when it wasn't supposed to because the dialogue was really awkward, but it's still far better than the start of this series would have ever suggested.