Season 3 ended on such a whimper. I stuck with it to see out Henry Cavill, but he was barely present in the last two episodes. The show stopped being a Witcher story long ago unfortunately. Expertly portrayed by Henry Cavill, he embodied everything about Geralt exactly how you'd expect a fan of the lore to do so, yet he continuously found himself in someone else's story and not his own. Too few Witcher quests from the get-go, but Season 1 at least still had more Witcher adventures and nods to the source material, but you can clearly see it being stripped away more and more in the subsequent seasons and why Cavill left. Season 3 culminating in a chore to get to the end with increasingly poor writing as the show runners strayed more into their 'creativity'; Vilgefortz being bad all along was baseless and cheap, Tissaia's powerful "last-resort" spell accomplishing nothing and being blocked by a simple shield spell, Tissaia - established as a strong leader- killing herself at the exact moment a strong leader is needed utterly out of character and devoid of reason, badass girl power characters that didn't exist before suddenly shoe-horned in and springing up everywhere with no introduction or buildup, the fake Ciri conveniently captured instead of the real one (where was she picked up? How did she find herself there? Don't know!)...goodness you could go on.
It's rare to be able to cast a lead in a fantasy series that's as invested and knowledgeable in your source material as Cavill was, to be able to lend you authenticity and passion. To have a wealth of untapped source material laying it all out for you, a blueprint there for the taking, and to fumble it so impressively is staggering. Shame on them.
I rather enjoyed Yen as well though. Her and Geralt's dynamic felt accurate, especially early on but her role was obviously artificially ballooned more and more as the show went on. Joey Batey also enjoyable as Jaskier for comic relief but he also should've been used more sparingly in later seasons. At it's core this should've stayed a Witcher story.
It feels a shame to give the show a 6 for how good Cavill was in his role but I'm afraid it's a holistic reflection (and probably a generous one) I'll average from the 3 seasons: Season 1: 8/10 Season 2: 7/10 Season 3: 3/10.
It's rare to be able to cast a lead in a fantasy series that's as invested and knowledgeable in your source material as Cavill was, to be able to lend you authenticity and passion. To have a wealth of untapped source material laying it all out for you, a blueprint there for the taking, and to fumble it so impressively is staggering. Shame on them.
I rather enjoyed Yen as well though. Her and Geralt's dynamic felt accurate, especially early on but her role was obviously artificially ballooned more and more as the show went on. Joey Batey also enjoyable as Jaskier for comic relief but he also should've been used more sparingly in later seasons. At it's core this should've stayed a Witcher story.
It feels a shame to give the show a 6 for how good Cavill was in his role but I'm afraid it's a holistic reflection (and probably a generous one) I'll average from the 3 seasons: Season 1: 8/10 Season 2: 7/10 Season 3: 3/10.