“ Toss a coin to your Witcher “ Love & Hate for Netflix’s The Witcher

Never played the game, although a big fan of the Witcher Universe this review comes from solely viewers perspective and more of a character analysis. Before stepping into any elaboration one word to say “The Music is off the Hook”

From the announcement to all the pre-production of this so called HBO’s Game of Thrones rival by streaming giant Netflix I followed each and every update of Henry Cavill starrer. As a fan of this versatile actor (Wishing him to play James Bond at least once in his life) had no doubt this famous game adaption will through some stones definitely.

The anticipation from the two released trailers got me instantly hooked to the first episode available in the midst of busy wedding season on December 20,2019 coming back from continuous shoots streamed the episode one and got blown away.

All through the 8 episodes, Geralt of Rivia (Played by Henry Cavill) was top to bottom Amazing. His Hmms and F***ks had their own charm, those action scenes from the first episode was subtle yet beautifully crafted. Need not to mix with the game scenes (Have gone through a set of footages later on) Henry did his tricks on screen. A fearless monster hunter, ruthless in his tasks, hunting down a Striga in Episode 3, protecting the dragons in Episode 6, had his own Djinn in Episode 5, every turns promised a smooth journey of the protagonist. Even he cared for Jaskier (The bard who composed the famous Witcher Song), had fallen for Renfri (In the Butcher of Balvekin Episode) and Yennefer (Who is Yennefer?) his characters had it’s own perks throughout the season 1.

Revolving in 3 timelines in first 3 episodes which were quite difficult to follow, the other two timelines featured alongside Geralt’s path. In the Kingdom of Cintra, the Jewel of the South, Lioness Calanthe (Played by Jodhi May), her daughter Pavetta (Episode 4) and the centre character of the series, Princess Cirilla (Grand Daughter of Calanthe) runs the show from start to end. The stitching starts from episode 4 and in the following two episode patterns started falling into pieces. Queen Calanthe had her own style of ruling the screen while Princess Cirilla was more time on the woods and Elf forest rather than in the palace in Royal accord.

The maze factory in Artuza made no sense in the introductory episodes but it picked up since the transformation of Yennefer “The Piglet” rescued by Trissia “The Rectoress”. Yennefer sacrificed her potency of bearing a legacy for her magical properties and beauty. Despite negative possibilities she placed herself in the better kingdom which sent Fringilla in the lowery Nilfgard which proved fatal in the later stages of the series. Anya Chalotra played the Witchess of fantasies who adored her character in every possible scenes. From her piglet status to becoming Yennefer she finally embraced her destiny in the final episode of Season 1. No wonder Season 2 will start by finding her.

Now comes Cirilla (Played by Freya Allen) who is the Destiny of Geralt of Rivia by Law Of surprise (Explained in https://www.vulture.com/2019/12/the-witcher-law-of-surprise-explained.html) mixed slowly in the series. She started pretty basic in the first episodes but her transformation as a Witcher in the 7th Episode would surely turn everyones head. She has a lot to play in the coming seasons.

With a renewed second season to be released in 2021 here can be the following improvement areas The Witcher can add on

• Storytelling a bit faster than the actual pace.
• Intriguing fighting scenes.
• In depth on the “Butcher of Blavekin”
• More on Cirilla’s childhood.
• How a Witcher is made.

The series revolves around Henry Cavill, decent fight scenes (Not on par with HBO’s legendary Game of Thrones), promising young actors, beautiful picturesque and overall Amazing Music. Finally Netflix have thrown their dice and we have to wait if it can capitalize from Season 2 onwards.

My take 7/10.