 The Witcher TV series came out over three years ago on Netflix and I am just now getting to see it. The reason it took me so long to start watching this show was because of the awful takes by critics. So I'm once again upset with myself for listening to these foolish critics telling me this wasn't a show worth watching because it absolutely is. The Witcher has been all over the place, a series of books, video games, I'm sure there's graphic novels. This TV series, probably a lunchbox you can buy, you name it, Geralt of Rivia is on it. That's the lead protagonist here, played by Henry Cavill. Geralt is a very no-nonsense Witcher. He's been around the block and back a few times over. The guy's thousands of years old from what I can gather and he doesn't have time for nonsense. He's a man of few words. But what he lacks in dialogue, he makes up for unrippling muscles. Henry kept that Superman bod and he puts it to good use in this show. Dispatching foes in wonderful ways like punching them to death, using magic, or just slicing them up with a sword. And a foes he'll be fighting as it's the job of a Witcher to hunt down and kill monsters whenever they're seen. The criticisms of this show, especially season one, were that it's hard to follow. It's tough to understand characters, motivations, where they're at, why there's constant time jumping back and forth episode to episode. This is all true, but I found it delightful. Others said you need familiarity with the brand, whether it's reading the books or the games. Although I believe the games are set after the events of this show, so I'm not really sure what they're getting at there. Regardless, I didn't play any of the games. I didn't read any of the books. I went into this thing fresh as a daisy and I came out on the other side of Thornbush, ready for action, ready for more. This show has everything I love about fantasy. Lots of confusing locations I don't remember from episode to episode. Names of characters that are hard to pronounce and easy to forget. Magical elements with laws that can be abided by or broken with consequences for doing such a deed. Kick-ass action with blood and guts and all sorts of gross things. Gratuitous nudity. Thanks, Yennefer, season one. Although I will say season two of The Witcher almost feels like a later Game of Thrones season in terms of the nudity output. There's really none. It's very disheartening. It's very lacking. In fact, there's a scene. This isn't really any spoilers, even though this show's old. In season two, where a couple of the witches, the mages, I guess they are, they go into a little hot spring bathtub, fully naked. We don't get a side boob. We don't even get a top butt cheek. We get nothing. What was the point of this scene? I'm sitting there watching with my wife and I turn to her and I'm like, what are we doing here? If we're not gonna show any nudity and we have three women going into a tub, what's this for? Once the fresh slap wound healed, she did actually agree with me. The show is beautiful to look at. Even the night stuff, which we often find ourselves in, looks gorgeous. Some of the battles with creatures are like nothing I've ever seen before, with the witchers taking shots of Polyjuice potion and other things. His eyes are turning black. He's getting veins and shit all over. Busts out his sword, shing! Sparks it up so it gets heated. And he just goes to town on some creature that's unsuspecting or suspecting, but didn't expect what he had coming. Sing! Busts, busts, busts, busts, busts, busts, busts. I'm the witcher, baby. Another thing I love about this show is since Geralt is so old and familiar with all the locations, creature types and people, a lot of people know who he is. So you get the whole John Wick sort of thing where he'll show up and like half the room will be like, oh my God, it's the witcher. Oh my... There's a king in the corner, the witcher. He's so hot right now, the witcher. The only time I find the show testing my patience a little bit is when the bard shows up and he busts out a song. Listen, I'm all for a merry tale once in a while, but when we have three or four songs in a row, each episode, I'm about ready to start fast forwarding. I get it, you have a great voice and you're good at telling stories. Let's move on. Let's get to the actual story being told. So the bard, while he is pleasant and fun and adds that comic relief, he can sometimes be a bit much. I think I mentioned that I like season one more than two. If I didn't, that's where I stand. Season one just was so fascinating because we were jumping all over the place. It really begs for you to pay attention and try to understand where things are and why they're happening. And then when the halfway point hits and we get that reveal that the beginning is where this was leading to, that's good stuff. That's great storytelling, I'm here for it. Season two is just a little too traditional. That's what really hooked me on season one was so how it was all over the place. And season two is like, okay, we're going linear now. This is just a beginning to end story and don't get me wrong, there is fascinating elements here, but there's also some that don't work for me. Normally in a fantasy setting, the elves are my favorite characters. They're just badass, they're smart, they're always good with a bow and arrow and a sword. In this instance though, I'm like, I don't want to hang out with the elves. The elves are kind of boring and lame and I just don't care about them. So this is one area where the witcher kind of lets me down. I like badass elves, not whiny, pouty ones that are trying to get pregnant. The other thing that was a hang up for me but is absolutely not a fault of the show was how Siri, the princess, grew in between seasons. I mean, I guess it's kind of a fault of the show because we could have jumped in time a little bit forward. What ends up happening in a story survives the first season and when we see her in season two, it's supposed to be a day later. But it's very obvious the young actress grew up a lot in between these two seasons. She gained like three years in real time. So it's very jarring to go from younger freckle-faced girl to boom, full-blown adult. But they have to pretend she's the same age. That threw me off a little bit, but I got past it. And she's a badass, by the way, Siri, awesome character. Overall, I love this show. It's one of my favorites going right now. I highly recommend it if you didn't give it a chance like me. This show has everything I look for in a fantasy. The effects are top-notch. The CG's really well done. And because it blends in so well with the world, it's hard to know. I mean, sometimes I look and I'm like, man, is this practical? Clearly it's not. It's a giant tree monster. The music, it goes real hard too. It hits at all the right spots. The emotions there. I just, I have nothing but great things to say about this show. Don't sleep on it like I did for many years. It's a shame on me. And I'm kicking myself every day for it. And now I'm actually at the point where I have the Witcher 3, I believe, on PlayStation. I mean, I can get it on PlayStation 5 now. I kind of want to play through it. I know it's a 100-plus hour game. But man, I'm loving this lore. I'm loving this series so much. I'm really interested to hear more from these characters. Even though I know some of them don't look like they're video game counterparts, it's still cool to be in this world. That, and they just announced a brand new Witcher games in development. So by the time I actually get done playing this third one, maybe the fourth will be out because I think it's gonna take on probably three more years. All right, those are my random thoughts on a show that's been done and out the door for a while now. But you know, I just got done watching it and I wanted to share it. I wanted other people to maybe jump in if they saw some of those criticisms and were like, oof, I don't know this material. I don't want to be lost in the show. Give it a chance like I did. If it doesn't hook you in the first episode, I'd be very surprised. Let me know your thoughts on this show if you watched it in the comments. Leave a like if you liked this video. Subscribe if you haven't. I post content all the time on this channel, movie and TV show related. And hopefully I'll see you around. There's gonna be a subscription icon of my face and then some related videos while you're thinking about which one you're gonna do. Or if you should join me on Patreon at patreon.com slash Adam does movies and show some support, I'm gonna be sitting here pondering about Jennifer and how she's now the one that got away. Happily married man, but still. I mean, if he ends on the table, if she's an option for me, yeah, I kick myself. Kick myself thinking of what could have been. And I haven't been slapped on this side of the face yet so that's something I'm eager to get done too.