 Hmm. Fuck. Ooh! That's a hot mug, guys! Hey guys, this is my review of The Witcher Season 2. I actually was quite excited to see this again. Well, the first season did have some narrative issues, both in terms of how it was non-linear, as well as what it was focusing on. There was a lot of good basis there for them to delve deeper, organize better, and just portray this story, this alternate fantasy better. Did they? In this season, we focus far more on Ciri, but in a way that actually is important to the plot, to the point where you actually care about what's going on. That was one of my biggest issues with the first season, is that every time I came back to Ciri, the plot would just come to a grinding halt, whereas this time they improved it, they fixed it, they reversed it. It is now pretty much the most important, if not the most interesting part of the story. Towards the end of the season, they start to realize that as well, because while they are still trying to give you this world, all these politics and everything that are going on in the background, you kinda just don't get it. I was trying to, I honestly was trying to, and even when that wasn't gripping me, the whole bit with the monoliths was at first intriguing me as well, and then that started to fucking bore me too. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of improvements in this season. One big one being the cinematography, is it leaps and bounds better than the first season? No, but at least it looks better than a Hallmark movie, now we're at B-movie tier, we're still not up there yet. And also, you can tell which episodes got the budget and which ones didn't, because if you watched the first episode and the last episode, those are the two that you see that a lot of the money went to, because episode 2-7 is very similar to that of the boys season 2, funnily enough. That season had a fantastic opener and a fantastic finale, whereas everything in the middle was kinda like, ehhh, yep. Witcher season 2 is the lighter version of that in terms of quality. Personally speaking, the first episode is the best one. It is the most concurrent, it is the most focused, it is the best establishing sort of story, and I feel that it captures the lore of what makes this world interesting in a nutshell. They come to this castle that is some sort of kind of dark twisted, quasi-bizarro version of Beauty and the Beast, and the morality, the whole debate, the conflict of what is technically speaking the right thing to do, is what I have been told is the basis of the Witcher series. The games had every quest matter to a point where there was an emotional effect on you. I have not been able to get past the opening really of the third game, I just can't do it, I've tried, I just can't get into the combat. And I understand that too holds me back, because I've only listened to one book, I listened to Blood of the Elves, and then since I can't play the games, I am not getting as much of the lore, I'm not as getting much of the world building as I should, and I'm not understanding the references as much, it's sort of like a situation if you try and watch Dune without having read the book, you're not going to get as much of it, you're not going to get as much of a fulfillment. As far as I can tell in terms of a person coming in blind to this, I am very much out of the loop on a lot of things that are happening, and those things would make much more sense to people who have read the books, and there is a balance, you can do that where there is a good means and having people be interested in reading the books, because they want to know more about the world, and your entire world building basis is so convoluted in terms of how it's being portrayed and given to the audience that you either don't care, you're kind of so out of the loop that you don't know what's going on, or it's so kind of middle of the road, very menial and very lightly touched upon, only to then be kind of just given a little bit of a recap at the end in the last 10 minutes of the final episode. A good example is this firefucker guy. Is he? What are his allegiances? Who does he work for? What is his history with anyone? You don't get anything about this guy, and he is in multiple episodes. This is a cool character, don't get me wrong, but I don't know jack shit about him when I should have at least an inkling. Witcher season 2 does improve in things that it needed to improve on. It improves on its central focus, makes Geralt and Ciri much more main characters and makes them the focus of the finale. And God forbid, why wouldn't you focus on your main character in the final episode of the season? I will say that I am excited for season 3. I am looking forward to seeing what they can do, where they can go. I'll admit I don't give a care about the Blood Origins thing. It doesn't have Geralt in it, it doesn't have hunky-smunky Henry Cavill to everyone in the show, and I don't really care to watch the animated one either, and maybe I should. I am going to try and get into the books, at least audio-wise while I'm driving to and from work, maybe that might help me out a little bit. But overall as an actual structure in terms of fantasy, I feel that there is still work to be done. They definitely need to get more of a constructive idea in terms of what they want to do. They definitely need to improve the production design. I feel that all of these sets are from 90s medieval movies and only good ones. I think that all the sets are from the kid in King Arthur's court. They look that bad. Focus on the narrative. Make the stuff that you're focusing on much more either entertaining or, God forbid, appealing and open in terms of being interpreted to the audience. And God forbid could we have some monsters. There was barely any monsters in this season. Now that's not just the supernatural boy in me talking. I'm kind of upset that there was a monster at the beginning, there was monsters at the end, and there was like cameo monsters. If you watch my review of the first season, you'll know that my favorite episode was the third episode. In this season, my favorite episode is the first one slightly followed by the finale. So in the end, my final rating for season two of The Witcher. It's still a 3 out of 7. I still like it guys. I actually do. I'll admit though, I'm not as inclined to rewatch any of these episodes as I was the first season. I would love to watch kind of the in-between filler episodes if you want to call them that, the Monster Hunt episodes. I'm much more inclined to watch the first season's ones than really any of the episodes from the second season if only the first episode. They have improved a lot of things. They have gotten some things right. But I feel with the things that they did get right, they then kind of lacked and fell behind on the things that they had at least middlingly right in the first season. I really hope that they get to do as many seasons as they do. I'm always up for fantasy lore stuff and to see Henry Cavill essentially become the king of nerds and geeks and everything, I'm totally fine with that. Anyways guys, that's all for me. I hope you enjoyed this review. But give me your guys' thoughts on this season. Do you feel that I'm kind of being a little bit too harsh? Do you kind of understand where my criticisms are coming from? What did you guys think of it? Let me know in the comments below. Otherwise guys, that's all for me. I hope you enjoyed the review. If you did, leave a like and if you're interested in more, subscribe. Otherwise, I'll see you guys next year.