Published and produced by Netflix
I read The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski at the end of December and then watched the Witcher adaptation on Netflix. I had no idea that there would be such a huge overlap in the material! I guess it makes sense, the first book is as good a place as any to introduce the world at large to The Witcher universe. Unfortunately, the book is a collection of short stories that aren't necessarily in linear order, which makes for an odd choice for a TV series.
I think they did an excellent choice casting Henry Cavill as Geralt. He is really ripped and has a good, gruff voice that fits the witcher quite well. Not to mention he is a huge fan of the books and games that the show runners are drawing on as source material. I thought they did an excellent job casting Yennifer and Daffodil/Jaskier. I feel less strongly about how they cast Triss, choosing a black actress instead of a redhead like she was in the game. I haven't met her in the books yet, so it's entirely possible that the game has it wrong, but it wasn't what I expected going in. The actress seems to be doing a fine job, she was just unexpected.
As far as the story goes, I think they did a pretty good job showing mostly everything that was in the book. They didn't do all of the stories, and they added some additional ones not found in The Last Wish, but I suspect that I will read them soon as I intend to continue the series. I thought they did a particularly good job with the story introducing Geralt and Yennifer with the djinn. Everything was shown just as it was in the book, it was fantastic!
I have to say though, I did think that either of these is a pretty poor introduction to the Witcher universe. I think they could have given some exposition or something to better set up the world that they built. Watching with my wife who hasn't experienced much of the Witcher universe, I frequently was explaining what was happening and why. I didn't mind because I really enjoy what's going on here, but I think if she didn't have me answering her questions that she might have been turned off from the series. I know The Witcher 3 is one of the best selling video games of recent times, but this is supposed to be a stand alone property, not relying on the video games as as pretext. I think the book fares a little better in this regard because there is a little more exposition, but I do think the show suffers from lack of explanation. I almost want them to put out an annotated first couple of episodes to catch people up that aren't familiar with the universe at all. There is a TON of background here and none of it is explained.
All this being said, I really enjoyed both the show and the book. I'm excited to buy the next book in the series and I will definitely be watching the next season when it comes out!
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