The Witcher is the latest Netflix original series to come out, releasing only last month, and seeks to be trying to fill that gaping dragon-shaped hole left in our hearts following the finale of Game of Thrones back in May.
The show is an adaptation of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s book series of the same name which has also inspired a series of critically acclaimed video-games. Having neither read the books or played the games, I can’t really tell if it’s a good adaptation or not but thankfully it stands on its own.
The main character is Geralt of Rivia, played by Henry Cavill, a magically-enhanced mutant living in the medieval-fantasy world of ‘The Continent’ who makes a living killing monsters for gold.
He is pulled from his self-imposed isolation, however, after meeting with young princess Ciri (Freya Allan) and the devilish sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg and finds himself having to pick sides as war looms on the horizon.
As I said in the introduction, the series feels a lot like a Game of Thrones spin-off which is rather ironic since Sapkowski’s first book actually pre-dates George RR Martin’s Songs of Ice and Fire by three whole years.
Which isn’t to say it’s bad, mind you. I certainly enjoyed it and the action scenes with Cavill’s creative sword-play are truly brilliant. At the same time, though, if you swap out a few names here and there you could easily pass it off as a GoT side-project.
Still, if you’re aching for some gritty high-fantasy action drama, you could certainly do a lot worse.
