Plot: Convinced Yennefer’s life was lost at the Battle of Sodden, Geralt of Rivia brings Princess Cirilla to the safest place he knows, his childhood home of Kaer Morhen. While the Continent’s kings, elves, humans and demons strive for supremacy outside its walls, he must protect the girl from something far more dangerous: the mysterious power she possesses inside.
Review: I was pretty underwhelmed by the first season of The Witcher. Despite the excellent casting of Henry Cavill, I found the convoluted structure of the narrative to be a detriment. It was not until the final episodes that the series found some consistency in regards to tone, style, and approach. This is often the case with shows based on established franchises. The Witcher has a huge fan following for the novels and video games that made it a recognizable brand, but the first season failed to capitalize on that. I am happy to say that the second season of The Witcher is superior to the first in every way thanks to a more traditional narrative which allows the massive mythology of this world to become the focus. Everyone is better this time around as the story of Geralt, Ciri, and Yennifer begins to come together.
Picking up from where the first season left off, Geralt (Henry Cavill) and Ciri (Freya Allan) are mourning the death of Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) at the Battle of Sodden Hill. Little do they know, Yennefer has survived and has been taken captive by elves. Geralt, who is bound to protect Ciri, begins his quest with his ward. While I expected this premiere episode to be grander in scope, we quickly find ourselves in a monster side-quest similar to many of Geralt’s exploits in the first season. Almost off the bat, I was prepared to dismiss this season. While the premiere episode has a solid, fairytale-inspired story, it left me underwhelmed. The split narrative of Geralt and Ciri at a castle while Yennefer tries to figure out where she is lends a filler quality to this opening chapter. What I did notice immediately was an improvement in special effects and production quality, even if the story was somewhat lacking.
Then, I saw episode two. From the second through the sixth episode of the season (the final two of which were not made available for this review), The Witcher finds a solid plot that begins with Geralt and Ciri making their way to Kaer Morhen. There, the School of the Wolf, led by Geralt’s mentor Vesemir, played by Kim Bodnia, offers some much-needed backstory for the titular character. Everything we learned about witchers in the first season came through conversations and stories, but now we get the opportunity to see these supernatural warriors in action. It also provides a transitory moment for the relationship between Geralt and Ciri to come together. Without revealing much, I can tell you that the journey that is at the core for these characters finally begins on screen this season.
This season also offers a more interesting arc for Yennifer. Anya Chalotra gave my favorite performance in the first season. Required to play a hunchback, a confident sorceress, and a foil able to go toe to toe with Geralt, Chalotra embodied a wide range. Here, we finally see the true Yennifer who is the sum of all her life experiences. No longer just one element at a time, she is a complicated being on par with Henry Cavill’s Geralt. Equally impressive is young Freya Allan who has learned a lot since her screen debut in the first season. Ciri has the least development thus far as this story is truly about her learning what she is capable of, but Allan makes her an entry point into this lush world of magic and monsters. But, at the core of what makes The Witcher work better is Cavill. Already Superman to many, this will certainly go down as his signature role. Yes, he still grunts and gives one-word responses at times, but Cavill is more verbose this season and, if possible, somehow more physically intimidating.
Where The Witcher falls short for me still seems to be the pacing. There are many scenes peppered through each episode that feel unnecessarily long. I found that the first season bounced around too much, but this second season seems to stick in some places too long. What helps things are the improved creature effects which continue to blend physical make-up with CGI enhancements, giving The Witcher a tangible quality. At times, the creature designs may feel a bit silly, but the serious tone helps make it feel believable. The tone this season often feels more dour and serious than the first, which managed to find a good amount of levity, but that does help make the funny moments work. The direction from Stephen Surjik (The Umbrella Academy), Sarah O’Gorman (Cursed), Edward Bazalgette (Doctor Who), and Louise Hooper is consistently able to make the dark night scenes that pervade this show never feel too dark to follow the action. The writing team, led by creator Lauren Schmidt, also does a very good job of bringing the stories from the novels to screen while still giving this a distinct voice different than the video games.
Still not the type of series that will earn Lord of the Rings level acclaim, The Witcher is nevertheless a fun and pulpy genre offering that has found its stride after an uneven first season. I wish the pacing were more consistent than it is, but the voices of these characters are loud and clear as the cast and crew have established a narrative momentum over these episodes. The trio of Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, and Anya Chalotra are the only actors I could imagine playing these roles and as their relationships evolve, this story is just going to get better. With spin-offs and prequels coming at us from across this cinematic universe, you could do worse than this season which is as action-packed as before but with even better character development, special effects, and consistent narrative structure. I enjoyed these adventures with Geralt of Rivia far more than I did in season one and I am looking forward to even more from The Witcher for years to come.
The Witcher premieres its second season on December 17th on Netflix.
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