The third season of The Witcher is streaming on Netflix from June 29. It is the first part, made of five episodes. The second part, with the three final episodes, will be released on July 27. This is Henry Cavill‘s last dance as Geralt of Rivia, as the former Superman has long since announced that he would be leaving the character, which Liam Hemsworth will inherit.
But that is the future. The present is seeing that the fantasy show in which Netflix has invested many resources and much of its credibility seems to know no decline. The previous two seasons have stayed an average of six weeks in the platform’s global Top 10 viewings (according to their own decided tracking systems, so you have to trust them), and both the prequel starring fresh Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh and the animated series have also given pleasant satisfaction to the Los Gatos-based platform. Based on the novels by Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski, a series whose success then effectively exploded thanks to the video game franchise signed by CD Projekt Red, The Witcher contains all the classic elements of the genre.
By all, I mean all of them. Magic, mutant creatures, conflicting kingdoms, political intrigue, sex, violence, monsters, parallel dimensions, spirits, amulets, potions, and the Afterlife. We could go on and on, all packed into a package with a quality that is not always productively beyond reproach. We are never in the parts of Phantasmagoria, but neither of Game of Thrones, but to be fair, this look that walks the fragile line that divides the naive from the trashy has its charm, which helps to make The Witcher the most classic of guilty pleasures.
And Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, showrunner of the series, must be given credit for trying new avenues for each season of a series that, as she told me a couple of years ago at the release of the second season, “I think chose me. Fantasy is not my genre, but something intrigued me about the narrative structure. Once I figured out what it was, I got into it, from how the series unfolding events to the three main characters, Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri, a real dysfunctional family.”
A progression that started with defining all the characters, from the three main ones to all the side characters who, barring violent death (because in fantasy, it is rare to die of old age), have accompanied us to this day. In the second season, the approach was more geopolitical, not surprisingly, since Lauren has a West Wing writing team background. Thus, all the power relations between the different factions vying for power were built up while also looking at History and contemporary times. The persecuted elves and chosen people, the wizards pulling the strings and manipulating the rulers, and the dark forces operating in the shadows, while Geralt, Ciri and Yenn have to fight an even greater enemy whose immense power is fueled by pain and suffering.
Long story short: translate everything into our everyday reality, and you will find that the Continent is quiet compared to our world.
In the meantime, the relationship between the witcher and the young heiress to the throne of Cintra, Ciri, becomes that between a father and a daughter, and the return of the rebellious witch Yennifer is the prelude to a passion destined inevitably to be rekindled as early as the first part of the third season, in which our company is forced to wander, changing homes again and again, because virtually the entire Continent is searching for Ciri, the one who will bring balance.
So are the elves, whose blood runs through the girl’s veins, the wizards and witches, since her magic is more powerful than anyone else’s, and most importantly… but for those who have not seen the second season, let’s not reveal more. Plus, LGBTQ+ elements are introduced as an integral part of the story, sexual winks that had gradually disappeared throughout the previous episodes are found, and the percentage of action in each episode is increased, aided by the reckless impulsiveness dictated by Ciri’s youth.
For fantasy fans, there is everything to keep watching, complete with a cliffhanger at the end of the last episode of this first part that makes the anticipation for what will happen in the season finale even more exciting.
Henry Cavill is always comfortable under Geralt’s reedy wig, and the increased romance dose makes the character less rough and troubled (and about time, too). Young Freya Allan, after three seasons, seems to have a greater awareness of what it means to play Ciri, while Anya Chalotra is still the very sultry witch Yennefer.
At the end of the day, is The Witcher a must-see? If you are a fantasy fan, yes, not least because in the face of decidedly different budgets, the result is not far removed from The Rings of Power, the Amazon series based on Tolkien’s Middle-earth tales. There is not much product for fans of the genre, so what passes muster is just fine.
Suppose you don’t like the genre but love political and court intrigue. In that case, The Witcher is not unlike any of the many costume series that have raged in recent years, from The Tudors to The Borgias to even more celebrated products like Bridgerton and The Crown. Only a dash of magic is added. And to be fair, the Geralt of Rivia saga has little to envy even to many of the far more celebrated various Marvel and Star Wars series (did anyone say The Book of Boba Fett?).
As the theatre impresario in Shakespeare in Love said:
“It’s going to be a hit.”
“How do you know?”
“No one knows. It’s a mystery.”
Exactly.