The Witcher: Season 1

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 2581 Ratings

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7.6

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7.6	Your Score
7.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 2581 Ratings

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Season Details & Credits

Netflix | Season Premiere Date: December 20, 2019

Summary: Monster hunter Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), sorceress Yennefer (Anya Cholatra), and Princess Ciri (Freya Allan) must learn to work together to survive as they journey through the Continent in the fantasy series based on the Polish book series by Andrzej Sapkowski.

Creator: Lauren Schmidt

Genre(s): Drama, Action & Adventure, Fantasy

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Season 1 Episodes

5.8
S1:E8. Much More
Air Date: December 20, 2019
6.1
S1:E7. Before A Fall
Air Date: December 20, 2019
5.9
S1:E6. Rare Species
Air Date: December 20, 2019

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

William Hughes

Dec 20, 2019

When the worst thing you can say about a series is that every episode ends up being better than the one that preceded it, that leaves an exciting amount of room to grow. Especially when you can see it steadily moving out of the shadow of the show Netflix might have wanted, in favor of the far more interesting series it might actually turn out to be. Read full review

Tom Reimann

Dec 20, 2019

For all its massive scale, The Witcher is a surprisingly small story centered around three appealing main characters. It’s a classic fantasy tale about war and magic and prophecy, with grotesque monsters, supernatural detective work, and political intrigue thrown into the mix. It’s all a bit silly, but no more so than Game of Thrones ever was. Read full review

IndieWire Ben Travers

Dec 20, 2019

Frankly, it should be a catastrophe, and yet the batshit energy driving a slew of increasingly odd choices makes for a pretty entertaining spectacle. Read full review

The Guardian Lucy Mangan

Dec 20, 2019

There are attempts at knowingness: at one point, our Henry tells someone a prophecy has to rhyme. This is not a good idea, as it throws into too sharp relief the limits to what Geralt and his merry band of sorceresses and proto-feminist princesses can be said to know. Play it straight, dear scriptwriters, or don’t play it at all. ... But again, if you like this sort of thing, go nuts. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Brian Tallerico

Dec 20, 2019

If you don’t take any of this more seriously than a holiday diversion, it has undeniable moments, and a fearless performance from its leading lady. But it’s safe to say that the throne of fantasy adulation on which HBO sits, even after the divisive final season, remains unchallenged. Read full review

Brian Lowry

Dec 20, 2019

Henry Cavill plays the title role in The Witcher, but giving a pulse to this dreary medieval fantasy series is too much of a job even for Superman. Read full review

Darren Franich and Kristen Baldwin

Dec 20, 2019

Alas, my destiny is to never watch this borefest ever again. Read full review

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User Score

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7.6

User Reviews

markcd1234

Jan 11, 2020

This show is amazing, it did what shows are supposed to do, it took a person that had never heard of this story franchise, and made it to where I can't wait for more. Well done Netflix, now don't screw it up like they did with GOT.

0 of 6 users found this helpful06

YurikBC

Dec 22, 2019

Уютное, хорошо снятое фентези по интересной вселенной. Кевилл смотрится очень недурно. God bless, let them shoot 8 seasons

3 of 10 users found this helpful37

Demikly

Dec 20, 2019

Nailed it.

Cavill lives and breathes the role.

The production values are off the hook too, slow burn, but worth the wait!!

40 of 93 users found this helpful4053

isomarcus

Jan 10, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Yes the casting of Triss is wrong... but still.. everything else is 100% true to the witcher saga

Cavill is a treasure, he portraits Geralt perfectly

The music is spot on

And in many aspects the show is truer to the books than the games

All in all, a must see for every witcher fan… Expand

0 of 6 users found this helpful06

Jazzer88

Dec 22, 2019

without reading the books or playing with the games this tv serie is great.

1 of 7 users found this helpful16

LordCrash

Dec 28, 2019

People tend to compare the Witcher to Game of Thrones but that's probably the wrong take. The show never wants to be any serious and it never actually tries to achieve any depth or nuanced meaning that would elevate it above the usual cheesy sword and sorcery pulp fantasy. The Witcher isPeople tend to compare the Witcher to Game of Thrones but that's probably the wrong take. The show never wants to be any serious and it never actually tries to achieve any depth or nuanced meaning that would elevate it above the usual cheesy sword and sorcery pulp fantasy. The Witcher is more like a 2019 version of Xena or Hercules. It's an anachronism that acts like Game of Thrones and other groundbreaking TV shows in the past 10 or 20 years never happened and that shows like Xena or Stargate were still the pinnacle of great TV entertainment. The show can only be seen as naive fun but not as anything with a serious message or story. It's only fitting that its budget seems to be severly limited, resulting in poor costumes, ridiculously poor attle scenes, completely unbelievable medieval weaponry and fighting and bad CGI and special effects.

The Netflix adaption also shows no respect and has no understanding of its own source material. It lacks all the core strings of the novels, like the Slavic melancholia, its nuanced but very down to earth dialogues, its lifelike and nuanced characters, its complex political and societal elements, and most important, everything about Geralt's and Ciri's relationship and the true meaning of destiny. It only adds to the the show's mediocrity that it has a terrible "telling instead of showing" habit that results in bad dialogues and many repetitions. The show also only rarely cares to show its characters motivations. They just act because they plot needs them to act in a certain way.

If the prospect of a shallow pulp fantasy show with the flair of the old cheesy sword&sorcery series of the 1990s and early 2000s the Witcher might be exactly your kind of thing. Or maybe you only want the characters from the games be part in a series? Have fun watching it, it won't do you any harm. Anybody looking for a deep and nuanced show that builds upon everything that happend in the genre in the past 10 years or a show that transports the core elements of its source material should maybe skip and watch something else - or just (re-)read Andrzej Sapkowski's fantastic novels.… Expand

3 of 4 users found this helpful31

PS4_PC_LIFE

Dec 25, 2019

what an atrocity, they bastardized such a great series, how much did they offer to the author to let this kind of **** slide, the guy has no pride in his work to just let ****flix destroy it. the only saving grace is Cavill, and even then he alone can not save this steaming pile. 0/0.

3 of 13 users found this helpful310

SEE ALL 949 REVIEWS

Seasons & Episodes

53

Series Overview
Season 2

tbd
- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: December 17, 2021
Season 1

53
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: December 20, 2019
- 5.8
  S1:E8. Much More
  Air Date: December 20, 2019
- 6.1
  S1:E7. Before A Fall
  Air Date: December 20, 2019
- 5.9
  S1:E6. Rare Species
  Air Date: December 20, 2019
- 6.3
  S1:E5. Bottled Appetites
  Air Date: December 20, 2019
- 6.5
  S1:E4. Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials
  Air Date: December 20, 2019
- 6.3
  S1:E3. Betrayer Moon
  Air Date: December 20, 2019
- 6.3
  S1:E2. Four Marks
  Air Date: December 20, 2019
- 6.5
  S1:E1. The End's Beginning
  Air Date: December 20, 2019