by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer
One of Netflix’s most anticipated projects has arrived, just in time for an early Christmas present.
The Witcher is back for Season Two, as is Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia. Picking up from Season One, Geralt and Ciri (Freya Allan) are trying to negotiate what their shared destinies mean, while avoiding those in pursuit, returning to the home of the witchers (the keep of Kaer Mohren). Meanwhile, Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) must contend with the consequences of battle, all while the various players maneuver themselves to get the upper hand in the conflict hanging over everything.
As someone whose only previous experience with this franchise prior to Season One was watching friends play a bit of the third game, I was one of the people for whom it took a few episodes for the first season to click (which is joked about in Season Two). Going into this second season, with the promise of a more streamlined story, I was ready to be full on in love with it from jump. The first episode is a great setup with a sort of monster of the week that had me all in, but as the first few episodes were playing out, I oddly found myself in the same position I was in for the first season. I was enjoying myself, but it wasn’t up on another level.
Ironically, it’s once again in episode four for me where everything takes off and really locks in. That leads me to my first performance point. I love all these characters, but I think Season Two might have made the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey) my favorite character, and I’m not sure how to feel about it. It’s undeniable, however, how much he adds to the season when he’s back interacting with our various characters. It doesn’t matter who he’s paired with — he elevates everyone. The other standout for me in this season is Ciri. Don’t get me wrong, I love both Cavill as Geralt and Chalotra as Yennefer, and the new witchers we get to meet are fun, but there’s so much development that goes on with Ciri that I really enjoyed. In the first season, Ciri is on the run and we just get hints of her powers. In Season Two, there’s a deeper exploration of the character and she gets to come into her own as she tries to comes to grips with her power and gain her own agency. Maybe it’s that I saw some similarities with her story line and that of Arya Stark in Game of Thrones (my favorite character from that show) that I connected with the arc so much. Her interactions with other characters, and not only Geralt, also help add great depth to their characters. Her interacting with the other witchers at Kaer Mohren was a fun relationship to watch develop.
Visually, as with the first season, there are some pretty kick-ass fight scenes. There’s nothing of the scale of a couple of the battles that we got in the first season, but what is there has the same dynamic feel that I loved about the first season. The magic effects worked slightly better, but that could be just my memory playing tricks on me. It felt like the creature effects, though again solid for the most part in the first season, were a little more refined. There are still some CGI hiccups in some of the establishing shots, but other than that, it doesn’t really take you out of the watch. Those moments are thankfully few and far between. The biggest visual issue is that the show can be a little dark at times, and I don’t mean because of the creepy monsters. I have my TV on the brightest setting, and unless it was cloudy or dark, some scenes could be basically impossible to see if competing with a glare. So keep that in mind as you sit down to watch.
When it comes to the political machinations of the world, it’s a tricky web the show weaves with all the different players — mages, Nilfgaard, elves, and a new player Redania. It’s a delicate balance that’s done well for the most part — though certain shifts do feel rushed because a lot happens in just eight hours. Having had the first season to get myself oriented, I had a better sense of who the players were and what their goals were in the second. If there were a couple slight negatives, I wasn’t as captured by the elven plot line and the show jumps around between storylines a little quickly for me at points. Occasionally, I would have liked to spend more time in certain places before traveling elsewhere or the point at which the show left a certain place was a slightly awkward one.
All told, what you end up with is a worthy advancement of the story laid out in the first season and the second. Like with the first, the opening hooked me, the next couple episodes laid the groundwork, and it’s full speed ahead once episode four hits. The negatives, though there are a handful, are largely nitpicks. The fun I had with the overall experience outweighed them by a wide margin. The developments in the finale had me doing the Michael Scott “No” GIF (in a good way) and clamoring for Season Three to get here sooner than later. There’s apparently a seven-season plan for the show, and if they keep giving us seasons like this, I’m all in.
One quick note before I leave you — if you haven’t watched the animated prequel movie Netflix dropped, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, I think doing that first would be beneficial. It’s not as good as the show, but it’s good enough. It gives some extra background to some of the relationships developed in Season Two. However, I don’t think you’ll be lost without it.
Grade: B+
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