O' Valley of Plenty
O' Valley of Plenty, oh
Toss a coin to your Witcher
A friend of humanity
Like everyone who has seen The Witcher, I had this tune stuck on my head for days. It’s a fantastic, catchy song, and will surely be iconic for years to come. But for the 8-episode debut season of this new Netflix show – which was released late in December 2019 (but which I only got to watch last month) – it’s definitely just the icing on the cake.
I first became aware of The Witcher as a property through the video game series. I’ve never played it, but it was so popular in the pop culture circles I frequent in the Internet that I came to know it by reputation. So when a TV series was announced, I thought at first that it was an adaptation of the video games. But apparently, the original source material is a series of novels and short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. So, this TV series is basically an adaptation of that literary series, not the video games.
This fantasy drama series follows the adventures of Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), the eponymous witcher. Witchers, by the way, are monster hunters who had been mutated and trained for such vocation when they were still young. For an agreed sum of payment, they can be hired to slay whatever deadly creatures are presently causing carnage and fear. At the same time, despite their invaluable service, they are also scorned as outcasts by society. However, due to the spread of the exaggerated songs that his friend Jaskier (Joey Batey) composed – which include the song mentioned at the start of this article, “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” – Geralt becomes the most well-renowned witcher across the lands.
Other than Geralt’s, there are also two other major storylines to follow – that of Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), an extremely talented and attractive quarter-elf sorceress; and Cirillia (Freya Allan), the crown princess of the fallen kingdom of Cintra who is bounded to Geralt by destiny. Geralt would eventually cross paths with both during the course of the series.
As someone who has neither played the games nor read the books, I found the TV show to be a lot of fun. It isn’t entirely flawless. The plot can get a bit hokey. And while it looks generally gorgeous, it has parts where the production value doesn’t quite match its ambitions. Nevertheless, it has effectively set an immersive fantasy story to delve in. It does a superb job in making its characters, storytelling, lore, and worldbuilding highly interesting – which is important in a high concept genre like fantasy.
Moreover, the actors had really put their heart into making their characters fully realized and engaging. Henry Cavill, in particular, seems to be relishing his role as Geralt more than he ever did with Superman.
Another notable thing that I love about the first season is how it plays with the timelines. It pulls off a Westworld or Dunkirk twist, in which the narrative is actually jumping between time periods all along. This is not instantly obvious. Considering that some of the characters have long lifespans and don’t age, the audience can’t immediately discern that things are happening within the span of decades. On top of that, again, I didn’t really know anything substantial about this property going in. Thus, when it was revealed that the events being shown were not necessarily occurring in chronological order, I was actually blown away.
The Witcher is not something that would fill the fantasy TV hole that Game of Thrones left. And it doesn’t make any pretensions that it intends to do so. It knows that it doesn’t need to be too profoundly cerebral and complex to be successful, thrilling, clever, and worthwhile on its own. Hence, it’s just there to be a very entertaining show. And despite some noticeable flaws, it remains an absorbing and stimulating watch from start to finish.
In fact, if I had seen The Witcher before I made my “top 10 TV series of 2019” list, I would have given it a spot there.
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