The Witcher season 2 review: More like Thrones, in a good way

Where? The Witcher arrived on Netflix in 2019, it was received by some as an early contender for the title of “next Game of Thrones” If that translates to “expensive adult fantasy show with prestige TV ambitions,” it’s a field that’s quickly getting crowded. There’s this fall’s The Wheel of Time, which will be joined next fall by a Lord of the Rings series on Amazon, in addition to HBO’s proper follow-up to Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon. This is the irony of it all: how poor The Witcher That’s what you get; a show that is just as passionate about pulp Xena, Warrior PrincessIt is episodic in the same way as episodic adventures of the past, but with more world building and moral politicking. This was great! Game of ThronesAlthough it was sometimes quite impressive, it wasn’t a great experience. Have fun ride, and it never gave us the hit single “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher.”

So it’s a little bit of a disappointment that The Witcher’s second season builds out a more intricate and serialized story in the Game of Thrones mold. While this is partly a reflection of the source material — Andrezj Sapkowski’s Witcher fiction begins with short story collections that eventually give way to a five-novel epic — it’s also a significant retooling of the show’s structure.

These are the basic principles. The basics are simple enough. Ciri, as she’s called, is still motivated by grief and rage stemming from the events of the first season, where the invading empire of Nilfgaard laid siege to her home, the Kingdom of Cintra, killing her family and nearly capturing her. Ciri feels the need to exact her revenge. To do so, she is a Witcher.

Photo by Jay Maidment/Netflix

The world is shaking, both literally and metaphorically. Monolith structures cause natural disasters that introduce new monsters to The Continent. The Northern Kingdoms have to deal with Nilfgaard, and turmoil within the Kingdoms that mostly manifests in fantasy racism towards Elves. This could lead to a violent uprising. Remember that the Witcher world is racist toward elves. I didn’t. The world is a wonderful place. The Witcher expands, it attempts to develop a meatier texture that isn’t always elegant.

Season 2 is a lot of carefully planned plot bricklaying. This highlights the fact that so little of what was covered in season 1 has been explained. Although The Witcher’s writers made the initially confounding decision to have that first batch of episodes unfold nonlinearly across three timelines, the plot threads were relatively free of knots when laid out in order. In retrospect, it was a good way to blend a serial story about the origin of the sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) of Vengerberg (the earliest timeline), episodic adventure stories following Geralt (the middle timeline) and meaty world building (the “present” timeline following Ciri). Season 2 is a continuation of the main story, but this time it does so in chronological order.

It is the result. WitcherThis series is slightly more traditional and slightly less unusual. In the first six episodes made available to critics, the monster-of-the-episode morality tales are largely gone (with one wonderful early exception) in favor of fantasy sprawl. Questions that were answered by implication in the previous season are answered more explicitly — namely, what Witchers are, how they’re made, and are there any more — and while these answers are crucial to the plot, there is something lost when a fantasy show stops to explain most of its rules instead of simply showing its strange world at work.

Photo by Jay Maidment/Netflix

Yet The WitcherIt is still enjoyable to watch, even with these significant shifts. This is largely due to its charm. It is filled with humor, just like the series’ world. It playfully reworks fairy tale tropes — for example, what binds Geralt to his love interest Yennefer is effectively a wish he made to a genie — as it actively interrogates them. Old premises are questioned with modern concerns; who possesses power or agency and who does not are just as vital to a Witcher story as is the question of how to kill “a Leshen.”

This thoughtful, playful approach is extended to the performances. The Witcher. Star Henry Cavil is completely absorbed into Geralt, the role of Geralt. His gruff mannerisms are well hidden and still present. He walks in leather armor through the forest with a weary but assured look. Jaskier (Joey Batey), Yennefer, and Jaskier The Bard (Yennefer) are both characters that weave into the plot with serious stakes. Yet their personalities and lives are full of richness so spending time with them is never dull. Even if they are not, it is still a great story. The Witcher spends a hefty amount of time on palace intrigue, it’s still a show where vampires and grumpkins Could show up at any moment, and that’ll never get old.

Perhaps the issue is math. It isn’t a lot of time for fantasy worlds, and eight episodes doesn’t allow you to do so. The Witcher’s creative team much room to experiment often. While season 2 deviates from the first in structure and focus, it doesn’t necessarily negate it. A third season could theoretically return to the first’s more episodic structure just as easily as it could lean into the serialized elements. In the long run, there’s a powerful versatility in knowing that — something that many other shows in the streaming era could also learn from.

Photo by Jay Maidment/Netflix

It’s not hard to recommend The Witcher to others, even non-fantasy fans, because at its heart, the show isn’t about lore or world-building or even the trappings of genre fiction that fuels Reddit threads and social media speculation. It’s simply a story about monsters. More specifically, it’s a story about understanding monsters: How they’re made, how to find them, and how to put an end to them. As with many stories about monsters. The Witcher isn’t above trotting out the old saw about how so-called normal folk can be more monstrous than any creature with fangs or tusks. You are where The Witcher differs, however, is in the writers’ interest in the conditions that produce what’s monstrous. There’s bigotry and greed, of course, but there’s also control: The desire to exert your will over the fate of others, to limit the possibilities they see for themselves, to demand that the world only be one way. It’s worth noting that these are things that only increase as one obtains more power.

The story can be told in many different ways. Its first season was a success. The WitcherWith its single-and-done monster tales and ironic twist endings, was able to accomplish the former fairly well. The second season has been completed. The Witcher takes its time, but it’s currently unclear if it has any grander insight to offer in exchange for its wider scope — and it might take more than the final two episodes of this season to find out. The show is still gaining a lot of respect in a short period. Even if it can’t see the destination anymore, this shows that the audience has embraced the idea. The WitcherIt still feels like an incredible adventure.

Netflix will premiere The Witcher 2 season 1 on Friday, Dec. 17th