As a standalone show with some rocky scenes, fun characters and decent folk tales I give it a 9/10 but it's not a pure adaptation of the books by any means.
STORY Everything that's straight from the books is perfect so far (most Geralt scenes). Unfortunately because they tried to adapt two books of short stories into a cohesive season of TV they changed a lot with no real benefit. I believe a one for one adaptation would have made the constant time jumping less confusing, and even though we'd only be focusing on Geralt I don't think the latter seasons would have suffered. The few plot points they've majorly changed for no apparent reason will only hurt the story down the line, as they miss the core morals and messages those storylines originally portrayed.
CHARACTERS Overall the performances are very good. Certain characters (Triss & Vilgefortz) haven't been portrayed well this season. Cavill is a near perfect Geralt and the actresses for Yen and Ciri are fantastic. Jaskier has been cast well and while his ballads have been modernized they are perhaps better. The direction of many of the characters can be slightly askew to the books, with different or unclear motivations and personality traits. Writing and dialogue in scenes not pulled directly from the books can range from odd to downright bad.
WORLD They've largely ignored the world building that the books are famous for. Continental geography and politics, the history of the world (both human and magic) have only really been mentioned enough to confuse casual viewers with sporadic name drops. I feel the groundwork hasn't been laid for the politics of the main storyline.
VISUALS It really is a good looking show. There have been a few bad looking CGI fights and locations, and many locations have an unrealistic, sterile and very dreamy aesthetic. When you're telling folk tales this isn't necessarily a bad thing, and the scope of the worlds both large and small they show make up for the blunders of CGI.
STORY Everything that's straight from the books is perfect so far (most Geralt scenes). Unfortunately because they tried to adapt two books of short stories into a cohesive season of TV they changed a lot with no real benefit. I believe a one for one adaptation would have made the constant time jumping less confusing, and even though we'd only be focusing on Geralt I don't think the latter seasons would have suffered. The few plot points they've majorly changed for no apparent reason will only hurt the story down the line, as they miss the core morals and messages those storylines originally portrayed.
CHARACTERS Overall the performances are very good. Certain characters (Triss & Vilgefortz) haven't been portrayed well this season. Cavill is a near perfect Geralt and the actresses for Yen and Ciri are fantastic. Jaskier has been cast well and while his ballads have been modernized they are perhaps better. The direction of many of the characters can be slightly askew to the books, with different or unclear motivations and personality traits. Writing and dialogue in scenes not pulled directly from the books can range from odd to downright bad.
WORLD They've largely ignored the world building that the books are famous for. Continental geography and politics, the history of the world (both human and magic) have only really been mentioned enough to confuse casual viewers with sporadic name drops. I feel the groundwork hasn't been laid for the politics of the main storyline.
VISUALS It really is a good looking show. There have been a few bad looking CGI fights and locations, and many locations have an unrealistic, sterile and very dreamy aesthetic. When you're telling folk tales this isn't necessarily a bad thing, and the scope of the worlds both large and small they show make up for the blunders of CGI.
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