The Witcher Review TV Series – Mature Audiences Action, Adventure, Drama 1h (2019 -) About the only thing I knew about The Witcher was that there was a video game of the same name. In this, I’m probably exactly like a vast majority of people who will see this title on their Netflix home pages. And I’m not sorry about that. Without knowing anything about the original source material – both the books by Andrzej Sapkowski and the video games – I was able to watch the series with a fairly open mind, unburdened by the expectations of fandom. And what I watched certainly entertained the heck out of me. The Witcher tells the story of Geralt of Rivia, a white-haired mutant who hunts monsters for a living. Early on, it is established that Witchers are 1) magically created, with some mutation or other that makes them particularly good and durable fighters; that 2) there are very few of them left; and that 3) they’re not particularly well-loved by ordinary people. Geralt, in particular, has a reputation for being very good at what he does; so good, in fact, that he earns the nickname “the Butcher,” alongside the more dramatic sobriquet “the White Wolf.” Interlaced with the narrative of Geralt is the broader story of a predatory kingdom, bent on conquering the world – referred to as the Continent – set against a backdrop of magic and the obligatory dispossessed young and still-not-quite-powerful-but-getting-there heir. The over-arching story of the Witcher is hardly original. Where it shines is in the telling. The key to understanding the series is in realizing early on that the story is told along two tracks, one starting a great number of years before the other, but eventually both rushing towards a merging of timelines, as the series draws to a close. The timeline that starts earlier follows Geralt, while the other chronicles the plight of Princess Cirila – the aforementioned dispossessed heir. The series doesn’t do us any favors by adding timestamps and, in the beginning, it can get quite confusing. But as soon as you realize how the story is being told, it can get quite entertaining to ‘discover’ how elements from one timeline – like characters and plot points – relate to the other, making the whole viewing experience feel like a hunt for easter eggs. Comparisons have inevitably been made to the Lord of the Rings and the Game of Thrones, but the Witcher is neither. Where LOTR is a soaring adventure with very little violence outside of war, the Witcher gets really gritty and murder-y, and it isn’t quite as horny as GOT, altho there is a lot of gratuitous nudity. Like both those forerunners, however, the Witcher is heavy with exposition and, let’s be honest, goes a little crazy with often context-free proper nouns. Rating Story: 4/5 – Not too original, but told well Quality: 5/5 – Slick and well-produced Bingeability: 5/5 – Easter-eggy