Summary: Geralt takes Ciri to Kaer Morhen where she trains to become stronger. Yennefer has lost her powers and is captured by Fringilla. They are both captured by the elves, led by Francesca, and the three of them encounter a witch who offers them a deal. Francesca and Fringilla work together and Fringilla offers Cintra to the elves. Yennefer returns to Aretuza having lost her power but she isn't trusted so she escapes with prisoner Cahir. Cahir returns to Cintra while Yennefer saves Jaskier in Redania from Rience who is after Ciri. Geralt learns that Ciri is likely responsible for bringign new monsters into the world and he investigates a toppled monolith with Istredd. Geralt returns to Ciri and takes her to Melitele's Temple where he finds Yennefer. Yennefer makes a connection with Ciri and portals away with her when Rience attacks. Geralt fights them off and tracks down Ciri. Yennefer is tempted to sacrifice Ciri to the witch to get her powers back but is unable to do it. The witch is revealed to be Voleth Meir, a monster, and she is freed and possesses Ciri. Voleth Meir tries to kill the witchers but they fight back and Geralt and Yennefer are able to free Ciri. Fringilla and Francesca continue their alliance until Francesca's baby is suddenly killed. The elves seek vengeance by attacking Redania. The mages inform the kings about Ciri and they decide to go after her. Emhyr arrives in Cintra and is revealed to be Ciri's father Duny.
The Good: Geralt and Ciri's relationship was the core of this season and I thought that it was really well done. Henry Cavill is still the best part about this show and I completely bought into his passion to protect Ciri and act as a father figure for her. Meanwhile Ciri's respect for Geralt is completely understandable as he is the only one still alive that cares and protects for her. Both characters genuinely care for each other and the reasons are plain to see. I became more and more emotionally invested in this pairing as the season went on. The world building was much better than in season 1. Season 1 was rushed and convoluted, and I never felt the world of "The Witcher" pop out and grip me in the way that places like Westeros and Middle Earth have done in "Game of Thrones" and "Lord of the Rings" respectively. Thankfully, season 2 has addressed this and there has been far more world-building to make this world feel more real. World-building is a must in the fantasy genre, and I'm glad that more time was dedicated to it. Redania, Kaer Morhen, Cintra, Aretuza, Melitele's Temple, and all of the other various locations felt more fleshed out and recognizable, and I am more well-versed with the norms of this world and the people within it. There was also a lot more history and lore revealed to us in this season, which I always welcome. This season had great production value. It looks far better than season 1, and a big reason for the improved world-building comes from the improved set design and the increased amount of epic sweeping "Lord of the Rings" style establishing shots. I think that the season also nailed its dream sequences. There were several of these and they were all creepy, suspenseful and mysterious. Sure they were sometimes frustrating, but there's no denying that the production of these sequences added so much to scenes that could have been flat had they been directed in a static, predictable way. The storylines earlier in the season were fun and engaging to watch even if they did not lead to a satisfying pay-off. Yennefer losing her powers was an intriguing development, and while it didn't get explored to the extent that it could have, I enjoyed seeing Yennefer contend with not having her powers, forcing her to be resourceful and feel frustration at having now become just a normal person once again. Ciri's training is a joy to watch and her grit and determination is admirable, making you root for the character. And she is not simply perfect. She struggles and fails throughout the season, and her abilities and resolve are tested in every challenge she faces. It was great to see her slowly win over the respect of Geralt, Yennefer, and all of the witchers. Jaskier's return was welcome, and we had some nice moments when he first came back. The one storyline I really want to single out is actually Geralt and Ciri's visit to Nivellen's place in the first episode, "A Grain of Truth". This was quite easily the best episode of the season because of this stand-alone story. This isn't a plot-heavy episode but it explores the relationship between Geralt and Ciri really nicely, and both characters shine with the spotlight firmly on them. Then you add on Nivellen who is a fascinating grey character that allows "The Witcher" to explore some surprisingly thought-provoking and mature themes which I did not expect from the show at all. The ambiguity of Nivellen's past is a joy to uncover, and to learn of the awful things that this sweet man has allowed to happen under his watch is a real gut-punch. Plus there is a compelling mystery surrounding the bruxa, who is brought to life with so many terrifying ticks and movements, making it the show's best and most memorable monster so far. The Bad: Most of what I liked about this season came in the first half of the season, and that is because the final few episodes completely bungled all of the set-up and storytelling. I've read that "Blood of Elves", the book that this season is based on, is a slower paced, character-driven story with little action. And that slow paced storytelling is what we needed to invest in the characters and world during this season. But evidently, the creators thought that people wouldn't care for a season without much action, so the end of the season sees Voleth Meir forcefully inserted into this narrative, distracting from the story and characters to include some empty "dramatic" action sequences to prevent the casual audience from being bored. We spent so much time building these characters and their relationships, but Voleth Meir makes much of this a moot point by stealing the spotlight from the emotional narrative in the final two episodes. This gives the end of season 2 a really unsatisfying feeling because we didn't see the character arcs completed with the level of emotion we needed. It also doesn't help that the writing in these last two episodes was pretty terrible, and you can find more specifics in my episode-by-episode reviews. Also contributing to the lack of a satisfying emotional conclusion to the season is how rushed the season felt. The story moved forward too rapidly and there were far too many storylines shoved into this 8 episode run. An extra 2-3 episodes would have helped this season a lot by giving these storylines time to breathe. As the show is right now, so many of the side stories uninterest me because they weren't given time to develop and hook me in. I don't care about Rience because I hardly know him, the kings haven't received enough screentime for me to care, Francesca was never given enough time to grow into a complete character, Yennefer's relationship with Ciri did not get adequate time to grow and make me buy into it, etc. All of these are examples of storylines that fell flat because they were squeezed into an overstuffed season and not given the time to make me care. I was only really interested in the Geralt/Ciri stuff, and that didn't even get very much screentime because so much time was spent on these various other poorly realized characters and their rushed storylines. The fact that the season feels so rushed makes Voleth Meir's inclusion even more questionable. How much important story build-up and character development was cut to include this unnecessary, boring villain? This season doesn't do a whole lot of things badly, but these two main points are devastating to the overall quality of the story, leaving me feeling extremely disappointed with this season because we should have gotten a far better story. Another criticism I have is on the decision to release all eight episodes at once, encouraging people to binge the show thoughtlessly. For shows like "Stranger Things" which is very simple and easy to watch, this works well. But for a complex and lore-heavy show like "The Witcher", this decision to encourage binging is perplexing. For a fantasy narrative, you need to have time between episodes to ponder the story and the world, letting the new concepts we learn sink in. But when the show is binged, it encourages the viewer to ignore all of the world-building, themes, and deeper storytelling, and to simply watch the show for its action and fun, only appreciating the deeper elements of the show on a surface level. I do not agree with this approach at all, and I firmly believe that releasing episodes of this show weekly is a far better approach than to drop the entire season at once. This show is based on a fantasy book series. And you never read fantasy books in a single day, it's always bit by bit over time so that it doesn't feel overwhelming. Releasing the entire season at once is a big way that this show fails to capture the feeling of its source material. Best Episodes: E01 A Grain of Truth: This stand-alone experience ended up being the best episode of the season. An intriguing and mysterious story about a man that grapples with themes of morality and what makes people into monsters. The best content we have got from "The Witcher" so far. E04 Redanian Intelligence: The set up done in this episode is good and exciting to follow and it feels like the season is building up to something exciting. Yennefer, Geralt, and Ciri continue to develop well, while we also get a good mini-arc of two elves who meet their end in this episode. Worst Episodes: E07 Voleth Meir: An episode that feels rushed and uninspired, ending with a woeful action sequence that is forced, poorly written, and entirely unsatisfying. E08 Family: A season finale that focuses too much on monster fighting and too little on making us care about what is going on. This was a dull, flat experience. Character of the Season: Ciri. Freya Allan puts in a great performance this season and she has much more to work with this time. Conclusion: Going into this season, I had expectations that the show would learn and improve from season 1, which was tonally awkward, confusing, and filled with sloppy dialogue, writing, and acting. Season 2 corrected these flaws, and early on it looked like it was building up to something great. Characters were developing, storylines were getting introduced, and I was getting more invested in the narrative with each passing episode. But the ending of this season flopped. The last two episodes introduced a random new villain and abandoned much of what made the first six episodes interesting, leaving us with a poorly written and unsatisfying mess to end what should have been a triumphant season that pushed the narrative of "The Witcher" forwards in interesting ways. Instead what we got was a villain forcibly inserted in the story, a lack of satisfying character arcs, and yet again, the feeling that this season's entire purpose was to set up the next one. Even though this corrected the flaws from season 1, new cracks emerged that led to this season feeling just as flawed as the first, even if I did enjoy it a bit more overall. I'll once again be going into season 3 with the expectation that "The Witcher" will improve and learn from its mistakes, but this time I will be more skeptical. The source material is solid, it just needs to be put to the screen in a compelling way. And after two seasons, "The Witcher" still hasn't found out how to do that.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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