The Witcher (Netflix Series)

[HannibalExMachina]

Considering the multiple timelines was the main issue for most people, that wont be there from season 2 onwards. With an increased budget and less cgi heavy monsters (such as a dragon), and with a new costume designer, its bound to become better. What matters is that the actors all delivered, if they had not the series would be seriously handicapped indeed. Btw, on Rotten Tomatoes the Witcher has become fresh for critics as well.

On the success of the Witcher, the series has beaten the most successful netflix show ever, Stranger Things, on 90% of the countries, by quite a large margin. Most importantly, it has beaten it on most markets where netflix still has a good margin to grow (unlike, say, the US). And there are reports that the demand for the Witcher has been the highest of any shows released past year, beating Mandalorian and Stranger Things.

So nah, we'll be getting the 7 seasons Lauren wants to make

beating baby yoda is no mean feat. even werner herzog LOVES baby yoda.

what i find kinda funny is how snooty fans reflect the opinions of some of the highbrow critics they so despise, makes you think.

[Wulfburk]

Well, i never said i despise critics, so im not sure thats a dig at me.

Regardless, apparently the whole critics agenda as (suppposedly) seen on the recent star wars film reviews isnt active on the witcher reviews as they gave it average rating You'd think the witcher is a dream come true for feminist critics and the like. No mary sues here though. With even cases of the stubborness of "feminist" characters (such as calanthe) leading to unwanted and drastic consequences for her and her close ones. Very much unlike, say, the pink haired admiral in last jedi. Maybe its that eh?

[HannibalExMachina]

nope, not at you.

i have seen at least one review though were the reviewers DESPISED having to watch it, to the point where they straight out said they didnt watch it in its entirety, so thats a thing. but i guess critics will still be shills, they didnt LOVE rise of skywalker after all.

im pretty sure anti-feminists will always find something to gripe, remember holdo was a bad dumdum for not telling her plans to the male character, and killing herself and the ship. so, drastic and not entirely positive consequences, that not something they can let FEMALES get away with.

and from what ive seen, some fans really disliked yennefer even in the games, for the ususal reasons, so i wouldnt hold my breath.

[Sar1n]

im pretty sure anti-feminists will always find something to gripe, remember holdo was a bad dumdum for not telling her plans to the male character, and killing herself and the ship. so, drastic and not entirely positive consequences, that not something they can let FEMALES get away with.

Speaking of that, what was jarring for me was the actual deviation from books that gave rather anti-feminist vibe. In books, sorceresses halted their aging and changed their appearance by using magic on themselves gradually during the course of their education, but high exposure to magic made most of them sterile. In show, the change was realized by having their ovaries ripped out by a guy in a magic ritual. To me, it kinda gave vibes of female helplessness...and made me really wonder why, because it also causes some continuity problems and the book explanation could have been achieved easier and quicker than this.

Plus, what about mages? Were their testicles ripped off?

[Love Mountain]

Said growth came from a price hike this year. The increase in US-subscribers has petered out this year, and it is unlikely it will grow much given the increased competition. So for Netflix, the room for additional income increases really lies within their ability to further hike the price. Which is only possible within limits. At the same time, they cannot and will not stop churning out series, given that the competition will do the same. There is only one area where Netflix does gain, and it's mostly in Europe. It is one of the more positive increases, as Disney, HBO & Co. to my knowledge are not producing (many) foreign language films. Netflix has started doing so massively out of nowhere.

Netflix price increase came at the start of 2019. Netflix has been growing its revenue 30% YoY for years at this point. Netflix has not yet exhausted all sources of revenue growth, nor do I believe that have identified all of them.

Content strategy is not static. Just because Netflix needs to produce more content, does not mean that their spending will inevitably go up on a per capita basis. It is entirely possible that Netflix content spending will becomes a lot more efficient. Especially since we don't know how much money Netflix is paying to retain existing content, rather than new content. As Netflix's IP portfolio grows, so will their ability to cut current costs and to find other ways to monetize their IP. I will agree with you on one thing, I don't know where Netflix is going. I don't know what their "endgame" is and their strategy is inherently risky. But... this type of debt leveraging for growth is what everybody learns in business 101. It's not unexplored ground and I will refrain from passing judgement as somebody who's not an expert of the industry.

I'd advise everyone to do the same, though it is fun to have these discussions. I definitely wouldn't make strong predictions or bet a lot of money on it though, not when literally anybody with a pulse could start a Seeking Alpha blog entry with a title "Netflix is a sinking ship, it's debt is toxic."

I didn't state that Netflix doesn't have good shows, and that it didn't make good shows. What I stated is that as far as I can see they plan to fight their competition with quantity, not quality. It's a subjective impression, not an objective statement, as I barely use Netflix and none of the competition at all. But what I noticed is that in 2019, Witcher was really the only new addition that stood somewhat out (even though we both agree its mediocre), whereas HBO & Co. have brought out multiple new series I keep hearing people talking about. So even though my filter bias should be strongly in favour of Netflix, for some reason the impression is not in their favour. Compare that to previous years, where the balance is very different. Those old series do decay faster at Netflix than elsewhere though. After 2 seasons it's usually unwatchable for me. Obviously not everything is bad, as pointed out regarding the increased spending in foreign language films, but in spite of that massively increased spending this year and when we limit ourselves to the English speaking shows, has mostly been a dud. And again the strict budget in Witcher was all too painfully obvious.

I guess, but I'm also a bad person to ask tbh. I mostly watch stuff like Parks & Rec, The Office, etc. I'm not really a mainstream TV Show person. What I will say though, is that Netflix is remarkably resilient. Part of this is that the "Streaming Wars" never underline that a lot of streaming competitors are quite complementary, rather than substitutes. I have Amazon Prime and Netflix, while I certainly have conversations about which one to cancel, the unspoken truth is it's always preferable to have both. I think that's the kind of the issue with HBO Now, Disney +, etc. Imo, Netflix is seen as a "core" streaming platform, while others are "optional". Especially because a lot of Disney+ content is films and animation, which I'd rather own the Blu-Ray to, or pirate.

Speaking of that, what was jarring for me was the actual deviation from books that gave rather anti-feminist vibe. In books, sorceresses halted their aging and changed their appearance by using magic on themselves gradually during the course of their education, but high exposure to magic made most of them sterile. In show, the change was realized by having their ovaries ripped out by a guy in a magic ritual. To me, it kinda gave vibes of female helplessness...and made me really wonder why, because it also causes some continuity problems and the book explanation could have been achieved easier and quicker than this.

Plus, what about mages? Were their testicles ripped off?

Everybody knows that men don't need to be hot. I mean come on, male genitals are not attractive in any sort of objective way yet women still worship them.

[Cookiegod]

I mean of course it's not static. And I know how debt leveraging works, but that only goes well as long as the profits stay high and the interest payments put Netflix at a major financial disadvantage compared to Disney & Amazon, which have bottomless coffers of cash and, in the case of Disney and HBO, have their own high profile IP's and do not have to pay licenses to keep that of others.

As to programming, the change is rather obvious, isn't it? And again, the increase in foreign language series I am very happy about. Even though the plots are always the same, I can still delude myself into thinking its something new and fresh. And if it's in French I can pretend I'm not wasting my time, I'm "learning". But in terms of new series I felt 2019 was quite the nothingburger compared to previous years.

[Knight of Heaven]

Hum while i enjoyed this first season, i got to say this isn't a very good adaptation, and the show has some problems. I think going from here out will be more difficult, given the story isn't as good as it was in the short stories.

Some things they changed they didn't needed to change for example how sorceress stop being fertile. Was that to be a metaphor for something? a man taking her uterus literally? It also messes the lore a bit, how do you explain Male sorcerers being sterile as well? Do they take their testicles? It was just an unnecessary thing.

if i recall Book and game they were sterile because of the use of magic, nothing more. Also im not sure i like how they handled Yenefer and her motivations to be honest. In one moment she gets what she wants, right in the other she wants to have a baby. This character development It seems contrived to me in the show. And the dryads story line? omg what a pointless plot line, they handled very poorly that story.

At any case Geralt and Jaskier were the wins for the show at least for me. Very good chemistry together. There were times i was just begging the show to go back to their point of view.

[Roma_Victrix]

I thought the show was okay, although some of the CGI monsters/creatures are incredibly corny and cringey looking, like that goat guy who worked for the elves. I know Renfri is supposed to die and everything, but it seems like a waste of the lovely Emma Appleton's acting talents to kill her off in the first episode. The show had some good elements and chemistry between some characters as Knight of Heaven hints above. I guess it's worth watching once but for me personally I don't think I'd watch it again. I would be willing to binge a second season when it comes out, though.

[Knight of Heaven]

I thought the show was okay, although some of the CGI monsters/creatures are incredibly corny and cringey looking, like that goat guy who worked for the elves

In the witcher 3 sylvans look like this

[NorthernXY]

Almost two episodes in and so far it's The Princess Bride with a bluer tint and dramatic music. The world does not feel lived in and like the books, Geralt is the only good part. There are no stakes.

So sorceresses go to a knock off Hogwarts, where they literally enslave each other if they can to increase their own power? Kill Yennefer, kill her with fire! She's the villain as far as I'm concerned. Geralt needs to break in, kill all non-slug beings, and try to reverse the spells if he can, but if not at least put them out of their suffering.

Triss is suppose to be one of the more attractive sorceress, impressive because she is allergic to magic so unlike other sorceress, she's always been attractive. Also, a red head... and should have been slavic...

Why are there random black people? ASoIaF has a token black [king] in Kings Landing, but it's a pretty good token reason.

Third episode 34:00, that back lighting? Is this Xena? I'm assuming the same person gave the thumbs up on the Nilfgardian armor.

38:00 I'm out, I started having flashes of Monique playing Cinderella. I'll go find the Geralt and Jaskier/Dandelion supercut. SJWs can only destroy.

[gastovski]

what a adaptation this was, just as i expected.

[Timoleon of Korinthos]

I barely managed to soldier on through the first episode, what an overhyped piece of crap is this series, I should have expected that nothing decent can come from a video game adaptation, much more so for those who are not familiar with the game in the first place.

[Sar1n]

...video game adaptation, much more so for those who are not familiar with the game in the first place.

Not sure if serious, or trying to troll.

[Timoleon of Korinthos]

Why would I be trolling? I haven't played any of the Witcher games, so for me merely seeing the universe and the characters coming alive in a tv-series doesn't cut it.

[Wulfburk]

Its not a video game adaptation. Its based on a book series written in the 90s.

[Sir Adrian]

I am absolutely surprised at the quality of Henry Cavill's acting, it's like he was born to play Geralt. Too bad the other actors range from mediocre (Yennefer) to bad (Triss) to Tommy Wiseau school of acting (Fringila)

I barely managed to soldier on through the first episode, what an overhyped piece of crap is this series, I should have expected that nothing decent can come from a video game adaptation, much more so for those who are not familiar with the game in the first place.

It's a book adaptation, and a very loose one at that.

[Timoleon of Korinthos]

Okay, obviously I did not know that!

[Knight of Heaven]

Okay, obviously I did not know that!

Very little to do with the games. Maybe a nod or two. It is mostly based on the short stories, and the witcher novels. And it isnt a good adaptation to be honest.
Besides some cool and funny moments, here and there.

[Wulfburk]

Soundtrack is out on spotify and elsewhere, btw
https://open.spotify.com/album/5tdmy...QHydjnwGJpH6sQ

[Roma_Victrix]

Season 2 trailer just dropped the other day. New season airs in December 2021. It looks interesting, probably not any better than the first season, which was a mixed bag and overall a mediocre series. I'd watch it, though, since it's just on Netflix. Not like I'm paying for it on Amazon. If they charged additional for it I wouldn't bother, but it should be free mindless entertainment that will fill the void for my wintertime TV cravings.