REVIEW #125 The Witcher (Season 2)

The Witcher returns for its second season on Netflix and follows Geralt and Ciri now that they have finally found each other. The pair travel to Kaer Morhan the stronghold of the Witcher’s and this is where Ciri begins to train and harness her powers. 

CAST & THE ACTING 

Henry Cavill returns as Geralt and what I really enjoyed about season 2 was we got to see a more emotional side to his character. This was only a subtle change because a Witcher will never be overly affectionate but Cavill done well to portray that protective instinct he has towards Ciri. The chemistry Cavill and Freya Allen have, flourishes in this second season, creating a father and daughter bond that provides some much needed character development for both Geralt and Ciri. Anya Chalotra also portrayed a very different version of Yennifer, she had to create a much more vulnerable version which she does well! Especially when you compare it to the first season when she was one of the most powerful characters in the series. Joey Batey continued to deliver humour and jest as Dandelion, he never seems to fumble his dialogue and that comedy lands every time so credit to him. They casted Kim Bodnia as Vesemir and I think it was the perfect casting, he embodies that role really well and his performance matched that. I think all of the cast improved in this second season and they had to because a lot of the characters displayed so much more emotion, so performances almost were in a direct contrast to how they were in season 1.

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

We definitely witnessed a heavy focus on the relationship between Geralt and Ciri and that was great, there was such a big build up to the pair meeting in season 1 so they had to follow that up with a lot of content with the two characters together. Ciri really brings out a maternal instinct in Geralt and it creates a good bond between the characters. We were finally introduced to Vesemir who is Geralts mentor and seeing him warm up to Ciri also created a lot of heartwarming scenes. The character development we see across the entire series is fantastic, I’ve mentioned the emotional development of the main characters in the previous category but even Tissaia, Yennifers mentor, has really come on heaps and bounds. Last season we saw a stern and sometimes vindictive women but we finally get to see her affection for Yennifer and their relationship is all the better for it. We’re introduced to a whole new batch of monsters which was really exciting and they linked it really well to Ciri and her powers. There were a lot of scenes with the Elven people and unfortunately those scenes did slow down the series. Those were the only moments I found myself bored in, I know those scenes are needed to build the over arching story but the pacing was slow. But overall The Witcher storyline improved in season 2, creating more excitement and increasing the stakes for their characters. Really enjoyable! 

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

Similarly to the previous season there are some fantastic visuals, The Witcher world they have brought to life provides so many opportunities to create really exciting scenes and the directors introduced some new techniques to compliment them. One scene in episode one really stands out, they had a few first person shots of soldiers in the battle of Sodden and I think that looked great! It was interesting to see the battle from a completely different perspective and the camerawork worked really well. The new monsters we saw looked fantastic and the CGI has really improved, I can only assume that they dedicated a larger budget for that in season 2. I also want to mention the Bruxa monster we see in episode one, it had taken over Vereena and the editing to make her movement as creepy as it looked was excellent. The cinematography was just as good as the effects, it is definitely some of the best cinematography I’ve seen in a Netflix original series. So another strong performance in this category.

OVERALL (8.7/10)

The Witcher season 2 has landed and they have improved even further. The acting was elevated and so was the character development which was such a strong focus for the second season. The stakes were raised for the characters and that created an even more exciting storyline that had me hooked from start to finish. It started at such a fast pace which I loved but unfortunately it did slow down towards the middle, mainly during the scenes with the elven people, those were the only scenes I got a little bored with in the end. The cinematography continues to be some of the best I’ve seen in any Netflix original project and I’m glad they improved the CGI to create new, interesting and dangerous monsters that not only Geralt but Vesemir and the rest of the Witchers could face together! If you haven’t seen season 2 yet, definitely go and watch it because the only disappointment I have is that it only had 8 episodes again! 

Thanks for reading.

Callan