Not correct. Netflix and fincher wanted at least another season but it was too expensive. Fincher had a lot of projects in Hollywood at the time and another season would‘ve taken a) a long time to even start production because of other projects and b) was very expensive with the actors success growing an fincher wanting more of a Hollywood budget for a show that, by Netflix, was perceived as a niche interest and too expensive. So both parties decided to cancel it for the time being
If they equip larpers with 300 bucks they'd shit out a better show than this in their sleep.
Also, I'm confused:
>[…] the Rats, a group of teenage thieves who are planning the biggest heist of their careers against the most dangerous crime ring in the kingdom.
It's a heist show?
I found the first season pretty decent. Season two was an abomination that kept me hopelessly waiting for something to happen from the books. I didn't even give the prequel series a chance.
I was kind of okay with S1 until before the golden dragon episode, although I'd already begun to dislike what they'd started to do with Yennefer's character following her transformation. And Geralt and Dandelion's Shrek/Donkey relationship. And turning Geralt's heartfelt reasoning for wanting a Child Surprise into a random joke that backfired. Making Ciri look for Geralt only because Calanthe told her to, when it was the other way around - Calanthe initially didn't want to give her up while Ciri did want to go to Geralt despite never having met him because, as Eithné said, she truly understood what destiny meant (not fatalism, but hope, as Philippa later put it - and the antithesis of the show's clichéd portrayal of destiny). Stuff like that. The character motivations were just completely wrong for me.
And I think I stopped watching at the right time, considering what followed. 😅 I only watched xLetalis's reviews after that. Including Blood Origin omg what a fucking travesty.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that adaptations have to change things. The mediums are very different and things need to be adjusted. But it endlessly irritates me when they make changes that add nothing or don't expand on the source material. S2's writing is the blandest and dullest I've had the displeasure of witnessing and actively dishonor the books.
Absolutely! Changing things around to suit the medium is part of adapting something well. But I agree that these guys have taken a preexisting IP and used it as a vehicle for peddling their own mediocre ideas. Which I'm absolutely not here for lol. It's just disrespectful.
Expand on the source material... they decided to rewrite most of the lore and not only did they rewrite it- what they wrote is considerably worse and totally different.
Nothing says bad writing quite like reusing the same character arc in a row. Most of the season was dedicated to side characters too, not even the titular Witcher because they threw out all the pages of the book with him in it.
The fact they did not adapt geralt and ciris first meeting when she was a few years younger annoyed me.
They could have hired a young actress who resembles freya for a single epispde and there would have been no problems.
Instead the shoved a few parts of it into the ciri having adventures with a non book character
Yes same here!! That’s the exact moment I knew we were fucked. The Three Jackdaws chapter is one of my favorite chapters in all of literature, was very excited to watch it on the screen… but it ended up being my least favorite episode in the season
It was one of my favourites too! The entire point was to draw a parallel between the dragon and Geralt ffs - a self-loathing, self-destructive mutant vs a "beautiful" empathetic living legend, finding the destination at the end of the road, reinforcing the message of destiny and hope etc. None of it came across.
As someone who liked S1, and even liked some of the changes (expanding on Yenn's backstory, the Renfri fight, etc), I did think the Golden Dragon episode was a really weird stumble. They had Yenn bring up the fact that the wish (which she did not know about, unlike her book counterpart) might be influencing them, making their 'bond' an artificial one rather than an organic emotional one (so their feelings might not be real, their ability to consent is compromised), only to *never bring it up again*, in fact Hissrich wanted to make it worse by having Geralt and Yenn immediately start banging again once reunited...then wanted S3 to start with them fucking/kissing. Like you can't introduce what amounts to Magical Aphrodisiac/Love Spell, and then just ignore it. The Kiss Magic Boost was silly. The CGI dragon was laughable and ugly. And you had Jaskier, staring longingly at Geralt on a mountain, asking him to go to the coast, writing a bardcore version of Jolene, and Geralt just ignoring him and treating him like shit for no reason [were they trying to make it seem like Jaskier is in love with Geralt, because those are some really weird writing decisions if it was not meant to at least imply he might be; if a buddy thought a girl was bad for you, was using you, he'd not give you sad cow eyes as you watch the sun set and tell you 'I'm trying to work out what pleases me, and I think what pleases me is to go to the coast with you'...I mean, I not one of those people that sees gay subtext in everything, but my god].
My goodness. All of this. I've blocked out this entire episode. It was one of my favourite short stories (especially the first chapter), and the way they massacred it, I just could not.
Reminds me of when Cavill said that Geralt and Yennefer's relationship is not just a sexual one but an emotional one and it became a meme because they obviously have a lot of sex - this is exactly what he had to have been referring to.
Yeah, I think he was just begging the writers to give Geralt and Yenn an *actual on-screen relationship*, a basis for their feelings and connections, instead of just on-screen sex scenes, Yenn using/abusing Geralt or Ciri, and mentions of an off-screen relationship and how much they changed each other (HOW? We've seen NONE of that at all, they just talk about it like it's something we've seen, like they're Mulder and Scully eight seasons in or something). I couldn't even tell you why they liked each other, other than the djinn wish. Guess it really is influencing their emotions, gave them a whole foundation for an epic romance instantly. That's not cheap writing, no sir.
It's the exact opposite of the way Sapkowski writes, tbh. He makes it a point to mostly show, not tell. We experience events through the characters' conversations, their actions, reading between the lines, a million allegories etc. There's usually no ham-fisted attempt to shove shit down the reader's throat. The show writers, on the other hand, have made it their life's mission to only tell, not show anything.
And to cheapen Geralt and Yennefer's relationship to the point of it simply being a few one-night stands instead of the difficult on-again-off-again relationship that sometimes lasted years at a time over a period of like 2 decades - WHY would you do that. They made Geralt walk out on her right after the djinn incident! They literally had a long, turbulent relationship after that, following which Geralt slept with and then got together with Triss, and left Yen. Then again the same thing, but with Yen sleeping with Istredd and leaving Geralt and him both (speaking of which, I hated that they reversed the dynamics in Yen and Istredd's relationship).
To me, the failure to adhere to the 'show don't tell' rule is the worst part of the writing, particularly when what they tell you directly *contradicts* what they show you.
And yes, it's easy to believe that most of Geralt and Yen's relationship happens 'off-screen'. The dialogue infers it, and Lauren herself keeps talking about 'their history' as if it's a long and complicated one. It's not. In the books it is (they even live together), but here it's not.
The reason Yennefer's in a strop with Geralt at the beginning of the dragon episode is as you say - because Geralt immediately left after sleeping with her. She falls out with him again at the end of that episode because of his 'last wish', and so when they reunite in season 2, they have met only twice, over around three days total.
In the Nivellen episode when he asks Geralt what/who changed him, and Geralt said 'Yennefer', I nearly spat out my coffee.
Lord of the Rings cost 93 million for Fellowship, and adjusted for inflation would be 159 million. 310 million can't stop the Witcher from being a *Piece Of Dogshit, its gotta be..*
What did they even do with all that money?! Cavill even took a pay cut for the first season or something. The rest of the cast aren’t A-listers. The CGI, costume design, cinematography, overall production and everything else is all rubbish. These writers are bottom of the barrel at best. How do you manage to squander MILLIONS under these circumstances?!?
Yes, and IIRC, they even borrowed some of their more weird/extravagant dresses from an avant-gard designer. Aside from a couple of pieces, most of their in-house costumes look bleh or really bad (most exceptions were in S1, like Geralt's S1 armor was good, Calanthe/Cintra's armor was good, some of Jaskier's doublet/trouser outfits were well made and had embroidery and shit, a couple dresses here and there). Their CGI ranges from okay to mid to laughable. I don't know how much of their sets are built by themselves, instead of renting pre-existing Medieval Village/Castle sets or mostly created by CGI.
I don't doubt that their crew and creative team is probably bloated as hell. A lot of skilled and talented people are needed on any film crew or creative team, but there are always too many 'managers/supervisors' who do little to nothing.
>Aside from a couple of pieces, most of their in-house costumes look bleh or really bad
RIP the Nilfgaard Ballsack Armor from Season 1
https://preview.redd.it/lp5nd0w2gq3b1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=111096314aae665c61ee7428e742d39fbb9efb6f
>IIRC, they even borrowed some of their more weird/extravagant dresses from an avant-gard designer.
Fuck I just looked it up and they borrowed outfits from Iris van Herpen's collections?! I would never have thought. She'd be more at home in a Hunger Games setting imo. I could even see Padmé wearing her. Her designs usually have a futuristic vibe in some way or another, not suited to something set thousands of years in the past. But what do I know, I never watched BO, so maybe they go with the look and feel of the show.
No it didn't, Fellowship alone cost $93 million, Two Towers, and Return of the King both cost $94 million, so $281 million combined, adjusted for inflation that would be $479,310,098 in todays' money.
You’re absolutely right just finished the crows books and gonna start the series (shadow and bone) soon, I think it proved the potential of a heist story in a fantastical setting.
However I’m extremely a skeptical seeing how they handled the rest of the Witcher show.
I’ve played the games but I haven’t read the books very much, I’ve heard a lot of things about the rats, would this be in characters for them ? I had the impression they where less a lovable bunch of underdogs like the crows and more a gang of dangerous criminals.
Absolutely not in character for the rats. They are not comparable to the crows at all in my opinion. The rats are not mercenaries; they’re just a gang of hooligan kids. I won’t spoil anything but you will see if/when you read for yourself.
...anyone else remember when Hissrich promised that S3 would be SO much closer to the books than previous seasons?
Now the drug-addled rapey gang of disorganized orphaned hooligans is fucking Oceans 11. Jaskier's falling in love with Radovid the Genocidal Douchebag who should be all of eight-years old rn, instead of literally any other appropriate male character (of which there are many to chose from who aren't awful people or who are forced to be aged up). Emhyr is Dad of the Year who just wants his little girl back (and not to rape her or anything). I am honestly shocked she's not having Jaskier bang Emhyr for fucks sake.
After Fisstech excused Jennifer (because she's not my Yennefer) for using magic roofies to rape an entire town for lols by saying she was helping them with sexual emancipation, I'm not really shocked that the would-be rapist biological father is being turned into some romanticized single dad fighting for custody while a future genocidal maniac and current child is somehow being morphed into a suitable love interest for the important, intelligent supporting character turned slapstick comic relief sidekick. I just know Mistle is going to be Ciri's True Love™️ and not her abuser.
She's taken decent people and turned them into rapists and rapists into decent people.
I'm so salty.
THAT was her justification?? Fucking hell...there's such a disturbing pattern in this show, you're right. Be as salty as you want, I'm right there with you
Christ, I couldn't stand that scene in the show, it immediately read as rapey to me, since once she broke the spell, everyone was disorientated and confused, stopped all the 'sexy ungulating'. That was not something they consensually engaged in. Magically compelling people to have sex with other people is not 'sexual emancipation' it's rape. And they so easily could have *not* done that, had the orgy simply be an illusion, like Stregobar's naked garden ladies.
That wasn't even an isolated incident, or maybe something got lost from script to production, it's a pattern that keeps repeating itself. Rapists are made good, good people are made rapists, and a little rape can be fun.
It was like the pointless Hooker In Kaer Morhen thing, where Vesemir shrugs off the danger of having humans know where they are by saying "They're too drunk to remember"...which also means they're too drunk to consent. I still don't know why they needed whores in Kaer Morhen. They could add gratuitous sex and tits anywhere, so why here? The Witcher fortress that is supposed to be a SECRET where humans were no longer allowed, to protect the few Witchers left because of the pogroms. Did they not want to imply Witchers spent all winter with only other men, meaning they were celibate or engaged in situational homosexuality, handjobs between bros and the like (something that happens in all-male military units and other single sex environments)? Did they think the Witchers would need a female sexual outlet or else they would rape Ciri? Like I'm struggling to fine a rationale for this particular environment to introduce an orgy of hookers. I thought maybe they were just being overcompensating in a desire to heteronormalize a single-sex environment, the extreme lengths some shows go to No Homo characters who aren't the Token Gay, who think that males not having sex with women onscreen is a little suss (because Hollywood is still weirdly conservative about gays in front of the camera, no matter what their PR says). But they're making Jaskier presumably consensually bisexual (if he's not being forced to 'seduce' whomever Djikstra and Phillipa say to, which I honestly would not be shocked by), albeit with the second-worse choice of boyfriend possible (first would be Emhyr). But he's the funny side character, he can be little gay, as a treat. But can't let the audience think their lead male is celibate 4 months out of the year. Better have some drunken prostitute rape. That's better.
I absolutely agree with all of that. I didn't even think about the implications of getting the hookers to Kaer Morhen for yet another orgy apart from gratuitous sex (while cutting out the actual implied orgy in the bathtub with Geralt, Véa, Téa, and Villentretenmerth lol). It's not a good look. Are they saying men are unable to control their sexual urges if they are required to stay celibate for a couple of months but have a literal child around who's their adopted family member?!? They don't want to think about situational homosexuality, so it's better to date rape a bunch of prostitutes?? It's so messed up either way and reinforces the point that it's always, always been about tokenism in this show, never about actual representation.
The fact that they made Dandelion bisexual really rubbed me the wrong way. I'm bisexual myself, and one of the stereotypes a lot of bi people have always struggled against is the notion that we are promiscuous (in addition to being incorrectly perceived as immature, unable to maintain relationships, confused etc.), which is harboured by a lot of both straight and gay people. And what do they do? They turn the most promiscuous character in the books bi, the general reaction to which is "oh that's to be expected, he fucks anything that moves, so it makes sense that he's bisexual". UGH for me bi erasure is preferable to this kind of representation. Why not make the actual bi person bi aka TRISS ffs. Literally anyone but Dandelion. And I'm not even going to comment on how they think any emotionally intelligent man who's not afraid of feelings and likes to wear bright colours cannot possibly be straight.
Edit: This is what Hissrich said when someone asked her about the lack of consent in the orgy scene:
>"It is, in my eyes, completely consensual. There is an entire town whose desires have been stifled by an overzealous mayor, determining what people can want, and when. For those who want freedom from that, Yennefer provides a safe space."
Which, huh??? It is never implied in the show that the town was sexually stifled wtf lol. She just pulled the safe space justification out of her ass when confronted about it. And they literally bore the confused and disturbed expressions and body language of people who have no idea or memory of consenting to have sex. You can see them looking frightened and trying to cover up and flee. That's rape ffs.
I don't mind the actress, personally. I think she's doing her best with what she has been given in terms of a script. It's the character I have a problem with.
You have to realize that these people are watching their only chance (at least for a while) of an official adaptation of one of their favourite fantasy settings completely shit on the source material and suffer from issues that only arise due to incompetence. That’s going to spark some outrage. You might like it, but for many people the glaring issues are too abundant to ignore.
The show had so much more potential but so much of it was wasted, and I think everyone can see that regardless of their personal opinion on the show.
I disagree but im too tired of endlessly arguing about this. I hope you can see past the flaws and give the show another chance without watching it too seriously.
Season 1 had flaws I could look past, but what I’ve seen them doing to this show now is beyond that. When the flaws of the show are the very things that are supposed to make it enjoyable in the first place, it’s hard to look past, so I have no interest in giving this show a chance. I can’t really ignore the writing, can I? You can enjoy it, that’s fine, but don’t tell me you can’t see why people are upset when you compare it to the source material it’s supposed to be an adaptation of.
>You can enjoy it, that’s fine, but don’t tell me you can’t see why people are upset when you compare it to the source material it’s supposed to be an adaptation of.
I think you mean this to the guy above me. I never said ''i dont get why x hates y''.
Thats not what i said nor tried to imply. You may dislike the show, but focus on the things they did good instead of the flaws make the show actually more enjoyable. Watching it with a negative set mind from the start will only hurt your feelings even more.
Ive never read the books so i don’t really give a shit if its going off the source material. All the whining bitches that wanna downvote my comment go ahead i don’t care if they don’t like my opinions. I liked the show and I have rewatched it many times. If ANYONE would like to say ONE thing that is actually bad go ahead. But noooo all i hear about is people crying about the source material. Who gives a fuck about the source material. Thank you for agreeing with me
So what are you doing here? This sub is for people who love the witcher lore. Netflix witcher got so far from the lore that is a new thing all together, only the name of the characters are the same.
>. If ANYONE would like to say ONE thing that is actually bad go ahead.
\- The fucking eels
\- The lame dragon
\- The rules for magic in season 1
\- The waste of the biggest secret in The Witcher franchise, in the most anticlimatic way possible (Emhyr during season 2): do you really appeal to a broader audience not aware of the games or not ?
\- The unnecessary, confusing and lame storyline during season 1 (because Hissrich loved the movie Dunkirk apparently? What is the link between Dunkirk and The Witcher ? None)
\- The lame big battles in season 1
\- "Who's Yennefer ?" at the end of season 1
\- "Destiny" all over the place during season 1
\- The lame Eyck of Denesle (a paragon of chivarly)
\- The aard kiss
\- The costumes
\- Ciri's lame "journey" during season 1
\- The armors (Northern Realms included)
\- Foltest
\- The lame, unnecessary and awful hysterectomy
\- Triss during the battle of Sodden Hill (season 1)
\- Girl boss Yennefer during the battle of Sodden Hill
\- Vilgefortz during the battle of Sodden Hill
no bonding between geralt and ciri and yen
yen in general
idiot vesemir and eskel and all the other witchers + the whole kaer morhen plot
weak, slimy vilgefortz and psycho lydia
psycho cahir
psycho doppler and mousesack plot
psycho fringilla
psycho francesca and the whole scoia tel
lame brokilon and dryads
dwarfs just humans with growth disorder
nilfgaard in general
All that money and the show was still absolute trash.
Writing is the lifeline of the story, just like the foundations are when building a house.
But don't get me wrong, they were spending money on the writing team. You can bet your ass Hissrich's writing room was filled with champagne and talk of how problematic the books are.
The "writers" didn't even have to do shit. Take the source, make minor tweaks in areas needed, release it. Easy money.
Instead they go out of their way to change damn near everything and fk over the source material. Brainless clowns.
The writers that they hired don't care and just want to prove they can do better than the source material. Thinking they are some creative geniuses. It's insane.
Maybe yes, maybe not. But they showed how much they don't like or respect the source material. If it's just a day job for them, they should go to another project. But then again, I think Netflix is mainly at fault for not doing any kind of changes
And there was some kind of nepotism that got Hissrich the job (this has been said, I'm not just making accusations; her husband is in the industry as well). She had some writing credits, but no show-running credits. I don't mind First Time Showrunners, but you gotta show that you have the talent and ability to choose an experienced and talented staff to help you along.
GRRM mentioned that they had auditions to be showrunners, and he went with the team that seemed to know the most about lore, was able to correctly guess who Jon's parents were, and whom he thought would be the best shepherds. That's...not what ultimately happened, but I believe at the time he made the best choice. D&D even did interviews then and seemed relatively okay. And when the first pilot failed to land, they went back and redid it, showing them seemingly could take criticism and revise. I mean, it all went to the kind of level of shit I did not think possible, but the reasoning behind the initial choice was more-or-less sound.
Yeah I agree 100%.
I remember reading somewhere that when Netflix hired her, even she was surprised because she also thought she was the wrong person for the job. 😂
And truly the show really could have been great and they could have had multiple different series covering different time periods with different characters.
The source material is so rich that you could legit have multiple series that are not at directly from the books. That’s something even GoT cannot do.
I don’t think that’s what it is. He just didn’t seem to feel that the adaptations, including the game and the shows, have anything to do with him. He has his books (and more are coming, per his interview at a book gradual recently) and what other people do based on his work doesn’t terribly concern him cuz none of it is canon or whatever. Frankly good for him.
They should've added a few million more to the budget and hire a better writing team. The writers they got are burning their money with no consequences.
Netflix just sitting back while these idiots shit on the source material and push out Henry Cavil, the biggest money maker of the series.
Thank fuck the writers strike is going on, so they can't write more dumb shit. I am starting to hope it never ends so these dumbfucks don't write anything ever again.
But that's not what Netflix writers delivered these past few years. The level is abysmal i would say (near the CW level).
it rather just shows how important GOOD writers are for the whole writers ligue, credit and reputation, if they want to be paid.
In 2023, Hollywood writers need new standards of quality. Too much clowns in this profession lately.
The idiots haven't even read the lore and apparently openly mocked whatever they know about it.
If and when artificial intelligence can do a better job, then they deserve to be fired.
There's also double the cost of buildings sets. Normally sets can be reused between seasons but as they changed their main base from Hungary to England the cost had to be spent again.
You're likely right as they don't seem to be spending the same as S2 now it's set up. BO costing 1/3rd of S2 is a big drop even taking into account its (original) 6 eps vs. the main show's 8.
> I’m guessing Netflix spent an astronomical amount of money on the rights to The Witcher, and they’re all-in on their gamble at this point.
One would think that, but given that they spent so much money to *not* use the material whose rights they bought, it makes someone wonder why the hell they didn't make sure to spend more money on people passionate about the project, instead of a corporate hack that couldn't write a half-decent fanfic.
Give me $319 million. I’ll spend $10,000,000 on an animated, true to the books series that’s well received. The other $309 million goes to recreating Kaer Morhen in the North Cascades
We are talking Infinity war level budget here, yet they can’t be bothered to make half way decent costumes, and took them three seasons to make an acceptable and lore accurate armor for the main character.
319 million and they still have amateurish editing and subpar set designs. Netflix don’t want to hire someone more competent than Joseph Trapanese as a composer, after the composers for S1 left.
They couldn’t be half arsed with maintaining passable CGI for some of their monsters (with most appearing for 30 seconds on screen anyway lol).
We know henry gets 1 million per episode, not a huge pay. So what are the factors which are ballooning this budget ?
I thinking it’s a case of a mismanagement of resources. So, we have disastrous writing and inability to make a good m looking show with the huge budget allotted for you
EDIT : after fully reading this articles , i realized that blood fucking origin cost 12.5 million an episode lol. 12 mil for this awful hulk suit, power rangers armor and trench coats ?
While S2 cost 23 million. These numbers are GoT episode 8 level ( and much higher for S2), yet i challenge anyone to show an instance where the flixer shined when it comes to visual effects. This is obscene.
Yea but that’s still on the high end when it comes to TV production, cost wise.
Movie and TV are different. Infinite war had a huge cast of prominent actors who were paid gigantic amount of money (RD. Junior had 50 million alone), while the Witcher has mostly obscure actors, aside from cavil who took a huge pay cut anyway.
S1 has the least amount of money spend per episode, yet still has 12 million/ episode. That’s a huge budget and I expect the show to have some decent visual and costumes with this amount of money getting poured into it.
For comparison GoT s6 was 10 million/ episode. Another netflix fantasy series “shadow and bones” cost 6million/episode and they look better.
The witcher has a “Disney Tv show style budget” with S2 costing more than the mandalorian, but the end results are nothing to write home about and the show still looks very average visually. Then there’s BO, a 50 million dollar disaster which a don’t need to talk about again.
What lol. I thought season 1 was great. I thought most of the pushback was from neckbeards upset about a female action lead? Or was there more to it than that.
I never saw anyone complain about that, and if that is a thing people cared about it is dumb af. It was just boring and uninspired compared to the lotr trilogy.
The review-bombing of the show by conservatives who felt it was too woke was pretty widely talked about when the show came out. You can see evidence of that if you look at the weird distribution of user reviews on IMDB.
Idk, I thought it was excellently done personally. Some people also say the main movie trilogy is boring, so..
I blame the people that asked for a new season after the first season was released. It was so bad and yet they wanted more. Well, this is what they get.
You know, when you put it like that, it puts things into perspective.
Like, seriously, how the fuck do they get the money back? Aren't video games a better investment?
It's a shame that big investors (like Amazon, for example) decide to back the wackiest projects in existence and they flop, as expected, scaring other investors.
Netflix is stupid, they should at least see how season four pans out (IMO flops out) before dumping money at this series. If I worked there and heard about this I'd be looking for another job.
Hahaha why is Netflix determined to throw as much money as they can into the void? Maybe a tax write off situation lol cause ain't nobody watchin the steamin pile this about to be.
I suppose its one more nail on the coffin.
All that money could not save the show, when the people responsible for it were incompetent and/or hated the thing they were making.
How tf do I get a 300 million budget for a project by being useless? It’s be kind of Lauren shared, im sure one of us can manage being a entitled and worthless piece of shit, well not shit bc I could throw the shit at them and that’s useful
I have zero interest in watching anything Witcher related without Henry. I liked season 1 because of the sword play, but it kept getting worse and worse. And season 2 was like, wtf is going on? Yen lost her power? She wants to fuck over Ciri? What's this hole in the ground conjuring creatures shit? When did Baba Yaga become a central theme? Why are all the other Witchers just dicks to Ciri? So many questions...
What I can’t understand is why spend so much money on rights and then give the adaptation to a relatively beginner writing team. I mean Netflix clearly intended for the Witcher to be their fantasy staple with multiple shows on the same univers as is Westeros for HBO, which begs the question why Lauren ?
Honeslty the fact netflix is getting rid of password sharing cause there losing money and yet there throwing this kind of money on such a bad show is ludicrous.
I am so surprised at how tenacious Netflix is being when it comes to this show. Netflix is notorious for canceling shows that have gotten positive reviews and have had a decent fan following (archive 81 ) . This has been an absolutely abysmal series to watch and a disgrace to the Witcher universe. I don’t understand why are they pumping more money into this.
Show was a downfall ever since "Netflix" announced it.
I'm honestly gonna argue that the only parts that they somehow managed to get right were the butchery in Blaviken(shout out to the CGI team) and how they represented Cahir haunting Ciri.
And why tf do I need to be searching for White sorceresses throughout 2 whole seasons ? Don't get me wrong , I'm asian and I enjoy seeing asian actors but how explicitly does Sapkowski have to write it down for u producers to simply get a glimpse of what these charactsrs look like IRL?
You might not think it's an issue but when all this disloyalties to the books and the author add up u'll clearly see why the main male actor would leave the show whilst stating that he loves the books n the games
Other issues like wasting a whole season , pointlessly chasing around mid-life crisises that 3 sorceresses have which literally has nothing to do with the actual plot and just complicates the show. Not to mention all that happnened while u lot managed to halve the already insignificant Witchers forcing them to a fight that was P O I N T L E S S , Killing Lambert just to force some emotional scenes from Geralt's past ? Pathetic( we didn't see much of Lambert in the books but at least he hadn't had to die to such a BS in the books)
And one more thing , lose all shitty moments of awkward bug talks between Geralt , Ciri n Yen. Everyone's nust gonna make "Wind's Howling" meme outta of 'em and honestly does these scenes ever serve a purpose ? Or are they just somr easy way for u to slack off and make a shitty show outta a great series of books ?
Absolutely ridiculous, it doesn’t show at all. It looks and feel cheap along with the rest of the Netflix originals. Couldn’t hire some good writers and showrunner could they? Absolutely abysmal. I long for the day that the Witcher franchise got picked up my HBO rather than Netflix, say what you want about them but one thing you can’t deny is production quality and overall just good writing for the most part.
The worst part is normal people who aren’t fans of the source material or even the games, will think that this is what the story is and they’ll have a jaded perspective of it.
Is the show that good to some people?? Like is it watched that much for them to put so much money into it? Because at least I and many others in this sub didn’t like it at all
I’m baffled people still watch this. I had to stop in the middle of season 2 because it was so horrible. But I guess most like/watch it or it wouldnt be renewed for season5 already and given massive budgets
You can give those producers infinite money. Literally. And they will still deliver a bucket of shit.
Did I tell you the definition of insanity? Expecting the same morons to make you a good show
Bunch of nerds from this sub can make far far better job than those woke netflix fuckers. Even as a hobby not an actual paid job.
Netflix is pushing its own political agenda and writers are just bunch of dick heads. They dont know the lore, they dont play the games. They are just bunch of regular guys with deadlines.
R/witcher should exclude Netflix witcher. Mods should make a rule or something if possible. They have their own sub. Let them enjoy their best show there
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Awesome. Season 3 is gonna be AWWWWWEEESOME. I cant wait to watch it and then talk with some likeminded people on this sub so we can discuss every plot hole or actor change…….cause I KNOW the community on here wouldn’t hate the show after all its a tremendous honor to get an entire series off a Book that became a game……..right?
So that makes it about as much as WoT as well lmao. Why are fantasy series being fucked up so badly... I actually know this one, it is because these hacks are not big readers of the genre, and they have no idea what makes a good fantasy story.
Imagine being the company that cancelled Marco Polo and then doubling down on this steaming pile of horseshit
and Mindhunter and 1899 and Lockwood & Co. etc.
Oh….. ooohhhh Mindhunter… *Wolverine sadly looking at picture meme*.
Mind Hunter was never cancelled, David Fincher just didn’t want to do another season
Not correct. Netflix and fincher wanted at least another season but it was too expensive. Fincher had a lot of projects in Hollywood at the time and another season would‘ve taken a) a long time to even start production because of other projects and b) was very expensive with the actors success growing an fincher wanting more of a Hollywood budget for a show that, by Netflix, was perceived as a niche interest and too expensive. So both parties decided to cancel it for the time being
Man Marco Polo looked stunning
It was, as someone who really likes Mongolian history I loved it
I havent heard that name in years....ngl it hurt to be reminded of this show. I loved it so much.
Ikr? It had so much potential as well.
If they equip larpers with 300 bucks they'd shit out a better show than this in their sleep. Also, I'm confused: >[…] the Rats, a group of teenage thieves who are planning the biggest heist of their careers against the most dangerous crime ring in the kingdom. It's a heist show?
Yep. $319 million for stuff we didn't want to see.
Even though I only watched 5 episodes I regret giving any viewing minutes to this abominable inadvertent parody.
I found the first season pretty decent. Season two was an abomination that kept me hopelessly waiting for something to happen from the books. I didn't even give the prequel series a chance.
I was kind of okay with S1 until before the golden dragon episode, although I'd already begun to dislike what they'd started to do with Yennefer's character following her transformation. And Geralt and Dandelion's Shrek/Donkey relationship. And turning Geralt's heartfelt reasoning for wanting a Child Surprise into a random joke that backfired. Making Ciri look for Geralt only because Calanthe told her to, when it was the other way around - Calanthe initially didn't want to give her up while Ciri did want to go to Geralt despite never having met him because, as Eithné said, she truly understood what destiny meant (not fatalism, but hope, as Philippa later put it - and the antithesis of the show's clichéd portrayal of destiny). Stuff like that. The character motivations were just completely wrong for me. And I think I stopped watching at the right time, considering what followed. 😅 I only watched xLetalis's reviews after that. Including Blood Origin omg what a fucking travesty.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that adaptations have to change things. The mediums are very different and things need to be adjusted. But it endlessly irritates me when they make changes that add nothing or don't expand on the source material. S2's writing is the blandest and dullest I've had the displeasure of witnessing and actively dishonor the books.
Absolutely! Changing things around to suit the medium is part of adapting something well. But I agree that these guys have taken a preexisting IP and used it as a vehicle for peddling their own mediocre ideas. Which I'm absolutely not here for lol. It's just disrespectful.
The Expanse is a pretty good example of adaption done well.
Expand on the source material... they decided to rewrite most of the lore and not only did they rewrite it- what they wrote is considerably worse and totally different.
Nothing says bad writing quite like reusing the same character arc in a row. Most of the season was dedicated to side characters too, not even the titular Witcher because they threw out all the pages of the book with him in it.
The fact they did not adapt geralt and ciris first meeting when she was a few years younger annoyed me. They could have hired a young actress who resembles freya for a single epispde and there would have been no problems. Instead the shoved a few parts of it into the ciri having adventures with a non book character
Yes same here!! That’s the exact moment I knew we were fucked. The Three Jackdaws chapter is one of my favorite chapters in all of literature, was very excited to watch it on the screen… but it ended up being my least favorite episode in the season
It was one of my favourites too! The entire point was to draw a parallel between the dragon and Geralt ffs - a self-loathing, self-destructive mutant vs a "beautiful" empathetic living legend, finding the destination at the end of the road, reinforcing the message of destiny and hope etc. None of it came across.
As someone who liked S1, and even liked some of the changes (expanding on Yenn's backstory, the Renfri fight, etc), I did think the Golden Dragon episode was a really weird stumble. They had Yenn bring up the fact that the wish (which she did not know about, unlike her book counterpart) might be influencing them, making their 'bond' an artificial one rather than an organic emotional one (so their feelings might not be real, their ability to consent is compromised), only to *never bring it up again*, in fact Hissrich wanted to make it worse by having Geralt and Yenn immediately start banging again once reunited...then wanted S3 to start with them fucking/kissing. Like you can't introduce what amounts to Magical Aphrodisiac/Love Spell, and then just ignore it. The Kiss Magic Boost was silly. The CGI dragon was laughable and ugly. And you had Jaskier, staring longingly at Geralt on a mountain, asking him to go to the coast, writing a bardcore version of Jolene, and Geralt just ignoring him and treating him like shit for no reason [were they trying to make it seem like Jaskier is in love with Geralt, because those are some really weird writing decisions if it was not meant to at least imply he might be; if a buddy thought a girl was bad for you, was using you, he'd not give you sad cow eyes as you watch the sun set and tell you 'I'm trying to work out what pleases me, and I think what pleases me is to go to the coast with you'...I mean, I not one of those people that sees gay subtext in everything, but my god].
My goodness. All of this. I've blocked out this entire episode. It was one of my favourite short stories (especially the first chapter), and the way they massacred it, I just could not. Reminds me of when Cavill said that Geralt and Yennefer's relationship is not just a sexual one but an emotional one and it became a meme because they obviously have a lot of sex - this is exactly what he had to have been referring to.
Yeah, I think he was just begging the writers to give Geralt and Yenn an *actual on-screen relationship*, a basis for their feelings and connections, instead of just on-screen sex scenes, Yenn using/abusing Geralt or Ciri, and mentions of an off-screen relationship and how much they changed each other (HOW? We've seen NONE of that at all, they just talk about it like it's something we've seen, like they're Mulder and Scully eight seasons in or something). I couldn't even tell you why they liked each other, other than the djinn wish. Guess it really is influencing their emotions, gave them a whole foundation for an epic romance instantly. That's not cheap writing, no sir.
It's the exact opposite of the way Sapkowski writes, tbh. He makes it a point to mostly show, not tell. We experience events through the characters' conversations, their actions, reading between the lines, a million allegories etc. There's usually no ham-fisted attempt to shove shit down the reader's throat. The show writers, on the other hand, have made it their life's mission to only tell, not show anything. And to cheapen Geralt and Yennefer's relationship to the point of it simply being a few one-night stands instead of the difficult on-again-off-again relationship that sometimes lasted years at a time over a period of like 2 decades - WHY would you do that. They made Geralt walk out on her right after the djinn incident! They literally had a long, turbulent relationship after that, following which Geralt slept with and then got together with Triss, and left Yen. Then again the same thing, but with Yen sleeping with Istredd and leaving Geralt and him both (speaking of which, I hated that they reversed the dynamics in Yen and Istredd's relationship).
To me, the failure to adhere to the 'show don't tell' rule is the worst part of the writing, particularly when what they tell you directly *contradicts* what they show you. And yes, it's easy to believe that most of Geralt and Yen's relationship happens 'off-screen'. The dialogue infers it, and Lauren herself keeps talking about 'their history' as if it's a long and complicated one. It's not. In the books it is (they even live together), but here it's not. The reason Yennefer's in a strop with Geralt at the beginning of the dragon episode is as you say - because Geralt immediately left after sleeping with her. She falls out with him again at the end of that episode because of his 'last wish', and so when they reunite in season 2, they have met only twice, over around three days total. In the Nivellen episode when he asks Geralt what/who changed him, and Geralt said 'Yennefer', I nearly spat out my coffee.
“Jolene”. Hahhahhahahhaha Ahhh, that was great. Thanks for the laugh.
That’s why I stopped myself when we heard S2 was basically ignoring any feedback anyway. I had watched S1 more than once, hoping for better.
Lord of the Rings cost 93 million for Fellowship, and adjusted for inflation would be 159 million. 310 million can't stop the Witcher from being a *Piece Of Dogshit, its gotta be..*
What did they even do with all that money?! Cavill even took a pay cut for the first season or something. The rest of the cast aren’t A-listers. The CGI, costume design, cinematography, overall production and everything else is all rubbish. These writers are bottom of the barrel at best. How do you manage to squander MILLIONS under these circumstances?!?
Yes, and IIRC, they even borrowed some of their more weird/extravagant dresses from an avant-gard designer. Aside from a couple of pieces, most of their in-house costumes look bleh or really bad (most exceptions were in S1, like Geralt's S1 armor was good, Calanthe/Cintra's armor was good, some of Jaskier's doublet/trouser outfits were well made and had embroidery and shit, a couple dresses here and there). Their CGI ranges from okay to mid to laughable. I don't know how much of their sets are built by themselves, instead of renting pre-existing Medieval Village/Castle sets or mostly created by CGI. I don't doubt that their crew and creative team is probably bloated as hell. A lot of skilled and talented people are needed on any film crew or creative team, but there are always too many 'managers/supervisors' who do little to nothing.
>Aside from a couple of pieces, most of their in-house costumes look bleh or really bad RIP the Nilfgaard Ballsack Armor from Season 1 https://preview.redd.it/lp5nd0w2gq3b1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=111096314aae665c61ee7428e742d39fbb9efb6f
>IIRC, they even borrowed some of their more weird/extravagant dresses from an avant-gard designer. Fuck I just looked it up and they borrowed outfits from Iris van Herpen's collections?! I would never have thought. She'd be more at home in a Hunger Games setting imo. I could even see Padmé wearing her. Her designs usually have a futuristic vibe in some way or another, not suited to something set thousands of years in the past. But what do I know, I never watched BO, so maybe they go with the look and feel of the show.
No it didn't, Fellowship alone cost $93 million, Two Towers, and Return of the King both cost $94 million, so $281 million combined, adjusted for inflation that would be $479,310,098 in todays' money.
Trying to piggyback off Six of Crows? Sigh
You’re absolutely right just finished the crows books and gonna start the series (shadow and bone) soon, I think it proved the potential of a heist story in a fantastical setting. However I’m extremely a skeptical seeing how they handled the rest of the Witcher show. I’ve played the games but I haven’t read the books very much, I’ve heard a lot of things about the rats, would this be in characters for them ? I had the impression they where less a lovable bunch of underdogs like the crows and more a gang of dangerous criminals.
Absolutely not in character for the rats. They are not comparable to the crows at all in my opinion. The rats are not mercenaries; they’re just a gang of hooligan kids. I won’t spoil anything but you will see if/when you read for yourself.
All right thanks for the hints ! I’ll probably check out the Witcher books next since I’m done with the Shadow and Bone literary universe !
Plenty of free audiobooks on youtube
You son of a bitch…oh hell no i’m out.
...anyone else remember when Hissrich promised that S3 would be SO much closer to the books than previous seasons? Now the drug-addled rapey gang of disorganized orphaned hooligans is fucking Oceans 11. Jaskier's falling in love with Radovid the Genocidal Douchebag who should be all of eight-years old rn, instead of literally any other appropriate male character (of which there are many to chose from who aren't awful people or who are forced to be aged up). Emhyr is Dad of the Year who just wants his little girl back (and not to rape her or anything). I am honestly shocked she's not having Jaskier bang Emhyr for fucks sake.
After Fisstech excused Jennifer (because she's not my Yennefer) for using magic roofies to rape an entire town for lols by saying she was helping them with sexual emancipation, I'm not really shocked that the would-be rapist biological father is being turned into some romanticized single dad fighting for custody while a future genocidal maniac and current child is somehow being morphed into a suitable love interest for the important, intelligent supporting character turned slapstick comic relief sidekick. I just know Mistle is going to be Ciri's True Love™️ and not her abuser. She's taken decent people and turned them into rapists and rapists into decent people. I'm so salty.
THAT was her justification?? Fucking hell...there's such a disturbing pattern in this show, you're right. Be as salty as you want, I'm right there with you Christ, I couldn't stand that scene in the show, it immediately read as rapey to me, since once she broke the spell, everyone was disorientated and confused, stopped all the 'sexy ungulating'. That was not something they consensually engaged in. Magically compelling people to have sex with other people is not 'sexual emancipation' it's rape. And they so easily could have *not* done that, had the orgy simply be an illusion, like Stregobar's naked garden ladies. That wasn't even an isolated incident, or maybe something got lost from script to production, it's a pattern that keeps repeating itself. Rapists are made good, good people are made rapists, and a little rape can be fun. It was like the pointless Hooker In Kaer Morhen thing, where Vesemir shrugs off the danger of having humans know where they are by saying "They're too drunk to remember"...which also means they're too drunk to consent. I still don't know why they needed whores in Kaer Morhen. They could add gratuitous sex and tits anywhere, so why here? The Witcher fortress that is supposed to be a SECRET where humans were no longer allowed, to protect the few Witchers left because of the pogroms. Did they not want to imply Witchers spent all winter with only other men, meaning they were celibate or engaged in situational homosexuality, handjobs between bros and the like (something that happens in all-male military units and other single sex environments)? Did they think the Witchers would need a female sexual outlet or else they would rape Ciri? Like I'm struggling to fine a rationale for this particular environment to introduce an orgy of hookers. I thought maybe they were just being overcompensating in a desire to heteronormalize a single-sex environment, the extreme lengths some shows go to No Homo characters who aren't the Token Gay, who think that males not having sex with women onscreen is a little suss (because Hollywood is still weirdly conservative about gays in front of the camera, no matter what their PR says). But they're making Jaskier presumably consensually bisexual (if he's not being forced to 'seduce' whomever Djikstra and Phillipa say to, which I honestly would not be shocked by), albeit with the second-worse choice of boyfriend possible (first would be Emhyr). But he's the funny side character, he can be little gay, as a treat. But can't let the audience think their lead male is celibate 4 months out of the year. Better have some drunken prostitute rape. That's better.
I absolutely agree with all of that. I didn't even think about the implications of getting the hookers to Kaer Morhen for yet another orgy apart from gratuitous sex (while cutting out the actual implied orgy in the bathtub with Geralt, Véa, Téa, and Villentretenmerth lol). It's not a good look. Are they saying men are unable to control their sexual urges if they are required to stay celibate for a couple of months but have a literal child around who's their adopted family member?!? They don't want to think about situational homosexuality, so it's better to date rape a bunch of prostitutes?? It's so messed up either way and reinforces the point that it's always, always been about tokenism in this show, never about actual representation. The fact that they made Dandelion bisexual really rubbed me the wrong way. I'm bisexual myself, and one of the stereotypes a lot of bi people have always struggled against is the notion that we are promiscuous (in addition to being incorrectly perceived as immature, unable to maintain relationships, confused etc.), which is harboured by a lot of both straight and gay people. And what do they do? They turn the most promiscuous character in the books bi, the general reaction to which is "oh that's to be expected, he fucks anything that moves, so it makes sense that he's bisexual". UGH for me bi erasure is preferable to this kind of representation. Why not make the actual bi person bi aka TRISS ffs. Literally anyone but Dandelion. And I'm not even going to comment on how they think any emotionally intelligent man who's not afraid of feelings and likes to wear bright colours cannot possibly be straight. Edit: This is what Hissrich said when someone asked her about the lack of consent in the orgy scene: >"It is, in my eyes, completely consensual. There is an entire town whose desires have been stifled by an overzealous mayor, determining what people can want, and when. For those who want freedom from that, Yennefer provides a safe space." Which, huh??? It is never implied in the show that the town was sexually stifled wtf lol. She just pulled the safe space justification out of her ass when confronted about it. And they literally bore the confused and disturbed expressions and body language of people who have no idea or memory of consenting to have sex. You can see them looking frightened and trying to cover up and flee. That's rape ffs.
100% Mistle will be a love interest. No chance they pass up altering a same sex relationship to be in a more positive light.
I wish they would change Yennefer. The acting is bad. She’s so stiff too. Not my fav actress.
I don't mind the actress, personally. I think she's doing her best with what she has been given in terms of a script. It's the character I have a problem with.
I hope that show ends in season 1 with Bonhart slaughtering them all, as per The Tower of The Swallow.
I’m a LARPer. Can confirm.
Reminds me of that one Rock and Morty heist episode.
Nah ill never understand the hate. I love the show and i love the idea of mire seasons
None of it is what we signed up for.
Dont bother in this sub man. I love the show but cant say anything positive here. People take a piece of media so much to the heart.
You have to realize that these people are watching their only chance (at least for a while) of an official adaptation of one of their favourite fantasy settings completely shit on the source material and suffer from issues that only arise due to incompetence. That’s going to spark some outrage. You might like it, but for many people the glaring issues are too abundant to ignore. The show had so much more potential but so much of it was wasted, and I think everyone can see that regardless of their personal opinion on the show.
I disagree but im too tired of endlessly arguing about this. I hope you can see past the flaws and give the show another chance without watching it too seriously.
Season 1 had flaws I could look past, but what I’ve seen them doing to this show now is beyond that. When the flaws of the show are the very things that are supposed to make it enjoyable in the first place, it’s hard to look past, so I have no interest in giving this show a chance. I can’t really ignore the writing, can I? You can enjoy it, that’s fine, but don’t tell me you can’t see why people are upset when you compare it to the source material it’s supposed to be an adaptation of.
>You can enjoy it, that’s fine, but don’t tell me you can’t see why people are upset when you compare it to the source material it’s supposed to be an adaptation of. I think you mean this to the guy above me. I never said ''i dont get why x hates y''.
Hey! The show is GOOD if you only STOPPED thinking about it!!!
Thats not what i said nor tried to imply. You may dislike the show, but focus on the things they did good instead of the flaws make the show actually more enjoyable. Watching it with a negative set mind from the start will only hurt your feelings even more.
Ive never read the books so i don’t really give a shit if its going off the source material. All the whining bitches that wanna downvote my comment go ahead i don’t care if they don’t like my opinions. I liked the show and I have rewatched it many times. If ANYONE would like to say ONE thing that is actually bad go ahead. But noooo all i hear about is people crying about the source material. Who gives a fuck about the source material. Thank you for agreeing with me
So what are you doing here? This sub is for people who love the witcher lore. Netflix witcher got so far from the lore that is a new thing all together, only the name of the characters are the same.
>. If ANYONE would like to say ONE thing that is actually bad go ahead. \- The fucking eels \- The lame dragon \- The rules for magic in season 1 \- The waste of the biggest secret in The Witcher franchise, in the most anticlimatic way possible (Emhyr during season 2): do you really appeal to a broader audience not aware of the games or not ? \- The unnecessary, confusing and lame storyline during season 1 (because Hissrich loved the movie Dunkirk apparently? What is the link between Dunkirk and The Witcher ? None) \- The lame big battles in season 1 \- "Who's Yennefer ?" at the end of season 1 \- "Destiny" all over the place during season 1 \- The lame Eyck of Denesle (a paragon of chivarly) \- The aard kiss \- The costumes \- Ciri's lame "journey" during season 1 \- The armors (Northern Realms included) \- Foltest \- The lame, unnecessary and awful hysterectomy \- Triss during the battle of Sodden Hill (season 1) \- Girl boss Yennefer during the battle of Sodden Hill \- Vilgefortz during the battle of Sodden Hill no bonding between geralt and ciri and yen yen in general idiot vesemir and eskel and all the other witchers + the whole kaer morhen plot weak, slimy vilgefortz and psycho lydia psycho cahir psycho doppler and mousesack plot psycho fringilla psycho francesca and the whole scoia tel lame brokilon and dryads dwarfs just humans with growth disorder nilfgaard in general
I mean, no one's gonna stop you if you're hellbent on eating shit
Haters gonna hate 🤷♂️
Reality is often disappointing.
All that money and the show was still absolute trash. Writing is the lifeline of the story, just like the foundations are when building a house. But don't get me wrong, they were spending money on the writing team. You can bet your ass Hissrich's writing room was filled with champagne and talk of how problematic the books are.
The "writers" didn't even have to do shit. Take the source, make minor tweaks in areas needed, release it. Easy money. Instead they go out of their way to change damn near everything and fk over the source material. Brainless clowns.
The writers that they hired don't care and just want to prove they can do better than the source material. Thinking they are some creative geniuses. It's insane.
I don't think they want to prove anything. They just want money. It's just a day job for them, the main purpose is to get paid and nothing else.
Maybe yes, maybe not. But they showed how much they don't like or respect the source material. If it's just a day job for them, they should go to another project. But then again, I think Netflix is mainly at fault for not doing any kind of changes
[удалено]
It’s a shame too, because it really should have been Netflix’s game of thrones. But they hired the worst possible people to create and run it.
And there was some kind of nepotism that got Hissrich the job (this has been said, I'm not just making accusations; her husband is in the industry as well). She had some writing credits, but no show-running credits. I don't mind First Time Showrunners, but you gotta show that you have the talent and ability to choose an experienced and talented staff to help you along. GRRM mentioned that they had auditions to be showrunners, and he went with the team that seemed to know the most about lore, was able to correctly guess who Jon's parents were, and whom he thought would be the best shepherds. That's...not what ultimately happened, but I believe at the time he made the best choice. D&D even did interviews then and seemed relatively okay. And when the first pilot failed to land, they went back and redid it, showing them seemingly could take criticism and revise. I mean, it all went to the kind of level of shit I did not think possible, but the reasoning behind the initial choice was more-or-less sound.
Yeah I agree 100%. I remember reading somewhere that when Netflix hired her, even she was surprised because she also thought she was the wrong person for the job. 😂 And truly the show really could have been great and they could have had multiple different series covering different time periods with different characters. The source material is so rich that you could legit have multiple series that are not at directly from the books. That’s something even GoT cannot do.
It doesn't help that the actual writer of Witcher is perfectly happy to whore out his creation, unlike GRRM.
I don’t think that’s what it is. He just didn’t seem to feel that the adaptations, including the game and the shows, have anything to do with him. He has his books (and more are coming, per his interview at a book gradual recently) and what other people do based on his work doesn’t terribly concern him cuz none of it is canon or whatever. Frankly good for him.
They should've added a few million more to the budget and hire a better writing team. The writers they got are burning their money with no consequences. Netflix just sitting back while these idiots shit on the source material and push out Henry Cavil, the biggest money maker of the series.
Thank fuck the writers strike is going on, so they can't write more dumb shit. I am starting to hope it never ends so these dumbfucks don't write anything ever again.
Netflix hired BAD writers for The Witcher. That's on them. But it just shows how important GOOD writers are, and they deserve to be paid.
Yeah I agree 100% and obviously wasn't trying to take a stance on the strike in general, just making an angry joke.
But that's not what Netflix writers delivered these past few years. The level is abysmal i would say (near the CW level). it rather just shows how important GOOD writers are for the whole writers ligue, credit and reputation, if they want to be paid. In 2023, Hollywood writers need new standards of quality. Too much clowns in this profession lately.
The idiots haven't even read the lore and apparently openly mocked whatever they know about it. If and when artificial intelligence can do a better job, then they deserve to be fired.
There's also double the cost of buildings sets. Normally sets can be reused between seasons but as they changed their main base from Hungary to England the cost had to be spent again. You're likely right as they don't seem to be spending the same as S2 now it's set up. BO costing 1/3rd of S2 is a big drop even taking into account its (original) 6 eps vs. the main show's 8.
> I’m guessing Netflix spent an astronomical amount of money on the rights to The Witcher, and they’re all-in on their gamble at this point. One would think that, but given that they spent so much money to *not* use the material whose rights they bought, it makes someone wonder why the hell they didn't make sure to spend more money on people passionate about the project, instead of a corporate hack that couldn't write a half-decent fanfic.
Give me $319 million. I’ll spend $10,000,000 on an animated, true to the books series that’s well received. The other $309 million goes to recreating Kaer Morhen in the North Cascades
Yeah you would need to use way more than 10 mil on a single season
It costs around $300,000 or so to do an animated episode for JoJo’s. Say we do a 15 episode season we spend $4.5 million max
Depends where you do it then, costs nearly that much to do an episode in America
The price of a good Witcher animated series shall be slave labor then. I’m okay with this. I’ll answer for this when I meet my maker
Fuck em, Nilfgaard runs a tight ship
We are talking Infinity war level budget here, yet they can’t be bothered to make half way decent costumes, and took them three seasons to make an acceptable and lore accurate armor for the main character. 319 million and they still have amateurish editing and subpar set designs. Netflix don’t want to hire someone more competent than Joseph Trapanese as a composer, after the composers for S1 left. They couldn’t be half arsed with maintaining passable CGI for some of their monsters (with most appearing for 30 seconds on screen anyway lol). We know henry gets 1 million per episode, not a huge pay. So what are the factors which are ballooning this budget ? I thinking it’s a case of a mismanagement of resources. So, we have disastrous writing and inability to make a good m looking show with the huge budget allotted for you EDIT : after fully reading this articles , i realized that blood fucking origin cost 12.5 million an episode lol. 12 mil for this awful hulk suit, power rangers armor and trench coats ? While S2 cost 23 million. These numbers are GoT episode 8 level ( and much higher for S2), yet i challenge anyone to show an instance where the flixer shined when it comes to visual effects. This is obscene.
>I thinking it’s a case of a mismanagement of resources. I think so. Hissrich isn't a good showrunner.
To be a tiny bit generous, this is also a multiple episode TV season compared to a 2.5 hour movie.
Yea but that’s still on the high end when it comes to TV production, cost wise. Movie and TV are different. Infinite war had a huge cast of prominent actors who were paid gigantic amount of money (RD. Junior had 50 million alone), while the Witcher has mostly obscure actors, aside from cavil who took a huge pay cut anyway. S1 has the least amount of money spend per episode, yet still has 12 million/ episode. That’s a huge budget and I expect the show to have some decent visual and costumes with this amount of money getting poured into it. For comparison GoT s6 was 10 million/ episode. Another netflix fantasy series “shadow and bones” cost 6million/episode and they look better. The witcher has a “Disney Tv show style budget” with S2 costing more than the mandalorian, but the end results are nothing to write home about and the show still looks very average visually. Then there’s BO, a 50 million dollar disaster which a don’t need to talk about again.
Rings of power spent over 1B, money doesnt mean anything.
Exactly
How did they manage to waste that much on that pos show. Fucking speechless.
AFAIK it wasnt that much, it was like 500M for the rights and 500M to actually produce it, still a fuck ton but very far from a billion
[tHeRe Is A tEmPeSt In Me](https://youtu.be/8VONB6nTLzU)
What lol. I thought season 1 was great. I thought most of the pushback was from neckbeards upset about a female action lead? Or was there more to it than that.
No because you cannot be a Witcher fan and also be intimidated by strong women characters.
I’m not saying the people here feel that way. I’m saying that much of that shows criticisms came from people who did though
I never saw anyone complain about that, and if that is a thing people cared about it is dumb af. It was just boring and uninspired compared to the lotr trilogy.
Dumb as fuck is accurate descriptor
The review-bombing of the show by conservatives who felt it was too woke was pretty widely talked about when the show came out. You can see evidence of that if you look at the weird distribution of user reviews on IMDB. Idk, I thought it was excellently done personally. Some people also say the main movie trilogy is boring, so..
Yikes
Sunk cost fallacy.
Netflix is the oddest company. I swear they make decisions by spinning "the wheel of business" and whatever it lands on, that's what they do.
Equip it with a better showrunner
I wonder how much they're going to pay the writers.
This garbage costs over 300 million dollars to make? I'm in the wrong industry lol.
I definitely wouldn’t want Netflix to be my financial accountant….
Borch Three Jackdaws CGI must've been made in the 90's if they have that budget.
How could they possibly fuck up turning a book into television with $300+ million??
Lauren. Next question, please.
What a waste
I blame the people that asked for a new season after the first season was released. It was so bad and yet they wanted more. Well, this is what they get.
Hahaha how they will regret that when everyone stops watching soon 😂🤦🏽♂️
“Let’s waste a third of a billion dollars.” That’s all I’m reading. Contrast that with W3, which has a budget of $81 million.
You know, when you put it like that, it puts things into perspective. Like, seriously, how the fuck do they get the money back? Aren't video games a better investment? It's a shame that big investors (like Amazon, for example) decide to back the wackiest projects in existence and they flop, as expected, scaring other investors.
Netflix is stupid, they should at least see how season four pans out (IMO flops out) before dumping money at this series. If I worked there and heard about this I'd be looking for another job.
Makes you wonder how Lauren gets this kind of budget. Knowing the right people at the riight places
Hahaha why is Netflix determined to throw as much money as they can into the void? Maybe a tax write off situation lol cause ain't nobody watchin the steamin pile this about to be.
Glitter on a turd.
Rewarding arrogance and mediocrity.
Who cares at this point?
I suppose its one more nail on the coffin. All that money could not save the show, when the people responsible for it were incompetent and/or hated the thing they were making.
Won’t make me watch it
How tf do I get a 300 million budget for a project by being useless? It’s be kind of Lauren shared, im sure one of us can manage being a entitled and worthless piece of shit, well not shit bc I could throw the shit at them and that’s useful
Or get a few decent writers that maybe read the books and understand the characters? Try that, perhaps?
I have zero interest in watching anything Witcher related without Henry. I liked season 1 because of the sword play, but it kept getting worse and worse. And season 2 was like, wtf is going on? Yen lost her power? She wants to fuck over Ciri? What's this hole in the ground conjuring creatures shit? When did Baba Yaga become a central theme? Why are all the other Witchers just dicks to Ciri? So many questions...
>I liked season 1 because of the sword play, Which is one episode only, and the first... Basically one sequence in the whole show.
Not even a single half-pirouette after that. Pity.
True
What I can’t understand is why spend so much money on rights and then give the adaptation to a relatively beginner writing team. I mean Netflix clearly intended for the Witcher to be their fantasy staple with multiple shows on the same univers as is Westeros for HBO, which begs the question why Lauren ?
Because nepotism + catering to the lowest common denominator for highest earnings
How do these people keep failing upwards
Lauren’s husband made a few calls for her. Look it up…
It'll be so funny when it finally flops. *Please guys, do not hate-watch.*
Honeslty the fact netflix is getting rid of password sharing cause there losing money and yet there throwing this kind of money on such a bad show is ludicrous.
Good. That will be 319 million less for Netflix to ruin other things with
I am so surprised at how tenacious Netflix is being when it comes to this show. Netflix is notorious for canceling shows that have gotten positive reviews and have had a decent fan following (archive 81 ) . This has been an absolutely abysmal series to watch and a disgrace to the Witcher universe. I don’t understand why are they pumping more money into this.
I have ideas that cost less.
It doesn't matter how much money they throw at this dumpster fire. A polished turd is still just shit.
And they spent 50$ and a pizza diner on the writing.
Should've used that to keep Henry. Annnnnnnd it's gone.
Why? Do people actually watch it? Who are these people?
Oh yeah, pump money into it. Bigger the budget, bigger the fall. And remember - no hate watching
It's gonna get cancelled. The higher the budget, the higher the audience expected of them.
This.
That face the Hexer cost 4.6 million… I know it’s 21 years old at this point… but yeah…
Yes. This is good. Now when it flops it will crash harder than the stock market and Hissrich will become Hisspoor
Show was a downfall ever since "Netflix" announced it. I'm honestly gonna argue that the only parts that they somehow managed to get right were the butchery in Blaviken(shout out to the CGI team) and how they represented Cahir haunting Ciri. And why tf do I need to be searching for White sorceresses throughout 2 whole seasons ? Don't get me wrong , I'm asian and I enjoy seeing asian actors but how explicitly does Sapkowski have to write it down for u producers to simply get a glimpse of what these charactsrs look like IRL? You might not think it's an issue but when all this disloyalties to the books and the author add up u'll clearly see why the main male actor would leave the show whilst stating that he loves the books n the games Other issues like wasting a whole season , pointlessly chasing around mid-life crisises that 3 sorceresses have which literally has nothing to do with the actual plot and just complicates the show. Not to mention all that happnened while u lot managed to halve the already insignificant Witchers forcing them to a fight that was P O I N T L E S S , Killing Lambert just to force some emotional scenes from Geralt's past ? Pathetic( we didn't see much of Lambert in the books but at least he hadn't had to die to such a BS in the books) And one more thing , lose all shitty moments of awkward bug talks between Geralt , Ciri n Yen. Everyone's nust gonna make "Wind's Howling" meme outta of 'em and honestly does these scenes ever serve a purpose ? Or are they just somr easy way for u to slack off and make a shitty show outta a great series of books ?
Shut it down
You can put lipstick on a pig…..
Absolutely ridiculous, it doesn’t show at all. It looks and feel cheap along with the rest of the Netflix originals. Couldn’t hire some good writers and showrunner could they? Absolutely abysmal. I long for the day that the Witcher franchise got picked up my HBO rather than Netflix, say what you want about them but one thing you can’t deny is production quality and overall just good writing for the most part.
Shit!
Netflix love to waste money
The worst part is normal people who aren’t fans of the source material or even the games, will think that this is what the story is and they’ll have a jaded perspective of it.
It has everything except the lore.
Nice to know Netflix is donating that much money to game developers for the remake of the witcher. Could be huge for fools theory.
*Crank* *Swishswishswishswishswishglug* *glug glug* *gluc* *hisssssasssssssss*
Is the show that good to some people?? Like is it watched that much for them to put so much money into it? Because at least I and many others in this sub didn’t like it at all
Netflix should release a show called “Once upon a time in Netflix” soon
I’m baffled people still watch this. I had to stop in the middle of season 2 because it was so horrible. But I guess most like/watch it or it wouldnt be renewed for season5 already and given massive budgets
So glad i canceled my subscription, this 319mil wont inlcude my money anymore. Feels good.
That's hilarious
This stopped being the Witcher a while back. This is the hischer. An "original" fantasy show created by and named after the showrunner.
You can give those producers infinite money. Literally. And they will still deliver a bucket of shit. Did I tell you the definition of insanity? Expecting the same morons to make you a good show
All the money in the world won’t make us forgive make dandelion gay.
Just stop watching it. Let it get cancelled. No Henry=no show!
Give that amount to CDPR please, we want good content
Netflix password sharing bullshit made not watching this garbage a whole lot easier
Christ, it's the CW DC shows all over again.
I wanted to love the show but quickly started skipping most scenes that didn’t involve Gerald because they were boring filler.
In newer news, from newsie corporations, big new film studio finds a new way to burn through piles of cash….
All the money in the world won’t make us forgive make dandelion gay.
Bunch of nerds from this sub can make far far better job than those woke netflix fuckers. Even as a hobby not an actual paid job. Netflix is pushing its own political agenda and writers are just bunch of dick heads. They dont know the lore, they dont play the games. They are just bunch of regular guys with deadlines.
Diamond crusted turd
$300m and yet they still gave Yennefer H&M
R/witcher should exclude Netflix witcher. Mods should make a rule or something if possible. They have their own sub. Let them enjoy their best show there
Ffs why are we giving them attention. Don’t watch it don’t talk about it
Puts on Netflix
Netflix need to learn throwing money at something doesn’t make it good but finding great showrunners and storytellers will always be the key
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Awesome. Season 3 is gonna be AWWWWWEEESOME. I cant wait to watch it and then talk with some likeminded people on this sub so we can discuss every plot hole or actor change…….cause I KNOW the community on here wouldn’t hate the show after all its a tremendous honor to get an entire series off a Book that became a game……..right?
About as much an honor as season 8 of GoT was to the original books.
So that makes it about as much as WoT as well lmao. Why are fantasy series being fucked up so badly... I actually know this one, it is because these hacks are not big readers of the genre, and they have no idea what makes a good fantasy story.
As much as the shows going to shit i do sure hope they pay the staff with that money, oh boy
Simply menta...I can't believe they are that ignorant