The Witcher Season 2 - Angry Review
VloĆŸit
- Äas pĆidĂĄn 2. 01. 2022
- đ„Patreon âș / angryjoeshow
đ„YT Join âș czcams.com/users/angryjoeshowjoin
AngryJoe, OtherJoe & Alex discuss Season 2 of Netflix's The Witcher series, is it better than the first, is it going in the right direction, is it worth your watch? Find out as we Review and later Breakdown each Episode!
đŽAngryJoeShowLIVE âș bit.ly/38VZ4aY
đOur New Shirts âș www.roguesapparel.com
đČOur Street Fighter Game! âșbit.ly/3fdulJA
đŹAJSA Displate Posters! âș bit.ly/2HHR9z1
đșTwitch âș / angryjoeshow
đŠTwitter âș / angryjoeshowââ
đŠTwitter âș / otherjoe_ajs
đAJSA Community âș ajsagaming.com
đAJSA Jerseys! âș bit.ly/2m2YJNq - Hry
Killing Eskel and making him an asshole was an insult to his character.
They didnt make him an asshole at all... you try having a tree grow in you and see if your not a bit of an asshole lol
Completely agree. The Eskel i grew up with had the discipline of a samurai because he would meditate before battle. Scarred face but kind soul. But yeah "omg what a twist"... fucking studio assholes
Wasn't the point he was infected? He wasn't himself.
@@scalpingsnake then why did nobody question him being a douche and bringing prostitues to the super secret Witcher base that has been attacked before
Eskel is a clown
So glad Alex is part of the crew. As a book reader I 100% agree with him.
I just felt a little bad for Henry when it comes to the writers doing their own thing. He even said in an interview, "I hope next season we stay closer to the books". You can tell he wasn't quite satisfied with them deviating from the books. He did great for what he was given though, I hope the spin off doesn't suck but I was hoping they'd do a story relating more specifically to the first Witcher.
Wait what spin off?
@@Amber-tk8hd sorry, poor choice of words, they're doing a Witcher prequel about the world before and during the creation of the first witcher.
Dude's a superfan of both the books and the movies. People on set call him a walking encyclopedia of the Witcher universe. I'd be shocked if he was okay with deviating from the source material as much as they did.
He also said in an interview that he always suggest to be close to the book but also have to respect the directorâs made up story as well (which fucking sucks)
fact and suppose it a rumor that if the writer goes off and try do their own shit again Henry said he done with the witcher
To add to Henry's involvement in the death of Roach. "Enjoy your last walk through the meadow and the mist, be not afraid of her, for she is your friend." Is in reference to Geralt in the books meeting death, and it being a child who holds your hand into the afterlife. Henry himself wrote this, and added it to the scene of Roach's death which before he intervened was meant to be a comedy bit, but he stopped it knowing how much Geralt connects with his horses. It's one of the best moments of the season, and it's all on him. Dude should be writing the whole damn thing if you ask me. He seems to be the only one with talent, and really reminds me of Viggo on the LOTR set, who learned elvish and incorporated book songs and poems and really understood Aragorn to his core. This is the type of dedication required to make everlasting impressions on people like aragorn has, it's just a shame LOTR had an entire cast with this in mind, and the Witcher seems to only have the one.
He got that from the memes of the Witcher 3, he wasn't even aware of the books until he met Hissrich and learned about them. Geralt doesn't give a shit about his mounts, they are an expendable asset, hence why he names all his mounts Roach. I thought the scene was super cringe to be honest and out of character.
They was gonna do roaches death as comedy?
Wow!
@@ajshezzer6825 Well yeah. Geralt (in the books) doesn't give a shit about his mounts.
@@Tbh5000 it actually went further, the scene was going to have Geralt rip a bone out of Roach's corpse to kill the Cherobog with, as a kind of revenge thing or something, pretty retarded stuff all round tbh lol
Dude, remember S1 Yennefer? Her acting was so impactful, all because, she said in an interview, she had not read the source or read on social media. She was simply told to act a certain way without having to live up to expectations!!
100% with Alex on this one. Writers shouldn't make up their own dumb sub plots if they don't know how to do them right and without huge plot holes and character assassinations. It's still not awful, though those writers made a successful but mediocre Hollywood fantasy series using the fame of the Witcher franchise when we could have got a masterpiece.
Agreed. Im fucking fuming after this dumb ass fucking season.. gonna go read the books again to regenerate
If you're just going to quote him, at least use actual quotes. It makes you look smarter.
While I appreciate that they took risks, it was just all over the place, and seemed so lacking in direction. It was bizarre, confusing and a straight up mess
Alex: ''No name Butholes...'' ''Punk ass bitches'' LOL ALEX SPITTING FIRE!
Season 2 was good... Except all the added shit.... Yen sub plot actually made me dislike her, never cared for Fringilla.
Really didn't like what they did to the witchers. Did they need to have that sub plot.
Also I really dislike how their handling Vilgafortz.
Man Alex tells it as it is these days, he is the constant voice of reason, hard truths and harsh reality, no matter how much someone likes it or not.
Definitely agree. His expressions, body language, and everything just resonated with how I felt about this season. Particularly the second half of the season. I do hope they take it a bit more seriously because their risks didnât work. Some character favourites are tossed aside uselessly with no purpose and sadly they canât recover from that in season 3.
@@spartandude0117 I mean they are changing lore of the books (who knows if they will even get to the games lore with how they are moving forward), as game of thrones did, just because of filming reasons. No one expects books to screen adaptation to be 100% copy, after all if that was so, rating would be 21+ and it would be blocked with all the f***ed up shit happening in the books, they have to change some things,
but unfortunately, they do it with the writing of a 5 year old, and none of it makes sense.
Its appaling how 50 video game developers with tiny budget (in the beggining )could make a far better story with their 3 games, at moments even surpassing Sapkowski original to be honest, not even he could do what their writers did, and a multi milion studio like Netflix cannot.
Maybe they should focus on the story and plot more instead of dIvErSiTY.
@@viktorjordanoski9950 I 100% agree with you. Not only was the writing severely sub par but god it was noticeable they were shoehorning the diversity cars in there. I would never expect a novel to be 100% replicated in a series, and it shouldnât since thereâs a lot of detail that can be expanded on to account for jumps in a book. But thereâs a different between taking creative liberties and âoh letâs kill this main character for no reason⊠yeah good choiceâ.
@@spartandude0117 if only killing Eskel was the dumbest thing they did...
I agree and I understand Alex is definitely right 100% but I do disagree with him, now everything heâs is saying is right there are so many problems with the show but I choose to ignore those problems because I love the show, I kind of feel like I donât get an opinion because I never read the books or played the games but after the show I definitely want to
Alex is totally right on the character assassinations. Itâs actually quite shocking.
He's not right about Triss though. She's pretty accurate to the books this season.
@@MNGN101 Not in looks
@@spendsshanks6050 Wdym? Red hair, scarred at the chest; she even looks younger this season.
@@MNGN101 Yes, Triss this season is quite book accurate personality and looks wise (with the exception of the red tint in the hair instead of gold). She probably needs a bit more spark in certain moments though. I actually prefer book Triss to Triss in the games.
Itâs funny. CDPR are incredibly faithful to the books with the characters in their games. Triss is a glaring exception.
But in regard to character assassinations (behaviour and decision making that isnât true to the characters from the books) he is right. There is a lot of it going on.
Cahir for example is in no way recognisable. Thatâs not even the same character. Instead of a person caught up in situation where he himself is pretty powerless and has complexity in character motivation he is just a 2 dimensional evil bad guy.
And Yennifer, who is arrogant, selfish and nasty at times in the books is made into a person who is capable of the deeply evil act of sacrificing a young girl for her own benefit - but decides at the last minute not go through with it.
Itâs⊠certainly different.
@@MNGN101 Since Iâm black Iâll say it lol. Donât get me wrong, sheâs stunning to look at but imagine if they made Geralt African-American. Itâs just not true to the source material for the sake of diversity.
The thing that annoyed me about the whole Vesemir trying the serum on Ciri was that not only is this Geralt's daughter, she's the source of the magic ingredient needed for the serum. So if she dies, there's no more of that.
It's also why it bugged me the way they act when they lose the serum, as they can just create more with Ciri's blood.
then you missed the entire point because you were too busy making up your own excuse just so you can hate the scene. Ciri did not want another human to die if her serum was in fact, not the witcher serum. she wanted to test it on herself to test the safety...
Yea why would anyone be mad that Ciri's blood was stolen by the enemy... it couldn't possibly be used for evil and we should just celebrate that she can give us more if we ask her... so ignorant...
@@datboishagg682It was not ambiguous if it was the serum, Vessimir was said was immediately. So no, she wasnât testing the safety. It wasnât safe. Many Witcherâs die during the process. So yea, it was a stupid plot hole that they didnât think through.
Agree totally. Sure if nothing else this would be an extremely poor test of Ciri's blood making a witcher from a human? She's not a normal human. She's essentially already got magic powered blood.
@@datboishagg682 Ciri wanted to take the serum to become a witcher, so that she can be more like Geralt (as per her words), so she can be of use. It's not to "test the safety", you just made that up. Vesemir already says it's unsafe (which is an understatement).
@@painkiller8639 "it's not to test the safety, you made that up". dude i just looked up the scene to enlighten you. Ciri: "How are you so sure it will work?" Vesemir: "I'm not" (sure it will work). Ciri: "I'll do it on one condition, you TEST it on me first." Vesemir: "Forget it". that conversation proves i am right and you are wrong.
I agree with Alex 100%. I feel like they couldn't get a grip on the story, and all of the things they did well in Season 1 seemed to get abandoned. They invented reasons to separate characters, and the things they did with Yennifer took her from a dynamic character to totally one note.
I really lost a lot of steam watching this season. I am not sure they know what to do with Season 3. I will watch because Henry Cavill is perfect and the world is cool, but I'd be lying if I said I was excited to see more at this point.
This
It's such a bizarrely written show at the moment. Seems to require knowledge of the books or games to follow, but simultaneously shits on the things that those same people are looking for. The show could also REALLY do with a map to contextualise the various factions and locations, I was watching with my dad and had to explain so much.
Actually it requires none of the books to follow. The fucking creator of this show is making shit up as she goes and using the characters to legitamize her bullshit.
@CdrRogue This was my complaint as well , I had to explain locations to my wife - and the problem is this show painted itself with such a generic fantasy brush that nothing is set apart. I mean Game of Thrones helped to have the intro screen be the map - but even without it, you could tell the difference between the Eyrie/Knights of the Eyrie and say Kings Landing. Even small things like how the sun falls on the land, to the way they talk , they way they dress, etc. Similar with Lord of the Rings - you put a rider of Rohan standing next to a knight of Gondor , and I can tell you the distinct differences as to who they are (and at a glance with just looking at them, know how they fight/their tactics).
This show has none of that- it's like the showrunner was thinking "Toss some dudes in shiny armor, make it look a touch different, have a round table of kings & mages but have them dress similar" and nothing feels set apart.
Instead of this show being a living breathing world, it feels like a small hamlet of kingdoms within walking distance
I had no idea where anyone was at any moment
Yeah they're teleporting massive distances all over the place just like in later seasons of GoT.
I know they have literal teleporting in this show lol, but even on horse back they are doing it.
once they release a map, they will have to explain why it takes so little time to travel from A to B.
Does Alex have his own side channel or twitch or something that he talks on? I would love to hear him talk more about the Witcher but like by himself. It was clear in this review he was never able to get full point across
Agreed, he kept getting cut off. I agree with him on all points to except for Triss. I actually like how she looked last season. Everything else I agree with though. This season just pissed me off.
Alex totally saves this review! Thank you for actually bringing up all the facts from the books
I take it you have read all the boots? Is it true that Eskrel was not even a Leshen in the books!
He does save this review. AJ and OJ are gushing about this crap itâs pathetic they know nothing about this world beyond the games. This show is crap.
@@Sasso-pf1mo no he didn't turn into a leshen
@@Sasso-pf1mo no, in fact in terms of ciriâs training he makes a pretty big impact on her, he isnât featured a whole lot but he is essentially geraltâs best friend and a badass. he survives the fight in the books
no one give a fuck about the books though go read them if that what you want, not defending the season though it could have been written and paced better but not folllowing the books wasn't the problem.
alex's face in the beginning when joe is gushing about the season says everything xD
His frustration shows throughout the video. Like he said in the beginning: watching this show was just work (and doing this panel, probably too :D )
Indeed. AJ fanboying
@@Reganon690 AJ opinions on anything franchise base lately are so fucking bad I was these videos for Alex and OJ, AJ is calling everything great and awesome.
@@elguty4045 indeed. I love his video games reviews tbh though. I always think heâs ahead of the curve. When it comes to movies & tv series? Definitely behind the curve
he has that face 99% of the time tho
Totally onboard with Alex on this. Iâm saying it with a heavy heart, as a huge Witcher fan, who read all books and played all three games a several times. He just took everything I had to say about this season right out of my mouth. Kudos to Alex!
Was literally thinking the exact same thing.
I am more willing to overlook the issues with this season but I have to agree. Whenever Alex praises something wholeheartedly it's quite satisfying. Like when they reviewed Arcane.
Funny how every video AJ is 100% hyped with something and then alex talks and always brings himself down a notch. *Logic'd*
Same here
100% agree, I know it seemed harsh but the man was telling the truth. Hopefully they can improve next season
As Alex said: This season feels like high school fanfiction
Alex: *Gives thorough breakdown of why the season is a 6/10*
Angry Joe: *excitement* "I...I just really like the world!"
Right! I really like this world too, which is why I'm upset with the showrunners and what they're doing to this world.
Joe isn't very bright. Very entertaining though
Lauren Hissrich on twitter: "I love Witcher books and want to stay true to the source material"!
Lauren Hissrich on set:
"Okay, this is the scene of orgy in Kaer Morhen. Everyone ready? Action!"
She doesnât have a fucking clue. Sheâs exactly what we all said she was, one of the things that still pisses me off is the âdiverseâ casting which ruins the immersion for me
@@Jackman1st đđđđ
@@Jackman1st Come on lad... It's obvious that we NEED cast of medieval European fantasy to look like it was taken straight from the streets of modern day NYC. You clearly are racist if you think otherwise.
Netflixâs changes are only worsening the bookâs story. Not saying it needs to be exactly the same, but if youâre gonna make changes they should at least be equally good to what happens in the book, if not better.
Bad writing
Didnt hear any of you GOT fans crying with all the pornhub scenes lol. Or how about Spartacus?...đ€Šââïž, clearly those that read the books didnt read the books or play the games if so they wouldnt be shocked by a spicy scene. This isnt Disney.
40:56 Vesimir from the books would never agree to turn Ciri into a witcher. Alex is right, Vesimir didn't want to continue making them anymore because the process kills some many kids. No problem in changing things from the books if it's for something better but what those idiots from netflix are doing is taking what's working excellent in the books and make it far worse!
What they done to vesemir really hurt
@@julianapiresluciano9482 everything about him is just wrong the actor had a sort of role model role in killing eve but it just didn't work here at all a lot of actors would of been better
Yeah, they did Vesemir really dirty. I couldn't believe that stabbing scene at the end. Just so badly out of line with his character. He's just a selfish angry old man through almost the entire season, and the rest of the witchers are written as total scumbags too.
I grew up reading witcher books throughout school. Was reading the last novel as it came out when I was traveling to my first work after studies. I'm obviously very sentimental about it and I'm trying to not be overly critical over the show but at times it looks to me that I would expect more sense in a story and better dialogues from a drunk teenage dungeon master going off the top of his head.
yeah writing is just not very good ,whole plot development and character development lack's depth . Its fun too watch at least it was for me but i can't take it seriously .
A lot of times I feel Alex is harder on stuff than the others, but I agree with everyone he is spot on and gave the score we all agree with. I think he wanted to give the series even less, but is being kind to it. This is hard because there are things done so well, but anything the writers strike out on their own with is ROUGH.
If you listen to the interviews, it's clear that Henry fought to stay true to the original characters. The producers were originally thinking of changing portrayals to chase marketing bullet points. Anything good that came of the Witcher series is solely due to the actors, primarily Henry Cavill. Without that, this would likely be as crappy as Cowboy Bebop. Even with Henry advocating for the fans, the series has major flaws. It's still worth watching, but they need to do a better job next season, or it's done.
EDIT: I agree more with Alex on this one. Those Witcher 3 beer goggles made me take this higher than otherwise, but it's above average, not great.
How do you know Henry did that I've not seen the interviews
@@Airyed he says so in like every interview though. Even other actors have said the same thjng
I actually rated this season higher a little bit for myself than Alex did. For me, Season 1 was a strong 8 (not a 9 because of trash casting and i was butthurt about that) and this was a 7/10 because the only thing which was better here, the absence of this multi timeline storytelling. But also because of that the whole season was so flat.
But i add more credit to Alex's opinions because he isn't as biased as Joe is. Joe is clearly loving the entire world so much that he has a little bit of bent mirror in front of his eyes.
And agree. If Hanry wouldn't be part of this show.....I'm sure the entire series would be a trainwreck.
@@robertschaffer596 that opinions is............... interesting
For me it is a just above average season, with a lot of fanboy bonus. We can only hope they come back on track in S3.
Alex all the way, that guy knows his stuff. 100% agree with him
He, and you, have absolutely no taste.
me too
@@tyrongkojy it's his opinion, I don't agree with it but he has the right to dislike it
I 100% agreed with Alex too. I loved his comment "I did it for work", all the fringilla scenes and the stuff with elves just didn't resonate in me at all. They had barely any character development and the show really didn't make me care about them at all
@@tyrongkojy Netflix The Witcher is on the level of cheap 90s fantasy shows like Xena, or even worse. If anyone has no taste here, then its you
I am 100% with Alex. If i didnt have such a connection to this world through the games, I wouldn't have been able to finish even season 2. The writing is SO BAD in too many episodes.
The writing was definitely the weak link this time around. Some of the dialogue was just laughable. And I agree with Joe on the overuse of F-bombs. Still, it's hard to fault the decision to up the number of monster battles. Those action sequences with Henry are often when the show is at its best. Given that the writing is so terrible, attempting to recreate the dialogue-heavy sequences from the books was probably not going to work anyway with this creative team.
Alex always has the best takes. Completely agree with him!
I could not imagine this show without Alex anymore. The crazy part is I have watched the angry joe show for years, way before Alex was even a thing, but he really elevates these reviews a hell of a lot. I feel like my opinions always align with his. Joe, Other Joe and Alex are the perfect trio for the show.
He's based and Alex pilled.
He's obviously the most intelligent of the crew. Very comfortable being himself too. Best decision Joe ever made was making Alex a full time member
Alex is on fire here. I agree with him on almost every point. I thought that most of the writing was lazy and the season itself was ultimately disappointing.
Thatâs cause Alex is just regurgitating the subreddits consensus
@@Dcoll132 I mean if he's right he's right, who cares if reddit agrees.
@@Dcoll132 so what? ... he's still right, the writing is awful.
@@Dcoll132 think about every argument about any major issue, 1000 people could say âmurder is badâ and theyâd all be right in saying that even tho theyâre definitely not the first. Arguments and points can be used to be built on top of eachother and then discussed in an open conversation. That is the point of a review
@@Dcoll132 Writing is trash. Deal with it and recognize how dog shit this show is
I'm with Alex on this. OJ and AJ are fucking insane. The second season is shit and I genuinely believe you'll both look back on this and be in agreement it wasn't as good as you initially thought.
It was painfully obvious they didn't have competent opinions like that middle guy. Then the nerve Joe has to rush his opinions was pretty cringey. Seemed like he didn't wanna be contradicted. Then scrambling and changing opinions. Idk whole thing was weird
100% with Alex, season 2 is sooooo different (In a bad way unfortunately) to the source material that it should be considered non canon
In regards to Ciri to killing the "witchers" while they slept, it's honestly hilarious in a really depressing kind of way: In the Witcher 3, at Vesemir's funeral, Geralt says to her, "Don't blame yourself, no witcher's ever died in his own bed."
This show has made all witchers other than Geralt look like punk bitches who are only good at dying.
I was thinking that as well. Even worse, when they just leave their medallions/warning systems hanging on a tree while they sleep.
It's a world that hates them, wants to kill them and has even invaded their home to slaughter them and they just leave their warning system on a damn tree... smh...
@@zuriyel5368 the tree was for the dead witchers lol, not when they slept
apparently the medallions only warn when the plot says they do. Smh
@@zuriyel5368 like the other guy said, the tree only has the dead witchers' medallions hanging on it. Theirs simply didn't vibrate because the writers forgot how this world works. One of many such errors.
There's an episode in this season saying that, and then in the last episode they had the audacy ..
I donât always agree with Alexâs takes, but this is the first time Iâll support him. 100% agree with his opinion.
Yeah I'm not really sure exactly what it was but I was sucked out of the emerson a few times because of weird writing and weird contrivences
I always agree with Alex, heâs actually the smartest movie review in this room
@@welowee7610 yes he is, Joe is angry with games but overly forgiving for shows and movies. This season was mostly a bore to get through, I couldnât watch more than 2 episodes in a night I had to watch something more interesting after trying to get into this over 5 evenings. I even picked up Witcher 3 where I left off because it was so unsatisfying of a season
@@87hiphopfan I agree just for the fact it strays far too much from it's source material an 8 out of 10 is way too high I don't know what Joe is thinking
@@rmcgowa1987 I cant really blame the writers for straying from the source material considering that Ciri spends the entire book training or in school at the temple in no danger whatsoever. That just doesnt work on screen, but 90% of the season is made up bullshit drama that never happened in the books. If the writers had put in a little more effort they could have adapted more of the book material instead of making up a whole new story.
By far my biggest issue with this season is Yen loosing her magic because it leads to a fundamental change to her relationship with Ciri. In the book Yen is invited to the temple to tutor Ciri and over many months that student/mentor relationship evolves into a mother/daughter bond that defines Yen's actions for the rest of the series. The show has tainted that relationship with lies and betrayal, and Yen's "noble sacrifice" at the end means nothing since it ultimately cost her nothing and she immediately benefited from it.
This is supposed to be an adaptation, not fanfiction. Alex is making the most sense here.
I feel like Alex should be making/hosting these Reviews.
He should, AJ is a shit critic.
At least they got better Nilfgaardian armor than the nutsack armor from Season 1
facts
That was one of the few things they got right. They at least TRIED to give Triss some red hair this time around
@@Excalibur01 Red hair doesn't hide her face. They should have gotten the actress who played the Brave disney movie girl in the Once upon a time show.
@@Charok1 The girl who played Belle?
I appreciate that Alex doesn't fanboy over things and gives true and honest reviews. 9/10 times I end up listening to his personal review than the "overall" review. He's a quality critic who manages to be the most objective out of the three.
Amen to that.
It's very obvious from the Joes perspectives that they get hung up on small things and not actually critiquing the substance.
Like: Does anyone really care about Triss that much? She was fine.
The writing of the conflicts was not.
Focusing on too many characters that barely get introduced properly (Dijkstra, all the King's, half the mages)
That's what's going to do the show in if they can't get it right
â@@Zeppelinschaffner22
I mostly agreed with all of Alex's sentiments. I mean, I'm not a fan of Triss's actress but that's only because I've played the games and it just feels wrong to me. The actress herself doesn't to a bad job, it's just people who've played the game are expecting red hair, lots of curves, pale skin, green eyes.
I didn't like the whole "no magic" thing. It was just boring to me because I like watching Yen mess shit up.
I do find the elves interesting and I do want to see more of their culture and whatnot.
But I mostly talk about Joe, he's not a bad critic but he does seem to more easily let rose colored glasses and fanboy status slant his ratings. Like, you can still really be into something but be objective about critiquing it. It's harder, but I feel Alex does do it very well. If you go back and avg their episode by episode ratings I'm sure it doesn't get the 8 Joe gave the whole season. He just gives too much weight to budget, fight scenes, and small nostalgic moments with some properties, especially the one he really likes. In my opinion, anyway. Alex doesn't do that so much from what I've seen in my time watching them and I respect that. Especially in an era where "critics" allow so much outside/$$$ influence their opinions like the hacks at Kotaku and other "games media" companies.
I think they have a really good mix between the 3 of them.
Peoples opinions on things can be very polarised. it's really good they have views in review that often disagree. Alex tends to represent the purist objective view on something.
The Joes tend to represent the more "is it fun" or "I'm a bit of a fan of this regardless" views.
All of them are valid and I think it's much more interesting having a review team like that with views that represent such a broad spectrum rather than all in on "I like this" or "I hate this".
@@nuggsy7085 It's not that I'm not interested in elves personally, I think the story of the elves can be very interesting. I just think the way they introduce a million different POV characters is an awful way of building a show like this. If we are to have an insight into elven culture, why can't we have a main character actually interact with the elves and see it from their perspective?
The amount of sidestories and cutting to random people we barely know in this sseason is crazy to me.. I found myself zoning out most of the time because I just didn't know these people or had any idea how much of it actually connected to anything because they do such a poor job of world building.
@@MaMastoast yeah, they do try to fit a LOT into each episode/season that doesnât work well on TV. The whole time skipping of the first season took me a second watch to realize fully what the hell was going on.
i agree with the miscast of triss ESPECIALLY in season 1. I think they definitely made some large improvements to her design and anna shafer did a much better job at portraying her personality in season 2 than before but it still feels wrong. Props to the large improvement though.
Hands down, Alex was the voice of reason here. Books and games aside, even if you start the show with a clean slate (not knowing the characters at all) lots of scenes make no sense at all.
Yen needs to prove she's not a spy by killing a Nilf prisoner? Has she been a spy, why wouldn't she want to kill the only person that could allegedly rat on her? The execution scene altogether made me scratch my head a dozen times: if she just wants to escape - why would she free Cahir (nice aim with the chains by the way), run all the way to the burning pillars and destroy them in one go (were they made out of carton?), cheatcode(?) a single horse in the middle of nowhere, spawn Cahir right next to the horse (as he was not there when she was running to it) and take him with her? Little stuff like this (which is abundant in this season) makes me think the showrunners perceive their audience as being dumb and should not question their decision as these are minor details to further the "true" (as intended in the books) plot.
How do I know they don't want us to question anything? They said it so themselves through Jaskier's mouth: "if you could write yourself a little song, you could sing yourself whatever you please - but you can't, can you? Because you are a dockside scapegrace". And just like Jaskier, they are ready to die on that hill. Well, jokes on them - fans will eventually leave once you butcher all known characters into complete OCs and casual viewers will definitely not support the show financially or otherwise, plus they tend to be even pickier than hardcore fans and will quickly switch to something else.
Find the door and fucking leave than.
@@xIRemy Lauren, is that you?
Alex is such a grounded pillar opinion wise. Always look forward to hear what he thinks.
that look on his face right around the 1 hour mark as he is realizing joe has no idea about the story line in the Witcher
Lol not at all. He shit talks 90% of the entertainment they review
@@Gibsonsg527 cus 90% of it is shit. He uses his brain like all of you should
@@blackvalio4060lmao Alex is not objective and is constantly negative about so many shows and movies. Itâs impossible to take the opinion of someone seriously when they think almost everything is crap
@@Gibsonsg527 actually it is because most shows and movies are bad these days. He is objective. Spiderman is the best example of people just refusing to think with their heads when the movie is full with problems. But just because the 3rd act is very good they just turn blind for the 1st half
This season gave me the same feeling as The Last Jedi did, that they donât care about the fans
Oh they care, care about shoving their garbage down our throats
true, just modernizing story without any reason to do so.
I agree with you 100%. Seems like the producers really donât care about the source material at all and would rather give it a complete overhaul.
This season really does have a last jedi/rise of skywalker feel.
Personally, it felt like Season 2 was reminiscent of _Batman v Superman_ in the sense that Netflix was simply rushing through the books just so they can adapt _The Witcher 3_ soon.
I surprised no one mentioned when Ciri Screamed and my a crack all the way towards Sintra which is at least 2-3 Miles away... Alerted the guards and the guards got their in 6 seconds. So you telling me, those too just stood there baffled looking at the guards the whole time instead of running away? Say it with me.... "Are you F'ing Kidding me?!"
Just made myself watch the last few episodes just to say I finished it. And thought the same thing about that scene
The problem with deviating from existing material is that you now have to come up with a new narrative thread that weaves characters and events in a consistent way. When doing this, you have to acknowledge that your "end game" is now a totally new goal; you can't still aim towards the old, because the new narrative doesn't work toward it in a natural way. The other issue is that, as a TV studio, you have a lot of deadlines to meet, not to mention staff availability and a considerably high budget which shareholders want to see used appropriately. You don't have time to be creating completely new material that somehow links in with existing material whilst also maintaining some degree of authenticity to the original product, in addition to actually making sense.
In contrast, Andrzej Sapkowski was an old man who had the luxury of creating a story on his own terms, with less pressure, which ensured he could write a storyline that worked.
I haven't watched S2 yet, but it sounds like Lauren just wants to change things to make it her own. That's all well-and-good, but it comes at the expense of quality. I'd like to point out that Game of Thrones went off-the-rails the moment Dumb and Dumber had no material to work with.
What do you mean - was? He is still alive.
This is called the Witcher but itâs in name only. The dominant character in the show is Yennefer. Then Ciri and Fringilla with Geralt some time. We need more of Geralt. Alex nails it on what happens with the witchers in particular.
I say Fringilla has more plot lines then geralt. The witchers are just some random characters whit no porpuse
Literally everything with Yennefer in season 2 was not in the books, the entire story with the cabin in the woods, her and Fringilla, and the Elves is completely new and never happens in canon. By adding all that in theyâve moved the plot along sooo slowly this season. Itâs like the writers are trying to make the female characters even more empowered, when in the source material theyâre already super badass. Hope season 3 has more of Geralt, and is more faithful to the books.
Yeh tbh itâs about time Geralt did some witching in the show. But then that would require putting a white male in the forefront of a Netflix show, which is not gonna happen in 2021/2022. Theyâre twisting the lore every which way possible to fit the narrative of female leads and black characters being more important than a show that is supposed to be about Geralt and his adventures.
@@deadlyydude5522 rescuing Jaskier from Rience was almost 1:1 with books (aside from not having magic)
And she's not even a good Yennefer đ she is at times but I think it bothers me that she acts and looks like a cocky 19 Yr old girl rather than a confident woman.
Fully agree with Alex. Extremely poor writing this season :( They made Vasemir a senile idiot doing stupid sh*t, while he is the oldest and smartest witcher. I also hate how they treated the world and distances. Geralt constantly leaving and meeting again Ciri like he has a teleport and Cintra is next to every location.
Fast Travel. Just like the game.
@@patrickreynolds5463 And it doesnât work in a show
Man...Angry Joe is being extremely merciful for some strange reason.
Blind fan lol
says alot about the showrunners that henry cavil was one their last resorts for the role of geralt considering he is the best casted character in the entire show. makes you think how bad the show would have been if he didnt fight for the role in the first place.
Alex nails it. The motivations and actions of characters didnât make sense too often and pulled you out of the story. You question why a character makes a dumb decision then realize itâs simply to drive another part of the plot. The monsters all looked cool though!
Seriously, Alex is right about everything that is wrong with this season.
Yesss!
Yea heâs the best reviewer for movies by far.
Yeah
He's always so negative
It's a 4/10 season
I've never read the books and haven't played the games yet, but I agree with Alex that the writing was bad in a lot of places in this season. I enjoyed watching it even though I did notice that sometimes I just wanted to doze off and take a nap, and I think it was because of how Alex said that it felt like it was dragging on, characters weren't explaining themselves nor giving information that they knew, like how Triss clearly saw Yen at the bath when Yen came back from being captured but there was no conversation about it with Geralt, I just couldn't understand why that conversation never happened. And then the final battle with Ciri being possessed, that whole episode was just confusing on why the action, the acting, the dialog, why was it all bad. I was literally asking "what the hell is going on, why is this happening" , why can't they find a simple girl that was apparently standing in front of the tree when Geralt literally had a scene with Vesemir beforehand in a hallway close to the tree. Like it just didn't make sense, why play it out that way, the direction of all of those shots were like a young child's bad imagination. It Really could have been way better than what was produced. So Awkward and Unnecessary. Like AJ, I did enjoy the show a lot, but after hearing them break down the episodes and playing it in my head it is just way more apparent that the whole season could have been better. This is coming from someone that is new to the lore, but with the knowledge and experience to know that these shows nowadays are really bad. They need better writing and direction, the filmography was pretty good, and probably more time for characters to be shown and explained who they are and why they're important because I was lost with Cahir and the other characters almost the whole season.
technically, Triss not telling Geralt about Yennefer could be considered "book accurate". She has a thing for him and in the games, where Geralt lost his memory, she also doesn't tell him about his past.
But because they never brought it up again in the show and Geralt never confronted Triss, I think the the writers did that on accident. A simple line of dialogue would have been enough ("Why would Triss not tell me about your survival, Yen?"). This is just bad writing and having the knowledge of the books and games makes it partly even more confusing. I have no idea what the story and the characters is aiming for right now.
Joe, I just wonder how after reading books and playing games you can toss at this such high ranking as 8. Alex is right, weak 6 and it is for season 2 as well as for the first. I really enjoyed just first part of first season and first part of second but there are still things I have to forgive.
It's like he played the Witcher 3 and forgot what a good witcher adaption and good writing looks like lmao.
Iâm mostly with Alex on this, I enjoyed some bits especially in every scene with the Owl just saying to myself âthatâs Philippaâ đ but everything to do with the elves bored the fuck out of me and Eskel killed off was just mind boggling and stupid đ€·đœââïž the Witcherâs being showed as helpless in comparison to Geralt was abit of an insult to them though Geralt is the better Witcher but they didnât have to make them seem like peasants with swords sort of skill difference, they couldâve done a whole season just showing Geralt training Ciri at Kaer Morhen and It wouldâve been better
Fun fact, in the book Blood of Elves, it is hinted that Eskel could be more powerful due to Triss reacted to him much stronger than to Geralt
@@TheWolfLetsPlay the writers kinda forgot. Or they didn't even read the books after saying for months before S1 that they are just looking at the books for inspiration.
Yeah for some reason I never pieced together it was Philippa till the revel then was like oh damn that's right she turns into an owl. Hope the actess lives up to it.
Hell... I actually would've been _okay_ with them killing Eskel if they actually did it for a valid reason, or spent anytime whatsoever capitalizing on the emotional aspect of it. Instead, he's introduced as a weird sociopath and then immediately killed off, and we get a few "sad moments" that aren't actually sad at all because the show did fuck all to develop his character or make viewers care.
Honestly, this show is so, so poorly written that I think they pulled some random kid out of high school and made her do it.
@@TheWolfLetsPlay People assume Geralt is the greatest Witcher to ever live because he's the protagonist of the video games, and therefore as powerful as the game mechanics allow him to be.
In the book and the setting as a whole, however, there isn't much to suggest that he's any more than an above average Witcher. He is "The Witcher" because he happens to be the Witcher most involved in the events of the books, not because he's the greatest of them all.
Heck, Geralt spends over half the books gimpin' around from all the injuries sustained in the multiple fights where other characters beat him to within an inch of his life.
To be honest, that's what makes him compelling in the books. If he was as powerful in the books as he is in the games, there wouldn't be much drama or conflict there. The thing is that both the books and the games understood what made their mediums memorable and effective (character development and gameplay/power fantasy, respectively), and executed them flawlessly.
Alex keeping it straight as always . Respect.
That's because he is not afraid of the woke audience, he sticks to his conversation as a fan of all things nerdy with no exceptions. I knew by the look on his face at the beginning when Joe was talking about how this season was great that the feeling wasn't mutual. Much respect for Alex.
@@TYRANT_GODS No its because it looks up with what reddit thinks and goes with that.
There was this scene where Ciri begs geralt to let her go through mutations. And geralt is like no way and has a monologue . That felt like Henry Cavill just said stop we are finishing this scene right now . And just improvised the scene and said exactly what geralt would say . Henry is protecting the true character of Geralt I'm so glad he is playing the role
Sapkowski's books are for mature readers, very rich in content; Netflix series are for teenagers; shallow and tragically changed by this woman 'whatever her name'
As someone whoâs read every book twice and played every game to death, this season was a 3/10 and thatâs pushing it. The only thing that was actually from the books and not weak garbage was the first episode with the beauty and the beast vampire story. Thatâs why it was great, because they actually used the source material. WHO WOUD HAVE THOUGHT THAT WOULD MAKE IT BETTER.
I'd give it 3/10 too. I never read the books or played the games.
It was the same with the Polish television series from the early 2000s. What was taken from Sapkowski's prose was good despite the poor special effects.
The entirety of the community shares your sentiment. Joe is a minority of the minority. He's literally the only person I've stumbled across that even somewhat enjoyed the season, let alone loved it. Seems a little like a payed shill if you ask me.
The death of Geralts Eskel was the cherry on the top of this heaping pile of excrement. It was inexplicably terrible.
Can't say 3/10, that's too low for a show which is still good. Season 3 could be dire though if this show isn't managed carefully from here.
@@tomjjackson21 you are insane if you think joe is a payed shill for the show lol
4/10 . I read the books and I just couldn't understand why they are trying to make everything worst in that tv show. From casting to characters and story. Great books, great games, poor tv series.
If you'd read the books you'd know what a fucking shitfest this season was. They assume something was in the books but in fact episodes 3-8 are complete fan fiction of a madman
"It's from the books!" Sorry dude, but it's not. They've changed SO MUCH from the source material, that you can't even call it loose adaptation anymore. They've taken a well-established franchise with a huge fanbase, they've kept only a facade just to throw out all important stuff that makes it so good and replaced original content with their own shallow imagination. That's what Hollywood do all the time lately - they are lacking good ideas, they've butchered their own franchises (like Star Wars) so they take some established stuff from all around the world and make it their own (just like with Japanese manga/anime titles) in a worst possible way. Byt hey! At least there is an action and nice visuals. So who cares about the rest, right? I absolutely agree with Alex! He said what I would say about this show. Basically, this show wasn't made for ppl who read the books. This show, at its best, is for ppl who played the games or do not know about this franchise at all.
Alex is spot on, but he still went easy on it. Deserves at BEST 5/10
Should be way lower. Cavil is the only saving grace aside from maybe the actor who plays Dandelion
It's a fucking 4/10 at best
It wasn't as good as the first season . But I enjoyed it . 5 out of 10 is just a joke of a score
My issues with season 2 are....
Only Geralt has yellow eyes, They already established in the Vesimir anime which is cannon to this series that witchers have yellow eyes as part of their mutations.
They introduce like 20 new witchers then kill off freaking Eskel instead of one of them and then to add insult to injury they feed Eskel to wolves what?
Plus they also ignore how the entire plot of the anime is about mutating monsters that attacked the school of the wolf??? Both Geralt and Vesemir were there but i guess they just forgot when they were talking about how Eskel mutating isn't normal.
Also wtf is up with Yen? She is a 100 year old witch but she is talking like a teenager. Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck.
I know u watched xletalis reviews xd
Which anime did you watch? Cause the one I watched was about a Witcher creating monsters to sustain the job market of Witchers.
Didn't the whole "fed to the wolves thing" also happen in Witcher 3?
@@DoubleDuck_ i dont know why you said that but i didnt watch his video and have the same fucking problems with it lol
Eskel was BARELY in the books at all man it didn't really matter what happened to him bc they are trying to adapt the show to the books (even if scuffed)
I agree with Alex. My wife who hasn't played the games was bored out of her mind and I myself struggled to stay awake
I can understand wanting to add more actions scenes, and monster fights, but the calmer, slower moments are also meant to further develop characters and interpersonal relations (plus the Game of Thrones early season, first season was little on action as well and it worked). Besides the source material that is Blood of Elves and Time of Contempt novels DO contain some very nice actions sequences some of which fall short in the show's version, (like the Geralt vs Michelet Brothers fight in the books, it was great, but in the show it kind of was underwhelming, other the fact that circumstances are changed, and Geralt at first has no swords etc.) then there is the big river monster in the book Aeschna, and other monster fights appearing at the beginning of Time of Contempt, manticore fight, even one werewolf (though only mentioned in passing, this could have been made into entire action scene for adaptation) there are also fight scenes with Scoia'tael and various thugs so there could have been some decent action this season without resorting to make it 80% fanfiction.
This just isn't true. Geralt barely fights monsters in the saga. This season was just adapting Blood of Elves, which is a great book for character growth but it has basically 0 action. There are the Michelet brothers and the Caravan fight with the scoia'tel, this season would always have to add a lot. The real problem was that they should've added when needed and kept the most iconic moments and instead they ended up sacrificing those book moments.
@@jjnull8108 You don't need fight scenes to make a show interesting. Fight scenes that don't further character growth or resolve conflicts are just a waste of time and budget. It would've been better to expand scenes from the books to further explain the worldbuilding to people who never read the books. Or, if Blood of Elves is not interesting (which is not true in my opinion), nothing stopped the showrunner from mixing Blood of Elves with Time of Contempt in one season
@@moonknightish Well, first of all, that's untrue. You absolutely need fight scenes to make the Witcher interesting bc that's what fans are expecting. They expect to see battles in a fantasy world, sorcerers using magic, witchers killing monsters, soldiers fighting battles. It's just how it works. Sure, quite a few people might not care, but if you want to make an extremely popular fantasy show, you need to have something for everyone and that includes fights. Plain and simple.
Second, I never said BoE isn't interesting. I said it is a book that shines, not bc of the fighting which it has a remarkably low amount of, but for its character development.
About mixing both books in one season, I imagine common sense obviously stopped her from doing that. Each book deserves its own time to breathe and tell its story. Mixing both books in one season would just lead to a convoluted mess. Time of Contempt especially, which needs A LOT of setup on screen.
@@jjnull8108 Exactly who are these fans who expect fight scenes? Fans of the books don't like them, because they expected something closer to the source material. Fans of the games? But I don't see for what reason they would like hollow fight scenes, when in the game fighting almost always comes after lots of dialogue, as a resolution of a plot thread. And some quests don't even have fighting at all.
I agree with what you say about not mixing two books to let the story breath. The problem is that this season has the same issue because it shortens the character development of the books and cuts some events entirely. Which are events that also contains fight scenes. Like Shaerrawed. Or the boat on the Pontar. Or Geralt's hunt for Rience.
Iâm with Alex, was trying really hard to watch it to the end, I was also trying to see from other joe and Angry joe perspective but I couldnât get myself to understand the reason why they like it so much, I guess thatâs the beauty of entertainment. Thank you crew for the review it allows my nights to be less lonely.
Same with my friends, they loved it, I thought it was awfull.
their taste is quite generic, throw a bit of "edgy n' funny" lines and some fights and they are satisfied...
Honestly I think they're just blinded by the fact that it's the witcher and fantasy in general.. I mean fantasy is super cool right? I think we all agree on that... Apparently it makes it so some people can ignore huge glaring issues.. I kinda wish I was like that.. I mostly just see flaws.
I completely disagree.
This series must be amazing for newcomers. But for fans of the books and/or games it's just fucking painful to see those characters butchered
Never read books, barely played games but never continued them. Witcher never really got me interested even tho I'm polish. Watched the series and I loved it.
This is a cw quality show
Amazing? As a newcomer, this series has some of the worst writing, dialogue, characters, plot holes, and storytelling I've ever seen. Some of the action is decent, but even that is mediocre at most and not nearly enough to carry it. From everything I've heard about the books and the games, I can completely see why fans of either or hate it, and I think anyone who _hasn't_ read the books or played the games would have to have a lukewarm IQ to like this.
Never read the books or played the games, I find it quite bad, season 1 was ok this season was just dull, I feel a bit bad watching it anyway as I'm a Michael Moorcock fan!.
Yep. Iâve only read the first 4 books, but season 2 drove me nuts. Yennefer is just wrong, Eskel literally turns into a tree, and Geralt kills him, Vesemir looks good, but his character is just off. Thereâs just so much that shits on the source material
Poor Henry, his favorite characters (that he plays) always get done wrong by directors and companiesđ€Š
Are they listening to themselves?
They agree: the writing is weak and borderline cringe and many characters are miscast.
So how can you like this show??
What is left to like?
The costumes?
The music?
What can make a show good where the core aspects of casting and writing are bad?
Honestly I agree with all the criticism coming from Alex, and itâs a little disappointing to hear Joe say something along the lines of âwell if you read the books or played the game then you are going to hate it, but fuck it cause you have three mediums to enjoy (books, game, Netflix).â It just sounds like a weak excuse to dismiss valid criticism, ESPECIALLY since Lauren herself kept talking about how she was going to keep true to the source material. If she had talked about taking the show into her own vision, away from the source, then I can at least excuse her actions because I know itâs her fanfic.
It's true idk why you would be disappointed by it ya book readers are extremely annoying and toxic it really bothers you that someone like Joe could give a shit less about a book he didn't read and enjoyed the show lmao
Well I didnât read the books, I just know of them, so feel free to try again.
@@philo2189 You don't understand criticism, and that's okay. Not everyone is created equal, and in this case you drew the short straw in terms of intellect.
@@riffulsam feel free to fucking try again. Lmao I'm gonna use that one in the future. Good stuff.
@@philo2189 you do realise the game only exists because of the quality of the books and the series only exists because of the quality and the fame of the games, so when you throw that out and what you have is shit you'll get valid criticism đ
Henry Cavill does such a good job as Geralt he honestly makes the whole show for me. Most of the other characters arenât very likeable and are pretty forgettable. The political intrigue scenes between the mages/Nilfgaard or the elves I think are quite boring and find myself waiting for the story to go back to Geralt
He's actually pretty bad at portraying the original Geralt from the books.
Which is devastating to us who enjoy the series for it's world building. Imagine if the LotR movies only had one good actor... that's the level of disappointment us substance over eye candy people are facing.
Yeah agreed the politics in season 2 was boring and is the reason why I gave the season an 8 instead of a 9 out of 10.
@@cockbender2466 I don't think Henry ever intended of portraying Geralt 100% from the books but a combination of the books, the games and his own interpretation.
Everybody wants to make the next Game of Thrones so they tarnish the source material to get muh "power is power" scene. If only they realize each work has their own merits, we would get more interesting worlds rather than Westeros lite.
I think the blaviken fight in season 1 was so good that they ended up shooting the selves in the foot for this season. That choreography was so amazing and it was filmed so well, that the lack of fights (especially really intricate ones like blaviken) in season 2 shines more than it normally would have. I was wishing weâd get another fight scene on par with that one this season, but unfortunately we didnât
Ciri was added into the story about the cursed lord letting a bloodsucker live with him. I was pretty confused and had to go reread the story to be sure. I love ciri but it's overkill to shoehorn her into every aspect of geralt's story. Dandelion was my favorite part of season 2. đ€·ââïž
I'm with Alex on this one, I thought the first episode was great and it steadily dropped as the season went on. Dull story lines, some cringe dialog and some really strange character development especially with Vesemir who was unrecognisable, not to mention the Eskel treatment.
I'm glad Joe liked it but I honestly think this season was a step backwards. I couldn't even get past 3 episodes before being bored to death.
I fucking love Alex, dude says what he truly thinks and I really appreciate that the show has different perspectives.
What? How? I loved this and wasnât bored at all. Itâs so good.
Keep watching so much shit goes down later and itâs really fun to watch
I'm not pleased joe liked it, every year shows and movies get worse. Every year people gobble it up. We are despised by the industry. They think we are idiots for real. They make movies for the influence not the money. Like starwars perfect example as well as the last of us.
I agree, I couldn't get past episode 3, episode 1 was AMAZING, 2 was okay, and 3 was just had bad writing which I had to turn off. They also included random scenes which were not needed (the sorceresses skinny dipping? If including such "eye candy/fan service, " go full measure, not half measure. But yea, I don't know...
Gotta agree with you, the season started strongly but it just slowed down (until the final episode and even then the writing kinda blows)
It's definitely a shocker to people coming from the video games that Geralt isn't the main character in the novel series. Ciri is, by a large margin. Geralt takes precedence in the short stories, but once you hit Blood of Elves he's just one subplot amongst many.
By the end of the series, the books are far more focused on the 'world' as a whole. There are lots of random bit characters who get entire chapters dedicated to filling out plots and events that are happening away from the main storyline.
Giving this season an 8 is total madness. Season 2 is a complete farce and Alex is the only one awake that tell it as it is. 3 of 10, bad.
100% right
Joe is sometimes kind of blinded when he really likes a property. Which is annoying since he's tough on everything else.
Very true
Agreed!
I literally skipped the scenes when it is about the elves. Bore the sh!t out of me. I just wanted to watch the Geralt and the main crew. Didn't care about the other characters. I am with Alex in this. I nearly scratched my scalp off when the elves killed the babies and none of the humans even noticed that there are hundreds of elves walking on middle of the street at broad daylight. Like are there 0 guards? 0 civilians? f*cking hell
The elf stuff was so stupid and boring, and literally never happens in the source material. Not sure why theyâre adding in so much shit that never happened lol
@@deadlyydude5522 I didn't read the books I only played the games. Without basing it from the source material, it fails to attract me on to what's happening about the elves. Also why would they place the only baby that has been born since decades into another room? I was so frustrated about. I mean the baby was just literally born and you left it to another room? hell no
So you guys hate elves to , cool
The head elf lady was so weird
Unnecessarily adding a mass killing of babies really signifies how satanic Netflix is.
Alex is absolutely right on this one. Glad he stuck to his guns
Man... listening to the whole thing, if you didn't use the same character and country names as the books, I'd have no clue what series this even was. It's almost completely unrecognizable from the source material.
It is kind of funny to hear Joe say "It's in the books, though!" to excuse a lot of stupid stuff that is most certainly not in the books.
My vote for the silliest plot in this season goes to: "Escape of Cahir"
Just imagine a big summit in medieval Europe, where kings of France, Holy Empire, Poland, Sweden and The Pope come together to cerebrate victory over Ottoman Empire and a regular human in front of them can escape with a prisoner. They could pass maybe first 10 guards, but not next 490 in this place.
well it was written stupid so they can if you watch it with open eyes this season is filled with stupid shit like shit PS: not to mention the mages in this place who could easy blow up yen and the other dude
exactly. They explained why the mages can't do anything useful at this place, but there should still be dozens of bodyguards and royal guards. The way they cut the escape, it seems like they were able to just run out of the ruin without meeting anyone. And then there is a convenient horse, all ready to go. It is just such a weird scene, probably one of the weakest of this season.
Alex is the only one with the bullsh1t detector. I completely agree with him.
Witcher is an extra in his own show. Just rename it to Ciri , Yennefer and Fringilla.
>Witcher is an extra in his own show. Just rename it to Ciri , Yennefer and Fringilla.
Lol if you dont like that you better stay away from the books then
@@Anton-bn6nq I have read some of the books. Gerald is the prevailing character by far. What are you implying?
@@ManOzzY totally agree with you
@@ManOzzY You probably read only the short stories or the first books in the saga. Later it's obvious they tell Ciri's story.
@@ackermanlol Yes, because Ciri is the reason the franchise became famous.
As someone who's been through the games, books, comics, I really didn't mind that they changed a lot from the source material. That's fair. It was just executed like a CW show. The writing is mediocre, the dialogue sounds too modern, the villains are cartoonish, the pace will break your neck with how it accelerates and slows down, and they don't really commit to any particular moral or take any stance. That's the show on its own. When you compare everything to pre-existing canon versions, it's pretty clear why people are shitting on it.
Totally agree with you on every point!
yes I agree, the execution of the changes were sub par at best.
Yeah, its too modern. It should be medieval fantasy. Look at game of thrones. You had that feeling that it is medieval times. Also noo slavic elememts. If season 1 had good witcher music, season 2 soundtrack was not good. If they want hans zimmer soundtrack then make a good one atleast. There was one soundtrack i liked, when ciri was training. In witcher 3 , you can feel how dark is the world, it is not modern at all, music perfect. Why they need to americanize it. They could just stick to the slavic, medieval elements and people would love it even more. Everyone woyld be happy including fans.
@@lauris5275 What do you mean no Slavic elements, we've got the whole freaking Baba Yaga plot for whole season, lol, with house on chicken legs and everything.
Like a CW show? Bro we have been spoiled in modern times for you to say something like that
It would have been nice to have a guest reviewer on this one. Alex represented those who have read the books and played the game and voiced their disappointment that, basically the books were better. It would have been good to have someone who knew nothing of the books and games, yet had enjoyed season 1 to give their opinion and see if the changes resonated. I'm a big Witcher fan and I enjoyed it like Angry Joe did; my wife knows nothing of the books or games and absolutely loved it. Both of us are looking forward to season 3.
I just finished the season a couple days ago and I already forgot who some of these people are when you initially say their names. Shows how good of a season it was.
With Alex 100%. The way they massacred Eskelâs character and that of the other Witcherâs really hurt this season. I had no desire to continue watching after episode 2.
To me it's not even about the fact that they killed Eskel, but rather the fact that they introduce him as a weird sociopath and then immediately kill him off... and _still_ have the audacity to expect viewers to care, playing it off as "emotional" despite there being nothing emotional about it as they spent 0 minutes developing this character or giving us _a reason_ to care.
A good example of how badly written this season was.
@@sirdamned9272 They gave Roach a better death! Whyyyyy?
@@sirdamned9272 yeah that was a bit put off, I was like "wtf are they doing" when he made rape overtures at Ciri when telling Geralt "I know what I would do if i found a princess"
They massacred the witchers as a group. They are trained professionals who hunt and kill monsters for coin, have insane knowledge of monsters and curses, and basic knowledge of magic and alchemy, and are fairly old. Yet in the series they behave boorishly, they seem uneducated, rude and incompetent. Vesemir too should be the father figure of all the witchers who live and trained at Kaer Morthen. Vesemir is an old guy in a profession where it is common to die relatively young, he should command respect and be the sage mentor, yet he too looks stupid in the series.
I agree mostly with Alex although maybe enjoyed it a bit more than him. The first episode to me was so good that I was expecting an amazing season. It was a 10/10 and a clear step up from season 1. After that though the season just declined and I hated the final episode. I can let most things slide but I have a massive problem with how weak the other witchers are. I really hope Henry can influence the show some more he is perfect as Geralt and it would be terrible to see him wasted.
You loved first episode because they stick to the books very well, there were only small changes. Shit starts to drop when writers start to invent their own. It's so bad when it happens. I agree with you about witchers, they made them as incompetent randos against monsters. So disrespectful for witchers.
My exact journey with this season, except for me Ep 2 was the worst of the season, and then I think it got a bit better in the middle. But yeah that first Episode 1 really set a false standard for the quality of the season we were going to get, in just about every way.
I agree with Joe cause I didn't read the books and only played the games and knows the lore of Witcher universe. But I think Alex is wrong saying those who are played games or read books are only one will return to next season, many have not read the books but are interested in next seasons. Also Alex didn't like Jaskier arguing with the sailor and Triss trying to seduce Geralt are within their characters in books and games.
@@artimuos903 Of course they will come back. If you liked it that's great. But for me there is lost potential for something greater, rather than another generic fantasy series..
Episode one was a generic fantasy dark love story that's been done a million times and Beat to Death. Even for a Trope that is as well known and well worn as that, they still barely managed to make it a 7 out of 10. And that is being generous. The rest of the season is slower than molasses and about as interesting as a bowl of cold oatmeal. The writing is terrible, the action is half-hearted and shoehorned in just so that there will be a monster of the week to fight. The character motivations are laughably shallow and the writing is as inept as a high school fanfiction. Every choice that is made is a disservice to The Lore of The Witcher and an assassination of the characters. It all is as cliche and unoriginal as a show on the CW, like Smallville. The only difference is no one has any personality or charm so it doesn't even have the watchability of a CW show. It is dark and edgy and gritty just for the sake of being dark and edgy and gritty. One of the most laughable things in the entire show is when they go on the Journey to Find The Gorge that the new breed of monsters is coming out of. They walk all the way there on foot without even taking horses, just to get there in time to see one stupid CGI monster and then have to leave. After spending all of that time walking, they just open a portal and go immediately right back to where they left from at the exact moment they need to be there for Ciri. It is so stupid.
I could feel Alex's pain throughout the entirety of this review. He looked like he wanted to crawl out of his skin every time the two stooges were like, "YEH BRO, FKIN AWESOME SHOW! FK YEAH!" and I'm right there with him/also wanted to crawl out of my skin. In fact, I had to stop watching this review multiple times (ironically, much like the show itself) and then eventually came back just to skip to the parts where Alex is talking.
You're way, way off on this one, Joe. You wouldn't recognize good writing if it smacked you in the forehead.
I agree with Alex and even before seeing this, I also gave it a six. I thought the production value was really good and the actors all did a great job. But it was just the story. I've read the books and played the games and the story is just... Better there. If you want to change the story fine. But change it to something worse? Idk about that.
So glad that you guys have Alex in there, he always says the same thing that I'm always thinking. Love the show Joe.
Alex is always the voice of reason, and usually aligns with me. Glad he is finally getting the attention he deserves.
At times it feels like Joe can get pissed/annoyed at Alex but honestly that is exactly why I love having him there. OJ, for the most part aligns with AJ so having someone who challenges AJ from time to time is actually kind of refreshing
I usually agree with Alex too I was pretty bored the entire season it was sucky we had to wait so long for it.
Alex is the one always complaining about a show or game, I respect his opinion but he can kinda be annoying when he starts to trash a show I really like
I think Alex standards r way too high on just about everything
I agree with Alex on this one. Netflix is slowly turning The Witcher into a fucking joke.
One last thing, how are they gunna casualy pass over the fact that possessed ciri just walks up to the witchers when they're sleeping and stab them in the neck. Witchers have super human senses and can tell when invisible vampires are behind them they would be able to sence somebody walking up to them even if they're sleeping.
Unfortunately witchers not being consistent is a problem in ALL media. For real.
17:10 "the author is still writing books" - I'm not native speaker, please tell me if I got it right - did he mean Sapkowski is still working on books? Because he's not, for a long time...
Agree with Alex, season 1 was a little better as it followed the source material a little better.
Also Joe this was disappointing for many fans of the Witcher books.
yep i wonder what is going on with aj? there are so many dumb stupid thing im freaking pissed off by this season and dont wanna watch the next
I miss Yen somewhat elegant and cynical way of talking. Now she just drops a F Bomb everywhere it seems. In the first season they seem to go in the right direction with her and then...they just made her a cursing teenager or something đ€Ł
agreed, yennefer is such a well written character in the books but she was so out of character in this season, she cares about her looks, she would never betray geralt and put ciri in danger, shes funny and smart in the books and tw3, her dialogue in the series is lazy af
Isn't she like 100 years old by this point in the story? She literally acts like a teenager and still has her mommy coddling her, it's super weird. She feels like a person in her early 20s at the oldest.
@@devynstroshine8817 thats just bad writing and not understanding real yennefer. they made her like a twilight saga character
@@ImotekhtheStormlord-tx2it Couldn't agree more xqcL
"The show is based on the books"
But let's just make shit up that isn't in the books.
The general consensus seems to be that the First episode is the best and is most peoples favourite episode, which I think might have something to do with the fact that its a well adapted short story and the rest of the series has VERY little actually from the books, the Deathless Mother wasnt a thing, Yens plot wasnt a thing, Getalt and Vesimer are the only Witchers that really seem acurately handled, Eskel and Lambert dont really act like themselves, none of the stuff with the Elves happened either.
I really enjoyed the series, but there was a lot that vexed me while going through, I found the whole Deathless Mother plot VERY irritating, I wish the added Witchers were more than just background decoration and get like 1 cool scene and that scene is basically just them all walking into a room, so all in all, i enjoyed it, but i really dislike a lot of what was actually done with the season and I'd go as far as to say I hate the deathless mother plot especially everything involving the elves.
The misscasting is also an issue for me, I think the one i struggle with the most is Fringilla, every time she's on the screen, I'm half paying attention to whatever the plot is and half waiting for the scene to end, she just isnt Fringilla.
Thank god for Alex. This show gets too much praise for how many things they get wrong and he calls it out for what it is
MAJOR PLOT HOLE with the Elder Blood being required to make Witchers. There was no mention of Elder Blood in source material being required for Trial of the Grasses. And in the Witcher universe, the ONLY KNOWN source of Elder Blood comes from Ciri's direct royal bloodline. Which means Witchers would need to constantly go to them for Elder Blood, and they would need to keep constant vigilance on this one rare ingredient. This means the Witchers would have been VERY concerned with the sack of Cintra, and they would also have kept tabs on Ciri, and would have known who she is.
I thought the thing about the elder blood as a component being completely stupid, but now you opened my eyes, It is BEYOND completely stupid
To be fair, the elder blood that they previously used could have been from any other source, not just Ciri's bloodline. Also, we know the witchers didn't know that specific bloodline contained elder blood because Ciri's family specifically kept that curse a secret.
@@rickyemiguel there were many family members within Lara Dorren's bloodline, but the only ones that have been well recorded were the direct descendants, the family members that did not directly inherit or kept close ties to the Cintran crown were not as well traced. So yes they exist, but neither the Aen Elle or human mages have been able to keep tabs on any of the other bearers of Elder Blood over the centuries. Many of off-branch carriers of the Elder Blood have lost that blood within two or three generations. Of course we only know this because of the authors footnotes. In universe, there is only one known carrier right now, which is Cirilla.
@@rickyemiguel the problem is difference in "Power Sources" and usage.
First - If we were to compare stuff from MCU to stuff in Witcher - Elder Blood is hereditary power on the level of an Infinity Stone in terms of said power. And Witcher's "Trial of the Crasses" is applying Super Soldier serum with extra toxicity levels.
Second - and most important Elder Blood is not literally magic blood you can use as a power source - it is more about being part of a bloodline with EXTRA STRONG MAGIC. You can spill that blood all you want - it just doesn't work that way. Heck even Vampire feasting on Ciri will get nothing from it aside from meal. Now siring a heir with a person carrying that blood - now this can work for you - this is literally was the reason why Wild Hunt was obsessed with capturing Ciri.
Third - It defies logic of creation of the Witchers itself - Clearly no one tried to jam stuff with a whole "Infinity Stone" levels of power into regular kids - because it didn't work this way (regular Trial is deadly enough) - and if it worked Witchers wouldn't be limited to only using SIgns and will be basically Mages but better and what Mage would want to have a creation he cannot control. No - "Trial of Grasses" was used to mass produce beast hunters who are exactly between Mage and Regular Warriors in terms of power - even if there was a way to infuse power of the Elder Blood into a regular person no one would've done it because no Mage would be interested in such research, heck they would be more interested with infusing themselves with that power - why the heck they would need Witchers.
They seriously didn't think this change in Netflix adapation through.
The Witchers were created by elves and humans to fight the monsters entering this sphere from the conjunction. They did need elder blood for the trials and the loss of the pure elves to other spheres (conquering) hampered the ability for new witchers. I mean, you saw all those medallions of the lost witchers. Why werenât they âmakingâ more to replace them?
I agree with Alex. However, since the Witcher has been my favorite fandom for most of my life I canât accept the show as its own thing. I hate it... but my love for certain characters in the books will bring me back. I hope they do Regis, Milva and Bonart they way they deserve. Hereâs to hoping....
I have never read the books, so please donât hold that against me, but as a complete noob, I found it VERY questionable that after they realized that Eskel was clearly infected with some weird shit, they decided to give him what I assumed was the traditional Witcher burial and fed him to some random wolves.
Like, maybe first letâs make sure that whatever infected him doesnât spread by literally consuming the corpse of the infected creature?
Cause NOT feeding some wild animals with the corpse of a fucked up mutant abomination sounds like a pretty reasonable thing to do if you ask me, regardless of whether the fucked up mutant abomination used to be a witcher or not.
I'm gonna have to agree with Alex here, I feel they butchered the heck outta this series.
i mean. alex calculates it cold. he looks at it from the other perspective. as a TV show not a wticher tv show and its fucking bad. i dont talk about books adaptation and other shit. this show is just fucking bad on its own. writing is immature, dialogues are from twilight , cheap scenery, teleportation everywhere....
completely agree with Alex. I couldn't make myself actually finish the season2, stopped 2 episodes short of the ending..As a books and games fan, this was a chore and a pain to go through. Episode 1 was great and I became very hopeful...only for it to go down the hill fast
DA FU???? season 1 was a chore to go through cuz soo many different timelines and ended up not making to much sense. S2 on the other hand so much easier and i love the focus on ciri plus as a witcher 3 fan you got to see sooo many things from the game like the witch, a Leshen fight not to mention Kaer Morhen looks awesome ( plus more later in the season ) i LOVE IT.
@@blakewhitlow yea thatâs nice. Too bad the show is based on the books and not the games which are sequels to the books. The show is all over the place and the characters arenât like the characters at all. Theyâre completely different people. Yennifer does nothing but whine and bitch.
Fringilla is a huge cunt for no reason. I mean, Jesus. Part of Fringilla is that sheâs a nicer person than most of the sorceresses. Sheâs also sent to distract Geralt because she looks like Yen and he becomes distracted by her and sleeps with her because of that. Guess that entire arc canât happen at all.
The lechen isnât supposed to be in any of these events in the show. This would be like making a clone wars tv show and having ANH Vader killing rebels. It doesnât make any sense.
@@lustrazor44 donât care about the books or the show . This is supposed to stand on its own , which it did
Good choice it dives deep into plot twist M Night garbage because you have to fight a big bad in the end over telling a good story. What happened between the two seasons new writers because it feels like two different show?
@@redshift912 ni it's not. It's an adaptation. Adaptation! Not an original. The show is pure donkey shit
This season just bored me to tears, and pissed me off on so many occasions with how the completely ruined several key characters. I genuinely just could sit through this to finish it, and gave up relatively late. The political 'intrigue' felt flat, uninspired, and poorly driven. Much of the character choices also fell flat for me. At many times throughout the season, they handwave travel time for people that arent mages and seemingly teleport them around without an actual caster to open portals. So much of it just doesnt work, and it doesnt help at all that they keep inventing their own garbage content to replace actual good writing from the novels, and likely later, games. Absolutely agree with alex, this is BARELY above average television and holds on by the skin of its teeth with geralt, dandelion, a handful of side characters, and having grown on me more, ciri.
Did anyone notice that those costumes are weird? At one point Geralt has worn a modern looking leather jacket and it seemed it has zip on it. I really doubt they have invented zip in that age. Jaskier... his red leather jacket looks like he bought it yesterday at the mall. Tissaia had weird night shirt which seemed it had plastic buttons on it. All weird. And those Jaskier's songs...it is modern pop not medieval music played on lute. His lute sonds like regular guitar.