Season 3 of The Witcher is here, and nobody cares, with the show losing more than 50% of its viewership in a single season. Henry Cavill picked the right time to get out of this mess.
New rule: no more hatefics. Co-opting an IP that someone else loves out of spite in order to intentionally tear it down *might* be the single most juvenile and petulant act imaginable. Like imagine the Drinker remaking Gilmore Girls as a gritty, violent story about deep cover Russian spies. That's basically Disney RN.
They do this to get a rise out of fans. They're so arrogant they think they can say and do whatever they want and so they do. It's just who they are. They don't even realize how much their "original" ideas suck, which is the best part of this whole thing.
I'm noticing a common theme with that. Disney wrecks Star Wars, The writers for Secret Invasion were told not to read the comics, Rings of Power diverted off.... like these shows and movies are just scrapping the source material for whatever they want it to be.
As a Polish person, I am proud of the Witcher books and the video games, they do have many slavic and European influences and help to share about my culture, but this show... It has nothing to do with the source material, it only kidnaps some proper names and makes a mockery of it.
Yeah it's ridiculous they want to insert people of color and other completely geographically nonsensical ethnicities for diversity but AT THE COST OF ACTUAL SLAVIC CULTURE. It's like fuck off Slavs, fuck off polish ppl, you're not welcomed here, this is diversity and inclusion, and your culture is not deemed worthy
The MO is take a successful popular European folktale or character and make it woke. It’s a shameful way to exploit our collective culture and memories. The same exact practice is happening in many different businesses and to some extent nations.
It’s amazing to see an actor who really takes source material seriously. I hope both he and Netflix get what they deserve in the end. Henry truly was The Witcher.
@@l.patrick2171unfortunately it was his own bad decision because he was offered royalties on the game, which still sells copies to this day, and he turned it down for a decent payment, but he would've made way more off royalties
@@fatgumthegoat Yep, from what I remember he had a very low opinion of video games and thought it would never make much money, so to him taking upfront cash seemed like the more sensible option....oh boy was he wrong.
@@IncensementThat guy didn’t have decent representation? You ALWAYS take the things that KEEP PAYING! They can never pay you enough in a lump sum to cover what you could make in residuals. Did the guy not see what J.K. Rowling makes? I am not a Witcher watcher or player,or reader, it just strikes me that you always take the residuals. And does he have NO involvement in the Netflix series?
It becomes challenging to maintain interest in a series when the primary actor, who contributed the most passion to the entire project, departs from the show. This departure occurs solely to allow the writers to establish their significance by crafting their own story, rather than sticking to the true lore that has been successful among the fans.
1. The show has nothing to do with the source... it reminds me of superhero movies from the 90s. 2. They misused then ditched AND blamed Henry Cavil - a truly nice person and dedicated fan.
Hope Henry moves onto a live action warhammer series so he can continue working on stuff he actually knows the lore to and cares about. Would make a change from the new cast where netflix has gone "lore? Yeh we don't need that, just do as I say"
@@CloneLoli Yeah but you'd think they'd get at least some basic stuff right, like, if a show is called Witcher you'd think it would focus on the Witcher instead of the female cast.
To me as a lifelong books fan it's astonishing that many of you reasonable westerners actually enjoyed season 1. Don't get me wrong, I know it wasn't as bad as S2 or S3, but still it was such a shithole... I really gave it a honest chance and I watched the first 2 episodes with a clear, open mind. When I started watching the 3rd episode, my wife (who knows very little about the Witcher world but general cinematography is her hobby) came to watch the next episode with me. After 10 minutes she said it's simply unwatchable and racist. With this objective opinion of a non biased, wise person I trust, I understood that the emperor is naked and there's no point in lying to myself that we finally got a watchable Witcher series. Which is sad, because I really wished for it to succeed.
Drinker summed it up perfectly when he said he just don't care about these shows anymore. I watched some of She Hulk to see if it was as bad as everyone said. My kids watched a bit of Ms Marvel and we all watched maybe half of the 1st episode of Secret Invasion. Paused it for a bathroom break and nobody cared to keep watching lol
@@anonymousyt8027 I just about got to the end of episode 1, episode 2 has been sitting there waiting for me to watch it... but I'm not sure I can be bothered. It's not calling to me...
If the third series of a serial well and truly sucks, and you've previously written good columns as a fan liking it when it first appeared, a fan with serious concerns, and as a critic showing why it has failed, I wouldn't waste another word on it unless there is more actual news.
They hate him because he’s a decent man, who is traditionally masculine, who isn’t constantly weighing in on politics - which generally makes them presume he’s conservative even if he’s not given any indication either way.
Aside from Cavill departing, "Blood Origin" showed what the writing team could do when they were given free rein. They couldn't even find enough tame critics to rouse 50% on Rotten Tomatoes.
I actually was very interested in this show when I first heard about it. So much potential, the books and games are very good, the world created in them is so interesting. But then I saw season 1. And while it clearly was the best season overall, it already had several issues and problems. Then you hear about the writers and everything that followed and you understand.
I knew it was woke shit when they announced the cast. They only kept Ciri white because they had such overwhelming backlash to their BAME casting call. But they kept the race/gender swaps for everything else. That’s a guaranteed sign it’s gonna be stupid.
I couldn't even make it past the first episode. I love the books and the games, which provided the writers and producers with plenty of incredible material to use-it should have been a walk in the park. But it was clear that they had no reverence for the source material.
Never read the books or played the games yet, but season 1 had the first episode and the second, then it was kind of downhill from there. All the best parts that happen are in those first two episodes. First one has a monster fight that barely counts as it's over so quickly but I'll mention it, but then decent fighting scene in the city, then I think that cursed woman monster was the best part in the second episode. Otherwise it really didn't seem like this Witcher monster killer was fighting any cool or interesting monsters. There's maybe a few decent moments though I was never completely sold on it. Honestly thought S2 was a bit better but my friends said they changed good stuff from the game lmao.
Spartacus blood and sand. The most expensive show from NZ, still looks like smaller budget 300 is 10 times better than this professional show from 2019
From what I've read, Cavill actually took a massive paycut to do Witcher because he just loved the games and wanted it to get made. They wouldn't have been able to afford the first season otherwise. The writers shitting on the source material for 3 seasons made the paycut not worth it anymore
The thing you're missing is Netflix just started their campaign to not allow sharing of accounts. I watched the 1st 2 episodes before I was cut off from my friends account. It's actually a good idea because it forces people like myself to finally pay if I want to finish it. Their big problem is I don't care, so I'm not paying and that's a huge reason the drop in viewership too.
Account sharing was a brilliant business move by Netflix. Although they were not earning the $, they did maintain a huge market share. Stopping account sharing is just them shooting themselves in the foot.
People love these content universes (The Witcher, Wheel of Time, Marvel) because of the lore and how the stories are written. You can't go changing everything and flipping critical details just to be "subversive and inclusive" and expect the die hard fans to love it. They are the backbone of subculture, it's ridiculous that Hollywood can't understand this.
I read the Wheel of Time until he had gotten the sword and the desert people were on his side and his destiny was acknowledged and then ... I realized there were like twelve novels left. It felt like the point where I was should have been at least two thirds through. Oh well. It was entertaining until then.
@@Grasslander I'm midway through book 12 so I can say with confidence that the story is super interesting, but yes there are parts (like all of book 10) that really drag.
There might be a big audience who haven’t played the games, so they’re enjoying the TV show. My parents are watching it like that. I tried to watch it, but I can’t even get through Episode 1 Season 1. Same with the Halo TV show.
I came to the show without ever playing the game or reading the books. I quite enjoyed the first series, but hated the second series. Won't be watching the third series. Incidentally, after watching season 1 I started reading the books - love the books now, but the TV show is dead to me.
I never played the games or read the books. My wife and I love Cavill & Jaskier and the idea of it, but am so disappointed. Now I know why Season 3 doesn't make sense. It's just a rehash of other fantasy series plots. There are a lot of angry Slavic people from Eastern Europe in the comments of this video. This is just a fail from Netflix.
As someone who played the games and read a couple of thr novels afterwords. The first season is pretty solid. It has plenty of faults, but the worst offender actually isn't bad writing but a disjointed timeline thst can be extremely confusing to work out for awhile,and it was a style choice that didn't really add anything. Season 2 episode 1 starts out *fantastic* with Geralts cursed friend Neivillein... But man does it go downhill fast from there. Never finished the season and barely could tell you what happens after that.
I watched it because everyone loved the books and games so I thought I'd watch it to see a good fantasy show. Never played the games or read the books.
When I was a teenager I bought a book called 1001 Movies to See Before You Die and proceeded to watch almost every single one of those thousand movies over the course of about 10 years. In the past 3 years I have seen seven movies *TOTAL*. I liked two of those seven movies. Five of them I only saw because I was socializing with a group of people who had children and we needed to distract them for two hours.
@@Fairly-odd-kel Oh I know. What I'm saying is that on balance keeping all women including the minority who genuinely love those IPs at arms length would've been better for the IPs themselves long term. 'Cuz opening the door just resulted in burglary and vandalism.
So all that happens is Jennefer follows them around pining for some witcher wood. And then theres a ball which is the same exact scenes played back but just from another angle.. odd
The first season of the Witcher was good, it gave them something to build on. There has never been a more perfect actor to play a character than Cavill playing Geralt, and they still managed to destroy what could have been a huge show for Netflix.
And this is why more and more people are turning to indie stuff regardless of medium as of late; people will go where there's quality, and right now more and more people are realizing they won't find it in most modern high profile productions.
@CharlesNauck it's disruptive to the movie or show. Back in the 70s and 80s if they had a race out of setting there was a good explanation for it - the black Elf is an underground Elf, the black character is a Moore or something that at least tried to explain an out of place race.
Personally, I'm just glad that Henry is finally going to get his dream and bring Warhammer to the broader world and as the executive producer guiding the project so we can be sure that it's good.
@@RobertJones-rd5wl oh it’s definitely happening they put a whole interview with him about him being in charge when they revealed this on the Games Workshop website
As always, Smokey, the Critical Doggo, out the gates with the balanced, nuanced perspective. Truly integral to the enjoyment and high-quality commentary.
Hollywood needs more actors like Cavill. The dude's a capable actor, ripped as fuck, respects creative integrity, and clearly isn't afraid to express criticism of stupid decisions.
I bought the Witcher 1 Collector's Edition disc set at Gamestop back when games actually came on disc. I went on to 100% complete it, and all subsequent games in that series multiple times (including Thronebreaker & an unhealthy amount of $ spent on GWENT). I have never loved an IP more in my life. And I have never been more repulsed by an adaptation of something I care about. (And I'm a fan of: Preacher, Lucifer *AND* Sandman. Think about that.)
If you are not Polish, you probably don't know there was an old adaptation done before it too, and I can honestly say, despite the absolutely atrocious CGI dragon in it, it was leagues better than Netflix one.
I'm actually ALL for you continuing to review an share your opinions on these projects. Helps me know what to expect TBH. The bars pretty low nowadays though.
I honestly wonder if the female show runners didn’t try to Weinstein Henry cavil… you know, use threats and intimidation to get a piece of his pie, but he was like “nah bitch” and now we are here…they definitely tried to cancel him
They did but the woman who came out with her story basically said that Henry didn't wanna be oggled at and molested by the show runners. She had to take down her post. And cried victim instantly.
First they objectified the guy in every single interview, treated him like a piece of meat, both women and men, now they hate him because he’s a goddamn CHAD and didn’t play ball and stuck to his principles. They’re so afraid to admit how wet that got them, so now they turn vindictive and have to hate him. “We never liked him anyways, he’s a straight toxic white male”, or whatever the newest boogeyman propaganda words are today.
Watched with my husband, we were both pretty lost/bored most the time. Felt like nothing was happening but characters were constantly referencing characters and places and things that neither of us cared to recall. Maybe building up the part 2 of season 3 but honestly, was hard to care about.
You summed up my thoughts of it pretty well. We're 3 episodes in and a bit bored, as you rightly pointed out it's just characters talking about stuff you can't recall it relate to.
If you're all bored with it, why continue to watch it? There are so many excellent shows out there, and personally if I know something is going to be average or crap, I just don't watch it.
Just watching this after coming out of theatre viewing MI 7. It was really great! Though we are forced at accept and be entertained by such garbage, movies are finally coming out of this rut. Stay strong audience members the only way is through!!
Me MI is actually not that good , Rome and Some of the train parts are good and when the best part of the movie is 60 year old dude and a character who has one spoken monologue (Plom was great in this ) there is something wrong with the movie and I don't even care about the cgi if its bad or not the story was sooo stupid and all 80% of characters very bland you have some problems , to me the best set piece was the desert but it was so well shot , the last one was brilliant it really was this 6.5 out of 10 .
I just watched the season because of Henry Cavill in the role, he played it so well, and believes in staying true to the source material... Which is why I'm excited to see what he does alongside GW in the upcoming Warhammer series he's Exec-Prod and starring in, that he's going to from here
I truly feel for the guy. The show is getting this much flak with Henry freaking Cavill in it. The only thing I remember seeing Liam in was the Hunger games and he was a side character in it. Netflix should've cancelled the show instead of throwing the poor guy under the bus like that.
I’m glad indifference is taking over. Even 6 months ago hate watching was too prevalent so the BS metrics showed these movies and shows were somewhat successful. Now they can’t even do that.
Go watch Spartacus blood and sand. It has similar behind the scenes stories as this show, but opposite: Henry Cavil left because difficulties with the writers Andy Whitfield was on his deathbed Blood origin was pure garbage Gods of the arena was best Prequel
I loved the books..I loved the game..the show doesn’t exist to me. Henry did his best….I feel for the guy. The alfa nerd/gamer couldn’t stop the rot of Hollywood corrupting solid, good franchises😊
I think it speaks volumes and it actually makes sense now why the original author of the Witcher books never wanted anything with and from the Netflix show. I assume he wasn't even asked to be an executive producer or writer on it - unlike George R. R. Martin on Game of Thrones - OR WORSE: if he was and he was told to just sit back and watch the butchering of his life's work, then he had all the right to deny the series being a true Witcher media.
The truth is a tad sadder. He probably agrees with the show. Sapkowski is or at least was very feminist, and buys into The Message of today. Also fun fact, he's pretty pissy about the games, because he didn't believe they would be a success, so initially he didn't want royalties. Years later started saying they cheated him out of the money and got paid extra in the end.
Sapkowski only cares about money tbh. As he said the only true Witcher is the one written by him. He doesn't care about the rest as long as he gets money.
@@cookiecreep9204 Nah, he is not feminist. He is just able to write both men and women as interesting characters. He doesn't care about The Message. He is cynical and arrogant dude who is just happy from getting some money.
Would love to hear a Critical Drinker Review of Tulsa King season 1. I enjoyed this show with Stallone. It was nothing mindbending, but really a solid good show and having Sly playing a mafia guy is pretty cool.
The real tragedy is how much you can tell Henry Cavil tried with all his might to keep the show as close to the books as possible. One thing that stands out to me is how the showrunners tried to re-write Yennifer's character so that she would have more of an arc but by doing that they took a very strong female character from the books and reduced her to a sniveling child. Ciri has more screen presence than Yennifer in most cases and it is not supposed to be that way! The character that arc was meant for is Ciri, frankly Yennifer is absent from a bunch of the story in the books. Geralt almost idolizes Yennifer, shes like a drug to him and its always a question if the Djinn did that or if the feelings are real. Playing devils advocate, I dont know if they changed Yennifer's arc because they wanted to avoid a "mary sue" title but whatever the reason they took an amazingly powerful female character and turned her into a damsel in distress... Overall season 3 is so close to the source material but they added so much crap that doesn't make sense, like Stregobor, that the story just gets dumb because they have to make everyone compensate for their weird unneeded changes from the source material. To use the drinkers words: They had the chance to show an epic mary sue character on screen and they were just like nah, ittle be fine....
"I'll just happily sit down and get more views than the thing I'm reviewing." No matter how many times I hear something like this, it still cuts deep. I'll take people engaging in their hobbies over expensive garbage any day. Bless all you guys.
There was a wee van set up on Castle Street in Edinburgh advertising it today. Usually these things are rammed with folk wanting to get free stuff, but even on a Saturday lunchtime it had a pretty short queue.
There is something very odd about producers and writers not listening to actual fans of the source material. Henry C signed on as he was a fan of the books, and he isn’t exactly badly educated, so they ignored the gift horse, of someone who could have contributed to the plot and script. But the show runners ego’s ran a muck.
On Henry Cavill being deemed difficult to work with: What makes a truly great director/producer is when you actually want people to argue against your ideas and consider their viewpoint
In the books Geralt isn't an angry killing machine who enjoys being alone, he often has traveling companions and seemingly enjoys their company. Changing that removed a lot of the possibility for the humour in the books to be transferred to the screen. Focusing too much on Ciri was a mistake as well, Geralts singular stories are way more interesting.
Well, it's Netflix. They don't quite rely on advertisements but on subscription fees. So as long as people aren't cancelling their subs, Netflix will have a budget to work with. Which means they can make shows that only get 600k viewers and still not go belly up
What really irks me about how Netflix handled The Witcher was how they already had all these badass female characters to work with. Had they stuck to the lore, characters like Yenn and Triss and Ciri were all extremely badass in their own right and they did nothing with it!
The segmented approach to season 3 isn't because of some amazing production, its to drag out their last season with Cavill. They literally used "Yes he's still in it" ads for chrissake.
I, for one, adore Henry Cavill because he’s just so sweet and kind to his fans. He doesn’t deserve being wronged like this. Keep Henry Cavill and get rid of the ideologues in the writer’s room.
I wonder if, eventually, the studios will demand a percentage of RU-vidrs profits for reviewing their awful movies. Much in the same way Nintendo used to want a cut of streamers profits for playing their games.
I'm actually quite glad all these companies are doing such amazing jobs making absolutely unwatchable versions of properties I grew up loving. Keeps the casuals away from the source material and i don't have to tolerate being endlessly called a gatekeeper.
I suspect you may be correct. The term should be taken as a high compliment when it's the last resort at an insult from ravening hordes of illiterate mouth breathers too short-sighted to see past their own genitals.
Between Drinker's liquor tab and the private chief for Critical Doggo, the Critical household budget is approaching Disney movie budget levels! We are however getting much better entertainment then a Disney film!👍🤣
I tried watching season 3 and as soon as jaskier passionately kissed radovid I was like nope!!! I'm surprised they didn't make a whole episode about him singing songs in a meadow with him n eating strawberries
I gave up on Season 3 halfway through the third episode. When you start swearing in annoyance at the TV, you know it's best to switch off. The writing on this show is absolute dogshit.
Yes, the main thing that bothered me, was that I still don't know what The Witcher is actually about. And the reason is that the writers and the show runners don't know either. They literally make it up as they go along.
The Witcher series that Netflix SHOULD have made is an animated version like they did with Nightmare of the Wolf, which was well done and in line with lore.
I couldn't get past episode 3 i think. I liked the first season, was lukewarm about the second, and this one was just awful. The casting is killing it, none of the mages look anything like their original counterparts nor behave like them at all. It felt like there was just no plot. The woman that plays ciri was great, so was cavill. The woman that plays yennefer has grown on me, she's still poorly casted but i think i'd be interested in seeing more of her; katie mcgrath is just too much of a good choice though.
I went in expecting to see a show about a 'Witcher'. I had never read the books but I watched my kids and grandkids play the game occasionally, so I kind of had an idea of what you could do as a show. Instead of a show about a Witcher, I got a third of a show about a Witcher and two thirds of a show about a female witch or sorcerer or whatever she was and a prickly little princess. The scary bad guys had the stupidest armor I've ever seen. It was painful and I quit halfway through season one.
I became aware of the Witcher through the video games, which then lead me to the books. When Netflix then announced that they were going to produce a show, I was excited...until they introduced the people who were supposed to write it. Any time you hear that someone intends to adapt something for a "modern audience", you can be certain that it's going to be shit. In that regard, Netflix's Witcher didn't dissappoint: that's exactly what happened. Henry Cavil was probably the only Person who cared about the source material. With him gone, you can count on it that the Show isn't going to get any better.
But Drinker, dear chap, Netflix UK is promoting it to me at every opportunity, and assuring me that it's a "Top" show. Surely this must mean that it's one of the _most watched and liked_ shows? They wouldn't be... stretching the truth... in any way?
I loved the first two seasons of The Witcher. But the third season started to go south quick. And I watched that wretched ball episode over several sittings because I couldn't get past the same scenes repeated ad nauseum. I thought that my progress bar was getting reset to earlier in the episode. It was an absolute chore to watch.
I recently noticed that in the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt one of the NPC characters look like the Drinker and I cannot unsee it anymore when I’m playing. E.g. see the quartermaster of Crow’s Perch
@@ThePawcios not my point. What the audience wanted was the geralt show. Monster adventures of the week. With some over arcing plot sprinkled in. Not the focus of the show being the female characters nobody gives 2 fucks about. The reason we all played the games is geralt. Not yennifer or cirilia, or triss.
@@SinnerChrono Maybe you haven't read the books. You miss quite a lot of the story. We want faithful adaptations of the books... not Geralt killing some monsters... That wouldn't be any better what Netflix already did :P
@@SinnerChrono Then I would ask why the games are soo good? Maybe because they are continuation of the books, always faithfully to the source material :P I think that you really don't know what you talk about ;D Read the books! I'm strongly recommending :D
