Geralt of Rivia Voice Actor Doug Cockle on Witcher Netflix Series 

When your main actor, who signed up to play Geralt, leaves because what he's playing is not really Geralt, you know you have a problem with the writers

The problem was that the writers of the show hated the books and its lore, nothing good can come out of that if youre adapting an existing, beloved IP that means so much to so many people

No, they did not deviate "a little bit". In season 2 they tell a totally different story - a story that directly contradicts the original lore in many ways. And not a single of these changes was necessary because of adapting the books to a new medium. This becomes painfully clear in season 3 when they have to waste screentime trying to rewind the mess they created in the character relationships in season 2.

I disagree. No need to restructure your thinking about the show, it is perfectly fine to not like it. Even if I discard deviations from the books & the games, I still don't like the show. It is just not a good show for several reasons - the writing being the biggest -, even when not compared to what could've been had they stuck closer to the source material. I think where Doug is correct was his example of The Last of Us, the episode where the show deviated the most from the games is arguably its best episode. Bill & Frank were just a great story, set in the universe established by the games. The difference to Witcher is, the creators told their own story, while still respecting the world of the source material. With the Witcher show, it often seems like "oh, whatever, everything goes" approach to world building. They just never bothered to really set up the world the show is taking place in.

What a mature response to the question! It's easy to just say "show is bad" and not have an intelligent conversation. It is true that you need to give each project its own space because it's a different medium. That being said, after season 2, I did stop watching the show. It was just too hard to enjoy.

First! Let’s go this is nice