Reviews

In this episode we got to focus a little bit more on Geralt's plotline, which allowed the adaptation to be slightly more faithful to the book (with a few creative freedoms nonetheless).

Seems like the show is just now starting to sew all these elements together, but it feels so clumsy. Why was Jaskier there now, if in the last episode there was no sign of him? Are they jumping back and forth in chronology even inside each plotline? Sheesh, talk about pointless convolution. Maybe they're trying to do something similar to the first collection of short stories, but with way less finesse.

Yennefer's plot skipped 30 years ahead, and was kind of pointless. Will have to wait and see if anything explored there pays off. Cirilla's plotline, on the other hand, is becoming just plain boring. Her character seem to lack any motivation or sense of agency. She just stumbles from scene to scene.

Aaaanyway, I'm being harsh, but this episode was definetely better than the previous one. But to me, this show in general is just swinging between mediocre and okay.

This episode was the worst so far. No doubt.

The same problems with the previous episodes. Weird pacing, weird chronological storytelling. At least this time they gave some sort of a hint that things are happening at different times. Still clumsy.

Geralt's story was dumbed down to its bares and had some really dumb and pointless changes. Why was Triss there? (and I'm sorry, the actress is competent enough, but terrible casting choice).

The show still looks good and is decently acted, but this episode was just boring and frustrating. I hope it gets better.

The show continues to give no sense of chronology to the events, which is becoming weirder and weirder.

Still avarege to decent acting, but the guy who plays Jaskier was quite good. And what a great singing voice, too!

Again, Geralt's part was rather shallow compared to the source material. His back and forth with the Elf in the book is great, and in here it just felt like good guy Geralt was giving life advice to angry bitter elf. BUT - as long as we are talking about dialogue - his first conversation with the Sylvan is pure gold.

Yennefer's bit was interesting, but with such a weird pacing. So much stuff happening so fast. Her relationship with what's-his-face escalated so quickly, it was almost cringe-worthy (I hate this term, but it's undenyably appliable here).

All in all, this episode was ok, but definitely a step down from the first one.

The series is apparently being divided in three plotlines: Geralt, Yennefer and Cirilla. Each of these are set at a different time in the story, but the show doesn't really do anything to explain it, which was extremely weird to me. I picked up on it fairly soon, but that's because I'm familiar with the source material. I don't know how someone who has never read the books could've noticed it.

The show has some high production values, which make it look pretty good most of the time. Some of the CGI for magic effects are kinda cheap, but nothing that will make your eyes roll. As far as sets, clothes, equipment, etc. all looks very good.

Avarege to decent acting for most of the cast. Henry Cavill is obviously trying to play Geralt like we see him in The Witcher III, and I gotta say he's pretty spot on at times. That being said, he does look and sound kind of robotic sometimes.

The story itself is mostly well-adapted. They skipped over some details from the "Butcher of Blavikhen" short-story that gave it a lot of depth, and the end result was something that was kind of shallow and a bit illogical (like, why were the guys at the market in the end? The book explains it, the show didn't, and it's fairly central to the story)

Overall, a nice start. Some great action sequences, decent acting, decent plot, even with the weird timeline stuff. Will continue to watch

Right, so first things first: This isn't a total ripoff from Ash vs Evil Dead.

It really seems that way with the name being so similar, and then you go on to read the summary where it says it's about a reluctant aging hero fighting off infernal foes. But the similarities kind of end right there. Now, there isn't to say that there are no similarities with the Evil Dead franchise. The one-liners are there, the make up effects, the camera angles borrowed directly from Raimi's bag of tricks. But, watching the show, this all feels a lot more like homages and references to the Evil Dead (and other horror classics) than a blatant ripoff. As the pilot progresses, we come to see that the story does have it's own thing going on. And Sheriff Miller himself is pretty different from Ash. He's way less immoral and bohemian, and way smarter. He's kind of a retired badass. Now that I think of it, he shares way more similarities with Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley's character in Scrubs) than to Ash.

But that's enough about the show's relation to AVED. Let's move on.

First off, the acting in this one is top notch, specially for a (apparently) low-budget show. John McGinley delivers a spot on interpretation as Sheriff Stan Miller (but then again, the character does fall directly into his playhouse). Deborah Baker and Nate Mooney also give very endearing and funny performances during their quick, yet very entertaining screen time.

The comedy part of the show is great. It didn't have me rolling of laughter or anything, but the writing and jokes are pretty witty and with excellent timing. And the horror part of the show is surprisingly strong too. The second episode has one very interesting scene that I won't spoil. The creepy scenes are full of atmosphere, and the excellent (and quite unique) soundtrack only adds to the mood.

I do have two complaints about the show though: First, 20 minutes per episode is quite short for this kind of show, and because of that, the first episode had some pacing issues. Sometime a lot of stuff happened in a short period of time, and some of the plot elements didn't really had enough time to establish themselves in a satisfying and "believeble" way. The second episode does have way better pacing though. The second complaint I have is about the action sequences. I think the big baddies of each episode deserved a way more climatic and intense battle before they were dispatched, to give the show more intensity, but that really wasn't the case. Well, I hope the coming episodes features more hard hitting battles.

All in all, this show is a delight for horror fans. It's funny, it's creepy. And if you're an Evil Dead fan like I am, I think you will enjoy the references and the similar tone like I did.