Wednesday, January 12, 2022

The Witcher seasons 1 & 2

Somehow, in a show that knowingly and expansively - giddily even - traffics in the ridiculous, on this second pass I once again got stuck on the fact that The Witcher expects us to take it seriously while brandishing a main character named 'Yennefer of Vengerberg'. Of course, one of the show's charms is that it in fact only expects us to take it seriously in certain ways - as a fantasy, in a world with all the trimmings and filled with epic doings and dark portent - without being all humourless about it.

Season 2 is at once more streamlined (because it's a single timeline in which the characters and major pieces of action regularly intersect) and more sprawling (because it broadens its scope and the ramifications of its characters' actions and 'destinies') than season 1. It also has more emoting by Henry Cavill's Geralt of Rivia in about 5 minutes in the first episode than in the entirety of the previous season.

Basically this just continues to be a fun show, tuned pretty well to one segment of what I enjoy for escapism, and with enough going on across its various dimensions to not be distractingly or egregiously offensive in any way.