The Witcher

With the success of Game Of Thrones there figures to be many imitations, and while The Witcher isn't quite the same thing, it does recall some of the mega-hit show. It's not nearly as good, though, as some of it feels warmed over and it's extremely confusing.

A dark fantasy sent in a mythical land, the series, based on a series of books, revolves around Geralt of Rivia, who is a Witcher. That is, he is a mercenary who kills monsters for hire. Played by Henry Cavill (whom I didn't recognize), he is a great hero, a man of few words ("Hmmm" is his most common utterance), with a flowing mane of snow white hair.

Witchers are not quite human, but a different species entirely, who aren't supposed to have human emotion. But of course Cavill will always do the right thing, even if he pretends to be in it only for himself.

The other major character is another good one, Yennefer (Anya Chilotra). When he first see her she is a hunchback, sold by her father to a school that teaches mages. Turns out Chilotra is a very powerful sorceress.

The third storyline involves a young princess (Freya Allen) who has escaped the army that has overthrown her kingdom and killed her grandmother, the queen (Jodhi May). She is told to find Geralt, so the entire eight episode series is us waiting for them to connect.

A lot of this seems familiar. There is sword fighting, dragons, monsters of various kinds (some of the are pretty cool, like a spider with a human face) and dialogue that is straight of out of Fantasy 101. What really threw me is that it is told non-linearly, which I didn't realize until characters that were seen killed come back. I read that this method of story telling was inspired by the film Dunkirk, where some timelines cover many years and others just a few weeks. I was completely confused by Dunkirk, too.

While The Witcher doesn't really break any new ground in the fantasy genre, it's an okay time-waster. There's lots of gore and also some nudity (Chilotra has a spectacular body, which is shown off many times). I will tune in for the second season, as of course the first ends in a cliffhanger. I just wish the writers of the show had taken it a little easier on us, and explained a few things.