TOSS YOUR COIN TO ‘THE WITCHER’

“The Witcher” is a current Netflix streaming series that has gone through many forms of media and has become a very popular series, no matter the medium.

This was originally a book series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. It grew very popular in Poland and made its way to America. Since then, a bunch of comics, television shows, video games, and tabletop RPGs have been based on his work.

The Witcher follows Geralt of Rivia and his journeys around the continent that is simply called “The Continent.”

Geralt is a witcher, a normal human taken away from its family at a young age and then mutated through means of science and magic. This basically makes all witchers superhuman, able to handle potions that are too toxic for normal human consumption. They acquire these powers through a trial where they consume many different forms of toxic herbs that mutate them and give them their powers. In exchange, however, witchers become numb to the sensation of every emotion except for lust – but they also become infertile.

All witchers are male, due to their old traditions, and no woman has survived the trial that witchers must go through. Most are monster hunters for hire, but not all are that way, as witchers differentiate in factions. Geralt belongs to the wolf school among witchers, which generally inhabit northern areas and are known to be the most reliable when it comes to hunting monsters.

But Geralt has a philosophy that there is no greater or lesser evil, and he would rather not choose sides. He is seen to show mercy to sentient creatures that have enough intelligence to speak and properly interact with others.

His many adventures spread around like tales and he has earned many titles – his most notable and violent name being “The Butcher of Blaviken,” due to his actions in said town that owes to a one-sided story given by the town’s mage (an individual born with such superpowers). Despite this name, Geralt does not slaughter thousands of men in response to how the general public treats him, because if he did, he would become just what everyone in the world labels him.

Geralt is not a black-and-white character, not simply a “good guy” or a “bad guy.” He’s a complex character that is great at grabbing the viewer’s attention and curiosity. He keeps them on the edge of their seats, wondering what will happen next.

While The Witcher is a great series, before watching it there are some things that need to be known. This series is very mature and is not recommended for younger audiences. It includes intense gore, sexual content, nudity, self-harm, and many other things that can trigger one’s gag reflex, or nausea. It surely is not a series for the squeamish or weak of heart.

If you’re okay with all that, the series is a treat to watch. It has a fantasy setting, but it’s a dark and grungy type of fantasy, which is very common among fantasy TV series. Unlike most other fantasy tales, we are not following a hero’s tale or even the tale of one character’s perspective; we instead are often switching which character we are watching. While Geralt is the main character, we also are given Yennifer’s story, going from a hunch-backed farm girl to a gorgeous and powerful mage. Her story is one of the more graphic twists, in terms of content. There are moments of self-harm, suicide attempts, sex, gore, and of self-hatred. Watching her story is one of the most interesting, but also hardest to watch, at times.

The other main character that viewers follow is a little bit of a spoiler for the entire series, so I won’t say much about her so that you can enjoy the story to the fullest.

The Witcher is a hard show to get into since there’s a lot of information to absorb in order to understand what is going on. You can’t just put it on while you’re working on something else. To optimally enjoy the series, I suggest turning on subtitles because it makes it easier to decipher the info and to understand what some of the characters are saying.

The Witcher is a Netflix original series, with a length usually between 40 and little over 60 minutes. It’s not the easiest show to binge in one sitting, but it is possible.

Talk of a second season has already begun, one that would presumably come out sometime in 2021.

The Witcher is a brilliant show and it is definitely a must-watch if you’re in the mood for a dark, grungy show that will make you squirm and leave you with those gasping moments.

5 / 5

Advocate Staff