Strictly from a gamer's perspective, The Witcher is a decent rendition. Most of the main characters have been transferred quite successfully with Geralt himself possibly the best imagining. I dig how Cavill went out of his way to imitate the raspy voice that the VO actor uses in the game which I would guess is his natural voice. Either way, it was a nice touch and shows they made a real effort to try and stay as close to the source material as possible. Yes, I know that the book is the main source material but let's be real, it was the game that put the Continent on the map (so to speak). Yes, there are some failings that I chalk up to Hollywood inclusion fanaticism such as Triss Merigold changing from a European looking red-head to a curly-haired mixed race(who is cute BTW). Also, Yennefer also went from a Northern European lookin' gal to a more Mediterranean lookin' chick which was "meh" IMO. Honestly, these changes don't bug me as much but it couldn't have been more obvious.

From a film goer's perspective is where I think the show begins to run into issues. I understand that the world of The Witcher has some heavy fantasy elements but I think for the average watcher, they are a bit too heavy-handed with it. The episode that made me wince was the Djinn episode. Nevermind the preposterous idea that Geralt would go looking for the bottle to "get some sleep" but the idea of the genie is hokey. Yes, I know that the game and the books have these and stuff even goofier but if your goal is to attract as many users as possible then you have to cut out some of this stuff. Now granted, there have been shows that have the hokey level turned up to the max and were quite successful with Buffy The Vampire being the first to come to mind but those shows are niche audiences. Now, one could argue that the producers of The Witcher are perfectly OK with that happening. Netflix is a cornucopia of niche shows but I would argue that it would be best to try and find a replacement of Game of Thrones . A show that was able to successfully swoon even the biggest fantasy hating, nerd wedgy puller, neanderthal knuckleheads. However, I believe the success of that show was because it was decidedly light-handed with the fantasy element and eventually ramped it up as the show went on after audiences were already hooked. The Witcher just unapologetically dumps a ton of fantasy on the viewer from day one and I feel this will turn off a lot of people which is too bad because I do want the show to succeed.

To conclude, I would like to say that Cavill does a pretty good job and I think The Witcher may have a good chance of being successful. I suppose it depends on the audience's appetite for over the top fantasy elements but if ever was a time for that sort of thing to succeed, it is now. The days of Hollywood producing anything original and succeeding on a wide scale have come and gone and now is the heyday of books, comic books/graphic novels, and basically anything not originally written for the screen. If people eat up the comic book fantasy stuff maybe the time is nigh for this type of fantasy as well.

The Witcher (2019) - 7 outta 10 stars