Last week I finally decided to dive headfirst into Netflix’s The Witcher. After my viewing of the first episode, I was left with a good first impression and was hopeful for the rest of the series. Despite my good first impression, there were some story and character issues in the first episode. Unfortunately, these issues became more prevalent with The Witcher’s second episode “Four Marks” and left me feeling a little deflated about the rest of the season.

”Four Marks” takes a detour from the first episode by focusing more on the lore of the show and sidelining both Geralt and Ciri to introduce the tragic backstory of the young witch Yennefer; who started life as nothing but a deformed and abused child. I did grow attached to Yennefer and I was rooting for her to become more confident, to see how she grows to become a mighty Sorceresse like in the novels. However this development happened at a much slower pace and would in some scenes just have a character monologuing; dumping information to the point that it felt like I was reading a Witcher wiki and not watching a TV show.

Most of the lore is spent on the racist nature of the humans toward the elves and somehow all three of the characters’ stories tie into this overall lore. Sadly, most of the information feels ham-fisted and just tossed in to bring audience members up to speed on the current political climate of The Witcher world.

“The Four Marks” is extremely loosely based on the short story “The Edge of the World” which follows Geralt and his first encounter with fan-favourite bard and renowned poet Dandelion. In this episode, the character couldn’t keep his mouth shut, and while I think he was supposed to be the comic relief for the darker episode, his humor came off as annoying and just unnecessary. Geralt on the other hand, is tasked to find a “Devil” that has been stealing a village’s grain supply, leaving them hungry and desperate.

The show’s storytelling really takes a turn downhill from here on, as now both Geralt and Ciri’s stories are left to fill what felt like fifteen minutes of screen time as opposed to the episode’s one hour length; which leaves both characters sidelined and various stories rushed. This makes the show feel a little more disorganized and leaves me with the feeling that some of the plot was shoved in there to include something now rather then throw heavy lore at us later. Yes, this could be considered the lesser evil, but no matter what way you look at it, it was just bad writing.

Ciri started off as an intriguing in the first episode but like Geralt, she was sidelined to the point where it would have been a smarter decision to keep her out of this episode alltogether and leave audience members wondering where she went, rather than to force her into an already crowded story.

Yennefer happened to be the best part of “The Four Marks” and that is mainly due to the focus that was put on her and her character. Yennefer started out being horribly bullied and mistreated due to her birth defects. However she showed a powerful skill in magic which left her to be recruited by Tissaia, who is cruel and hard on Yennefer at first but somehow towards the end of the episode the two have an understanding. That development happens so suddenly, however, that I never noticed a growth at all.

”The Four Marks” also suffers from massive tonal issues. In one scene Dandelion is joking around and making annoying remarks to Geralt and two minutes later the show thrusts back into Yennefer and her depressing struggle with her deformities, carrying on the theme of how the population treats those who are different. None of these element balanced well together and took away more from the show rather adding to it.

The Witcher’s second episode left me with mixed feelings. Overall, I enjoyed what was going on with Yennefer and I really can’t wait to see what happens with her growth and story. Geralt’s story was intriguing, but was cut short and rushed to make room for the new mainstay and Ciri was just forgettable. Tonal issues aside, the plot that was presented wasn’t pushed forward until the last few minutes of the episode and didn’t make me excited to continue. I am hoping episode three will change my mind.

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The Witcher

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Lore building
• Yennifer’s origins

Cons

• Information Overload
• Sidelined stories
• Tonal inconsistency