Hey, Ciri: The Witcher Season 2 Review
The premier fantasy series of the year that surpasses expectations
After meeting his destiny - Princess Cyril (you can just Ciri), Geralt of Rivia turns from a luxurious lone warrior into a caring and protective father figure. He is no longer up to brothels, he also temporarily does not accept orders for the destruction of evil spirits, both of them are moving closer and closer to the citadel of Kaer Morhen, to other witchers. Garalt shows all his dexterity to take care of the girl and teach her how to fight. Ciri, meanwhile, is not lagging behind, she herself overfulfills the training plan in order to take revenge on all offenders as soon as possible. When Garalt doesn't think about Ciri's safety, he misses Yennefer, not knowing if his beloved could survive. Yennefer, meanwhile, misses her magical powers, makes deals with her conscience in an attempt to survive. The war between the Nilfgaard Empire and Cintra does not subside, blood flows in rivers, the genocide of the Elves continues, and our heroes are doing everything to put an end to this.
The first season of The Witcher has already made it clear to fans of Sapkowski's books that the original and the film adaptation will not have much in common. Since most of the Netflix audience has never heard of the books (maximum about the game), the series will be evaluated more as a separate work, which is always worth doing. The show is designed for a large audience, so the desires of the meticulous fans of the original source does not always indulge, but the "Witcher" is only good for the persistence of the showrunner. As an independent project, The Witcher works excellently. Poignant humor, charismatic characters and a battle with fantastic creatures (not necessarily monsters) are collected in a folding CGI fable, from which you cannot tear yourself away. Magic envelops the entire series: how a project with not the most expensive production (sometimes visually reminiscent of the original for REN TV) manages to make a certain pretentiousness one of its greatest strengths, only Fenn is known (yes, Fenn in the film adaptation is a woman, please, no hysterics) ...
The main star of the project, Henry Cavill, on which this whole cart rides, released his inner geek and made some changes to the main character, bringing Geralt as close as possible to a literary character. He has become more talkative, less naked and very purposeful. All of these changes were beneficial. Being in his native citadel for the production of witchers, Kaer Morhen, Geralt will also remember his childhood: abandoned by his mother, who became a witchcraft experiment, a man will return to his origins in order to get to know himself better. Since there are no psychotherapists in the world of elves and magicians to work through these injuries, Geralt successfully talks all these problems with his faithful friend - his horse.
The second season wraps up pressing topics in a fabulous wrapper. In the first series, a very vivid homage to toxic relationships can be traced (the adaptation of the story "Grains of Truth", which, in turn, is a free retelling of "Beauty and the Beast"). Geralt and Ciri stop at Nivellen, a man bewitched for unforgivable deeds in the guise of a monster living in an old estate. Despite the warm hospitality, the guests feel the danger, and she eventually appears in the guise of an innocent girl. It turns out that the seemingly wise Nivellen lives in alliance with the vampire, and since he is immortal, the enchanted beast cannot break out of the vicious circle, becoming an evening meal for the beloved bloodsucker from day to day. Further homages grow in scale: geopolitical games, in which the simple guy Geralt is involved, from time to time resemble news headlines, and the genocide of elves speaks loudly about xenophobia.
The beginning of the new season, let's say, is very impressive, which is even more pleasant - then the series successfully maintains this bar. The heroes are waiting for insane adventures, they will fight with Lesh, and turn the hut back to the forest, the witchers organize a party with an orgy (well, where without orgies), the lovers will find each other again, and then, like in songs, they will lose. Speaking of songs, Dandelion will also appear, but you will have to wait a bit, he is having a hard time right now. I want to thank Netflix for putting the entire season out at once, because The Witcher is made for bingewatching, and the holidays are the perfect time for that. The series darkens before our eyes, bringing us closer to its heroes, revealing their dark sides, whether it is close to the original source or not, it no longer makes sense, this series is our destiny, and we will meet with it now.
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