S01.E01: Of Ballads, Brawlers, and Bloodied Blades

[paulvdb]

Quote

A tavern brawl puts Eile on a collision course with destiny, emotions get the best of Fjall after a close call, and a royal betrayal leads to bloodshed.

 

[Valyrian]

I read so many negative things about this show, but now that I'm actually watching it, it seems just fine, even enjoyable and fun, with some humor and energy.

[WritinMan]

Wow. This is really bad.

Terrible dialogue. It's doesn't look very good (from the special effects to how it was filmed), and it just wasn't interesting. I had a hard time getting through all of this, and staying focused. Kind of a chore, really. A rough start.

It's like something that would have been on the SyFy channel 15 years ago.

Michelle Yeoh deserves better.

Edited December 26, 2022 by WritinMan

[thuganomics85]

Pretty rough start, although not the worst I've ever seen.  But a lot was going on here and it was either confusing or hard to follow one minute, and then atypical and cliched the next.  The dialogue was silly, the direction was mediocre, and the actors all seemed confused here and really effected their performances.  Which is why it probably wasn't a surprise that it finally got better once Michelle Yeoh showed up.  At least she can bring something here, even if her character is starting out as the tough, but fair mentor-type one.

All of the stuff at the palace/capital just feels like they're really trying to do their version of Game of Thrones in the Witcher universe.  Queen Merwyn in particular comes off like if you put Daenerys and Cersei into a blender and see what happens!  Did like how the evil mage is being played by the same actor who played the leader of the Harfoots in Ring of Power.  He just needs to get on House of the Dragon to be in all of the main fantasy shows! 

Jaskier's involvement might end up just being fan service, but I'll allow it.  I'm guessing something big is going to happen with Minnie Driver's character.

"Black Rose" is no "Toss a Coin to your Witcher", but it grew on me.

At least this is only 4 episodes and most everything else is on hiatus....

[Kasienka]

I'm not blown away, but it's not the worst thing I've seen either. I like Fjall and Eile, I'm interested where their story will go. The Xintrea court stuff was kinda confusing and everything was happening so fast. I don't even care yet about those people and I'm supposed to feel something when they all die? No time to develop Princess Merwyn and her brother or any other rulers. Costumes and scenery are very beautiful though. I like the evil mage, he looks great and has a presence on the screen which sadly can't be said about Eredin...

On 12/27/2022 at 10:04 AM, thuganomics85 said:

  Did like how the evil mage is being played by the same actor who played the leader of the Harfoots in Ring of Power.

Wow I didn't catch that. Guy has a range.

[iMonrey]

Finally got around to watching this, and I thought it was pretty good! Very much the same spirit as the regular series. I'm not a big fan of the fight scenes but I think they do character work pretty well and they don't take themselves too seriously. (I only made it through two or three episodes of Ring of Power, that show was about as much fun as a heart attack.) I was able to follow this pretty well too, which is something I had trouble doing when The Witcher first started.