Well guys, this might be a slightly contentious post regarding the subject, which is of much outrage online right now as the Netflix series, The Witcher has just aired its 4th season, which has seen the change of its lead actor from Henry Cavill to Liam Hemsworth.
So, as a result of this change, there has been a huge backlash from fans online but there were already plenty of fans that disliked the show's direction and storylines even when Cavill was still in the series and Cavill himself was believed to have left due to creative differences with the producers. However, despite that, the series has gone on into its fourth season and the change of lead actor has indeed been the subject of much outrage as well as the increasing lack of faithfulness to the original material.
But having watched the whole 4th season, is it really as bad as they say it is??? Well, let's take a look.
Oh and I will give the warning below...
PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
STORY
So, the fourth season begins with Witcher, Geralt of Rivia (now Liam Hemsworth) along with the travelling bard, Jaskier (Joey Batey) and skilled archer, Milva (Meng'er Zhang) making their way toward Nilfgaard with the intention of rescuing Ciri (Freya Allan). On their way, they discover that former Nilfgaardian officer, Cahir is being held captive by a band of Nilfgaadrian soldiers, Geralt threatens to kill him but then leaves a knife for Cahir to cut himself free with. Geralt on his travels soon also meets Regis (Laurence Fishburne) a barber surgeon, who helps on their travels as well but its also apparent, Geralt is still hurting from his wounds at the hand of the powerful and evil mage, Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu). So, throughout the season, Geralt deals with his own doubts and fears in trying to protect Ciri.
Meanwhile, Yennefer (Anya Charlota) the powerful mage (and lover of Geralt) and part of a former coven of witches at Aretuza, gathers together the remaining members of her coven, which was decimated by the villainous Vilgefortz. So, Yennefer intends to destroy Vilgefortz and his army of corrupted witches in order to eventually rebuild Aretuza.
And lasty, we have Ciri, who in this season has joined up with a criminal gang known as the Rats, who is lead by Mistle (Juliette Alexandra) and Ciri goes on to have a romantic relationship with. However, Ciri has her struggles within the group and later on we discover that her father, King Emhyr (Bart Edwards) has one of his close confidants, Skellen (James Purefoy) try and track her down for his own ends. However, Skellen himself has his own agenda and uses Leo Bonhart (Sharlto Copley) a brutal and ruthless bounty hunter to hunt her down.
THOUGHTS
So, this series really did get a real grilling from the fans on its release last week as it was crucified for what is percieved as rushed storylines, poor storytelling, deviating majorly from the source material and the absence of Henry Cavill greatly impacted the show itself. So, no matter what the show creators could have done here with the absence of their original leading man, nothing could have satisifed the fans and no replacement for Cavill would have been good enough for them. As for Liam Hemsworth's performance, it has already been heavily criticised for a lack of charisma and humour as Hemworth by far and large plays it very straight, which to an extent I can't disagree with but I have to also admit, I didn't think he was that bad either.
So, for me personally, I think the Witcher Season 4 is actually not a bad season at all and is even a pretty decent one overall, despite some issues and misgivings with the show, I really don't think it is that bad and it doesn't deserve all the hate that it gets.
PERFORMANCES (Warning: this section might contain the odd spoiler!)
As for the performances in season 4, I will say a bit about the cast here but won't really quote any scenes of dialogue as such as I usually do since there is more to cover in a series.
So, for starters, let's begin with Liam Hemsworth himself as Geralt and I have to say, I think he does a pretty good job here and even succeeds in showing a more serious side to Geralt given his grave injuries at the hands of Vilgefortz at the end of Season 3 have left him more vulnerable than before. It is undeniable however that Hemsworth had a tough job in following Cavill in the role, given that Cavill was so good as Geralt and was bsaically tailored made for the role and here he doesn't quite reach the level in the role that Cavill did. However, despite that, Hemsworth still does the best with the material he is given here, even if he plays the role way more seriously with the very little in the way of any lines of humour (well for the most part anyway despite the odd line here or there). In fact you could say that is the worst thing about the series, is how they really deviated away from Geralt's character as we saw it in the video games and in the books and they've taken even further here in this season. Regardless, I still think Hemsworth's take on Geralt, did kind of grow on me a bit more as the season progressed.
Next Anya Charlota is excellent once again in here role as Yennefer, the powerful mage, who is Geralt's romantic interest and also step mother to Ciri and here tries to reform the witches coven to destroy the villainous mage, Vilgefortz. Anya's performance is pretty consistent with how it was in the previous series, mostly serious but with a few flashes of humour here and there. Yennefer's storyline for the most part is also pretty compelling and her battle against Vilgefortz for the most part is pretty good and well staged.
Freya Allan is also excellent once again in her role as Ciri, who in this season joins a criminal gang, the Rats and becomes romantically invovled with one of their group as well but the gang themselves soon or later are the subject of a ruthless bounty hunter. In fact for me, Ciri's storyline was probably the strongest of the three and Ciri's character starts to shine more as we see more of her feistiness and her sense or humour emerge here. There are also even moments in the season where Freya even resembles how Ciri looked in the Witcher 3 video game, which is cool in itself. So, for me, this was easily one of the best aspects of the season and Freya's best performance in the show so far.
Joey Batey also makes his return as Jaskier, the travelling bard, who sticks with Geralt although his character is somewhat less humorous this time around and is sidelined quite a bit more. However, to be fair, Joey does get his amusing albeit cringing musical sequence, which in a way is fun and does help break up the more serious moments of the season themselves. Although, his longer hairdo in this season, has also been the subject of some criticism but for me I didn't mind it too much.
As for new cast members, Laurence Fishburne is excellent in his role as Regis, a surgeon of sorts, who has a rather dark past but ends up helping Geralt on his travels. Fishburne also provides a colourful performance here and is one of the stronger things about this season overall. He also provides some moments of humour during the show, which work well.
Sharlto Copley is also very good as a new chraracter, Leo Benhart, a brutal bounty hunter, who is ruthless in his methods of hunting down his targets. Copley plays the role with a humourous side but he is also quite chilling given Benhart's brutal nature in how he takes down his targets, which culminates in a bloody showdown near the end of the season.
Juliette Alexandra is very good in her role as Mistle, one of the rats gang, who Ciri joins and she becomes romantically involved with. Alexandra does a good job at showing Mistle's playful and dangerous nature but also balancing all that with her relationship with Ciri, as she also sees how Ciri changes as the season progresses.
Next is Meng'er Zhang, who does a fine job as Milva, the archer, who helps Geralt and Jaskier on their travels, who they befriended at the end of Season 3. Zhang also does a good job at showing Milva's feisty character, who can often insult those around her but she also shows she is willing to fight for them and we find out as the show goes on she has a secret of her own.
Bart Edwards also makes his return as Emperor Emhyr, the ruthless leader of the Nilfgaardian empire and in this season searches for his daughter, Ciri, who he wants for his own ends (won't say why!). Edwards is pretty good once again in his role as well as the creepy and slimy emperor, who really ramps up his creepiness in this season for sure.
Anna Shaffer is also pretty good in her role as Triss Merigold, who is one of the witches, who helps out Yennefer in her quest to take down Vilgefortz. However, Shaffer's character is somewhat sidelined here in this season but she does when she can also with the limited material she has.
WARNING: SPOILER IN THE NEXT TWO PARAGRAPHS
Mimi M Kayisha is also very good in her returning role as Frangilla, a witch who was once in the service of the Nilfgaadrian empire but now switches her allegiance to help Yennefer fight against Vilgefortz. Mimi also does a good job at showing the possibility that Frangilla could still flip sides as she has a rather morally ambivalent past.
And last of all, Eamon Farren does well in his role as Cahir, the now former Nilfgaardian commander, who in this season switches his allegiance and helps out Geralt and the others in their quest to find Ciri. The only real problem I have with Farren however is his character of Cahir is pretty one dimensional and not very interestintg but Farren does what he can with the limited development of his role and it is good to see him join the good side.
MUSIC AND SPECIAL EFFECTS
As for the music, the show's composers once again do a pretty good job with here and keep the theme of the show's Polish roots in check. The score doesn't really hit the heights of the music you find in the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt video game, which is pretty phenomenal but overall its still a good solid score and fits the tone of the show well.
Special effects wise, the show makes fairly good use of its CGI although some monsters fair better than others during the season as the CGI for some of them looks pretty obviously fake. In fact you could argue in general, CGI has gotten worse in recent years rather than better! Regardless the effects are not too bad and serve the show well enough.
FLAWS
As for flaws...is Season 4 perfect? Hell no! ;-) Yes there are some issues with the season itself.
For starters, I think to start with the elephant in the room and that is Liam Hemsworth himself, who had a mighty tough task in replacing Henry Cavill in the show and to be fair he does a fairly good job at it for the most part. However, it has to be said there are times where his performance really does feel lacklustre and his hushed and serious delivery of Geralt's lines at nearly all times does kind of make the character's depiction feel now all the more drab and uninteresting, which Geralt never should be. I also feel like this is also to do with of course the writers and the path they chose to taken with Geralt to make him more sullen and serious here as he faces questions about his own mortality and his own ability after being gravely injured at the end of Season 3. So, for the most part, Hemsworth's Geralt feels like a stripped down version of the character almost to the point, it feels like he's not EVEN there and the show just happens around him!
However, despite this there are still some nice moments from Hemsworth himself throughout the series, particularly the scene where we have a flashback to where Geralt fixes Ciri's hair for her and she makes a joke and he says "Ah, humour! I remember that!". Then of course there is that moment, which everyone hated in the trailer where he shouts "Let's fu***** MOVE!!!" but when you take in the context of the actual scene, its actually a pretty funny line and works better than you think and is ironically one of Hemsworth's best moments. Despite these though, there are however still times where you feel the show is definitely that bit hollower without Cavill but to be fair, Hemsworth's Geralt did grow on me a bit more as he went on and hopefully he will finish stronger in Season 5.
Another issue I had was to do with some choices of how characters were suddenly written out such as Djikstra, the ruthless advisor to the fomer King, who now advises the weak King Radvoid, as he appears for a couple of episodes and he is quickly taken out of things. The same even also goes for Radovid himself, who makes a rather bizarre transition from a weasily King to a more decisive one after meeting with Jaskier briefly in one scene (after their romantic tryst in season 3). However, in the next episode, Radovid again vanishes! So, yeah, I feel like they rushed the storylines here quite a bit here myself and the disappearance of certain characters feel a bit jarring.
WARNING: TWO BIG SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
I also felt that the season's conclusion was also a bit unsatisfactory and left things hanging the final season but it would have been good if we had some closure on certain things. For example, Ciri's fight with Leo Benhart is cut short and at the end she is captured by him whilst she witnesses her former rat members being gruesomely beheaded by Benhart himself. I was just hoping that Ciri would have brutally finished this guy off instead but sadly they decided not to go with that and save it for the final season. I guess I just hated this guy enough, I wanted to see Ciri use her skills or magic to blast his head off instead (bloodlust got me there! Sorry!").
Also further to this, we have Yennefer's story arc conclude with her going after Vilgefortz but again its left hanging as to how she will reach him as she just teleports into the ocean and swims towards some sort of whirpool. Its just a bit of a daft way to end her story in the show at this point rather than have her, you know land on actual land!
And last of all, I thought that Geralt's 180 on his opinion of Cahir was handled a bit stupidly as he eventually accepts, he is there to help him despite Geralt's repeated attempts at killing him. However, in the end, Geralt thanks his party for helping save him and that included Cahir but Cahir didn't really do anything for him in the season up to this point to really help him! Its more a case of Cahir saying "I'm not your enemy!" over and over until it eventually sinks in but I still don't recall Cahir helping him properly until the final episode itself.
So, that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, is The Witcher Season 4 really that bad and as big a disaster as the online community make it out to be?? Well, in my opinion absolutely not. Its actually a very entertaining season for the most part with some good action, good story arcs (more for Ciri and Yennefer than Geralt) and it hangs together better than Season 3 did. However, the change of casting from Henry Cavill to Liam Hemsworth is definitely felt here and Hemsworth fails to display any real sign of charisma in the role even though he does have his moments here and there and he might yet grow on me in the final season.
However, I think it also has to be said (and this bit might get me into trouble if Witcher fans read it!) that this season really has become the victim of the hate bandwagon, which so many fans of pop culture these days are too keen to get on. So, I really think that this season is getting way too much hate and really doesn't deserve it as its deemed as being objectively awful by legions of fans and if you go on Youtube you see nothing but "WITCHER SEASON 4 AWFUL" and "WITCHER SEASON 4 SUCKS" etc etc. But I think this is definitely systemic of a problem with fan culture in general these days where its too easy to hate on something and find reasons to hate something rather than to like it or give it a chance. I mean just look at the Disney Star Wars films, which are also roundly trashed by fans and only the first one is considered good by most of their estimations or even the modern day Star Trek films.
So, for me, Witcher Season 4 is not objectively awful, not badly acted, not poorly paced (for the most part anyway!) and not un-entertaining. It can be enjoyed and I think if you just want to watch something for a bit of escapism, you could certainly do worse than this. So, I really do think in the end, you need to take all this hate directed at the series with a pinch of salt and decide for yourself what you think of it. Is it perfect? Nope, the season has its problems but I still think people should give it a try and try not to buy into the overwhelming negativity that has been attached to it.
So, I will rate The Witcher Season 4
7 out of 10
So, that's it for this one guys and I will see you soon for another post.
Until then, bye for now!
