- Starring
- Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, Anya Chalotra
- Creators
- Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
- Rating
- R
- Genre
- Action, Drama, Fantasy
- Where to watch
- Netflix
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
How do you run a fun action-adventure series into the ground? Apparently, you put Lauren Schmidt Hissrich in charge of it. Clearly not a fan of the material, Hissrich does everything she can to change the series’ focus to any vagina…er character other than Geralt (you know, The Witcher). As a result, in this season, just like the newly minted bisexual Jaskier, fans get it right up the rear.
The Witcher: Season 3 Vol. 2
The final three episodes of this season see Geralt uninvolved, embarrassed, seriously injured, and convalescing as a now completely uninteresting Yennifer does some ill-defined magic stuff, and Ciri walks through the desert with a horse with no name, all of which culminates to the introduction of a host of snarky girl bosses for Season 4. Yay?
While Volume 2 shares most of Volume 1’s shortcomings, it does improve on its pacing, but only slightly, by including more fight scenes. The first episode picks up immediately from where the previous one left off, with the mage’s conclave being invaded by an elven army because humans bad, mages bad, elves displaced, political intrigue… You get it.
In what is the season’s singular engaging set piece, much of the first episode is devoted to a battle in which actors portraying wizards vaguely wave their hands around while looking either constipated or like they’re posing for a Prince album cover, all while poorly rendered CGI balls of various colors and sizes do indeterminate yet damaging things to Bronze Age warriors who brought swords and bows to a magic fight, yet manage to give as good as they get (because the showrunners never played DnD).
Unfortunately, the show has done a miserable job of defining who’s who and what’s what. So much so that everyone, save Geralt and his crew, seems like awful and evil conniving creeps whose loyalties change more often than Kim Kardashian changes questionable boyfriends. The result is that the viewer knows not for whom to root or jeer; furthermore, they’re given no reason to care.
But let not your hearts be troubled; the battle is quickly ended by some never-before-mentioned magic MacGuffin. Then, the new star of the show, Ciri, is MacGuffined to the middle of a desert that happens to be possessed by a ghostly MacGuffin.
Although the real fun begins as we are introduced to what must be the new middle school-aged writers who got permission to drop f-bombs for the first time. In between Ciri’s screeching curses, the audience is treated to Ciri walking, Ciri talking to herself, Ciri playing Fear Factor, and, of course, a starved, dehydrated, and unarmed Ciri being a bigger bad@$$ than Geralt.
With a plot that only starts to take shape in the final episode and an antagonist that the show’s creator hates, performances that are better than the material aren’t enough to save Season 3 of The Witcher, and we doubt that Liam Hemsworth will be enough to save Season 4.
**UPDATE** Thanks to the writers’/actors’ strike, Season 4 has been postponed indefinitely. Season 3 may be The Witcher’s last.
See our review of Season 3 Vol. 1.
WOKE REPORT
More of the Same
- Geralt had virtually no role this season. He no longer cares about ridding the world of monsters, instead wanting to play house with Yennifer and Ciri. Which is fine, except that he is regularly outmatched and outshone in his own series by gal supporting characters… because.
- By the season’s end, all but one “good” male mage is dead,
- An unarmed, malnourished, and dehydrated to the point of delirium Ciri can leap ten feet in the air to easily defeat an armored two-storied beast that would have taken a peak and armed Geralt several minutes to beat.
- 90 lbs obnoxious girl boss who confuses snark for personality is introduced as Geralt’s new traveling companion.
- A host of obnoxious girl bosses who confuse snark for personality are introduced to become Ciri’s new bosom buddies for next season.
- The DEI casting is forced, obvious, and distracting.
James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
Hey dude, are you up to reviewing the season 2 of Good Omens? I liked the book, the first season kinda sucked ass but maybe the second one would be better, but I want to know if it’s too woke
I’ll add it to the ever-growing list, but no promises.
Once you ‘invest’ in an identity politics pick, you’ve just got to keep going , no matter how terrible their output , and the losses. I suppose it took the Russians 70 odd years , to finally throw the towel in on communism, so we’ve got a long way to go.
I could not invest in the show after Jasker turns gay. Why do you need to change things like this? The plot shifts from the story to promoting agenda. Boring. I obky hope the fact that I did not finish is a statistic Netflix looks at. Maybe this is why Cavill did not want to be in the show anymore…cause he does not want to blow some dude next. Your review under describes the wokeness level.
Henry left because he read the scripts and didn’t want any future part lf this shitshow. Cannot believe how woke and horrible this season was. I mean- not that it’s about this- but the only sex scenes in the whole season are gay ones, not even Geralt and Yen. Thank you for leaving Henry- as this show has overstayed its welcome and is need of bring out down before it goes off the rails even more.
” obnoxious girl boss who confuses snark for personality” should become a meme! Totally spot on!
I am so shocked by only a 50% woke rating. I highly relie on the woke ratings for if I can watch with my kids. This honestly should have been rated as like 99% maybe even 100%. They took a main very much liked character and made him gay for nothing more than politics! It doesn’t get anymore woke that that. In my opinion that single item is what ruined the show. If you missed this in your woke meter, makes me concerned about other reviews to which I had not previously seen.
This season is as disturbing and woke as it gets, I just really thought I woulda saw a rating much much higher than 50%
Thanks for reaching out — I understand where you’re coming from, and I appreciate you taking the time to share your perspective.
The Woke-O-Meter is intentionally designed to work alongside the full Woke Report. Before I launched Worth it or Woke, I recognized that how viewers are affected by these kinds of themes is ultimately subjective, especially when it comes to more overt or politically driven elements. Rather than simply telling people what to think, what I aim to do instead is measure, as objectively as possible, how frequently and how heavily those elements impact the storytelling across the entire season. From there, the Woke Report provides the specific examples, so you have the full context needed to weigh those moments according to your own standards and make the decision that’s right for you and your family.
The Woke Report is where I call out specific instances — like character changes or thematic elements — so you can make your own judgment about how significant or off-putting those moments are.
In other words, something can feel very impactful or even show-defining on a personal level, while still representing a smaller portion of the overall content when measured across the full season. That distinction is exactly why both the meter and the detailed report exist.
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