This basically shows that Henry Cavill has read more of the source material than all of the writers, show runners, and Netflix combined.

As a Pole, this show hit us harder than the germans back in 39

Nothing says "medieval Europe inspired fantasy" as loudly as a black woman, a female samurai and a Wakandian king.

Lauren doesn’t care about the source material. This was known in 2018 when she didn’t want Ciri to be white. She also wanted Ciri to be the lead not Geralt. She blamed trolls and racists when people objected. The article is online.

My man Henry Cavill built his own computer, played the Witcher Trilogy on hard, and was the backbone of this full show. He is one hell of a guy.

So Hollywood, Henry Cavill is cancelled because he wanted to respect the lore, played games and wouldn't pop his top off constantly. Meanwhile, Ezra Miller can burgle homes, groom children, abuse drugs, get arrested countless times and choke women to the ground. Either he has pics of Zaslav naked with a donkey or hollywood has lost the plot and my money.

as a Polish witcher fan, i can confirm that I’m indeed upset that directors decided to shit on our culture and mythology and even typical slavic look (which means rather fairer complexion) because these charasteristics weren’t „woke enough”. The ethnical background is what makes the orginal witcher unique. There is no ✨flavor✨in this new „all in one” remake. When we try to include everything so noone can get offended, the final product is simply nothing.

I am a Witcher fan from Poland. The second I heard Netflix is gonna do Witcher I knew it would be a disaster. There is actually really old Witcher tv series(1996), based on books, which was considered pretty mediocre, but now looking back at that it and comparing it to the abomination by Netflix, that series is a fucking masterpiece. I recommand watching it for anyone interested.

Cavill seems like a genuinely nice guy. It must have been soul-crushing for him to slowly realize that the show-runners weren't just ignorant or incompetent, but malicious liars who actually enjoy destroying the creative legacy of others.

As a fellow Witcher fan, Henry has earned nothing but my respect. He was probably the only good thing in the show and he just have been internally screaming watching those hacks butcher the source material.

"Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made" -JRR Tolkien

Henry Cavil fought long and hard to keep the integrity of the story universe together, and for that he has my utmost respect. Unfortunately, the showrunners and writers had other ideas, and ran the show into the ground from the start with malicious intent.

You know it's bad when even the professional critics can't bring themselves to like it.

The most distilled way its been explained to me is; modern writers doing adaptations is like giving your action figures to your younger sister and she just has them do a tea party.

I'd just like to add that since Henry is clearly a bit fan of the books and games, and that a former writer of the netflix series admitted in a recent interview that several of his co-writers openly showed their hatred and mockery of the source material just supports my theory that at least one of the reasons Henry left was because he did not want to be a part of his butchery of something that he loves any longer. Mr. Cavill, I tip my hat to you, and I wish you nothing but the best going forward.

Can we have our own characters please? I’m an old ass Caribbean woman and I fucking love the Witcher books in all their Slavic glory and the games for bringing my favorite characters to life. The books are unique for their complex and deeply flawed female characters and remain a testament to the lasting impact of the women who helped rebuild Poland after the war. Their influence is all over those books. It’s also refreshing to see a stoic, strong yet genuinely good male character with depth and charisma. I crave seeing people that look like me and my family in more entertainment but we deserve our own stories and the fans of these stories want to celebrate what makes them uniquely Polish. This pandering is basically corporate trolling as a marketing ploy and unfairly makes these actors take the brunt of manufactured rage for no good reason than free publicity.

I'm Polish,and I blame Sapkowski for everything ,his greed has destroyed his work and it's inexcusable in my opinion , he was still bitter for selling the right to the books to CD Project back in early 2000's (fixed sum ,no royalties, and it was pennies) that when Netflix approached him he was more than ready to sell his soul even though he knew exactly what the show would become if he did. Shame on him for recommending 2nd season of the witcher before it came out too, most of witcher fans in Poland cannot stand him.

Strong female,gay,lesbian, black, handicap, interracial, it was like watching people act out a check list

In retrospect it's so weird how everyone loved the first season. I think it was entirely because of Henry. He really *was* that show.

The part that kept weirdly bugging me was how the musician/elf kept using small daggers in pitched battles. I don't care what kind of kung-fu they're going to pretend she knows, the first guy with a full sized sword, axe or spear and has a basic knowledge of how to use it is going to straight-up body her.

I could not imagine the absolute headache Henry went through trying to keep the Witcher on track. I'm glad he quit, he was being wasted on the project, I give him props for trying though

The unfortunate truth is that modern Hollywood has a writing problem. The problem derives from the fact that "modern" writers tend to interchange ATTRIBUTES for VIRTUES. It is a shame.

The trailer made me go from "Hell yeah, more Witcher" to "Oh no, more Witcher" in about 5 seconds, nuff said

The worst part for me was the female dwarf carrying a big war hammer like she's somehow Wilt Chamberlain playing Bombaata in Conan the Destroyer.

Kudos to Henry, like a true Gentleman, he just walked away. Made no comment, said, thank you, have a nice life, and looks for his next challenge. Good for him, this would have haunted him forever.

I remember when "The Witcher" was a semi-selfcontained, grounded, slavic/scandinavian tale of regular humans who have to live together with other regular low-magic beings and magic in itself was a wonder and rarity, and the WHOLE THING DIDN'T LOOK LIKE SOME ASS-END AFTERTHOUGHT OF AN EPISODE FROM THE NEWER SEASONS OF DR.WHO WHAT THE FUCK

I read the books of the Witcher series. It was impressive how much Henry remembered and even said the same lines word by word as the book did sometimes. It hurt how much they butchered some of the characters from the book. The one that hurt me the most was the beast man from the season 2. He was my favorite character who was the first to be in the first Witcher book. Here they made him a pussy. I was so mad how they also butchered Lydia. She wasnt just any villain. She was an amazingly beautiful character. So much suffering in her and all for what she thought right and for the love she had. Fucked her up too…

I love that Lauren Hisrich said she wouldn't use anything from the games in the TV show and would stick strictly to the books (as if she's too good for the games), then proceeded to completely butcher the books.

Netflix didn't want to be out-cringed by Amazon. It is basically the Witcherverse equivalent of Rings of Power.

Made by people “with an axe to grind rather than a story to tell” - This!! Spot on 👌

You could have ethnically distinct countries, with a sprinkling of other races, from other areas, traders and whatever, but if you must have a diverse cast all in one place, here's a thought, why not have lots of the story set in port cities, or crossroads on trade routes, where the different races converge. Which usually makes for a interesting setting, for deceits, double crosses and heroism, and shady dealing in back street bars. Istanbul sort of thing, I'm not a writer or anything, but you know, it just might work visually and plot wise.

The Critical Drinker: "Wow, 2022 hasn't been a good year to be a Witcher fan." Me: "Wow, 2022 hasn't been a good year to be a movie, tv/streaming, or anime fan."

I can't imagine how Henry Cavill must have felt going on set every day after realizing that his dream job turned into an active role in the destruction of something he cares about. His contract might have been a golden cage, but a cage nonetheless.

So basically this is rings of power without a budget.

Much appreciate you choosing to include some of the more tolerable scenes from S1 in this to get us through it, Drinker. You're a far more considerate fellow than the show writers who decided to hijack the popularity and excellence of good source material because their terrible story lines can't stand without something to parasitize.

This is far more entertaining than the actual show. 😅Thank you. 😁

It is heartbreaking to see the state of Witcher series. The books are easily convertible into a show (unlike some other stories like Foundation for example), the themes of the book are quite deep, it talks about war and xenophobia and racism without glorifying it and it has multiple strong female characters to keep everyone happy. Yet, they somehow fucked it up.

What in their right mind thought they could make a good spin-off if they got zero respect for the main series by hiring people to do a show who despise the source material? Netflix is destroying itself.

…”it feels about as believable and authentic as Steven Segal’s hairline.” 😂

I think I speak for all of us when I say the real audience looking at this want a series/movie that closely follows the source material and has internally consistent, fact checked story. We want psychologically fleshed-out characters, realistic physics, consistent non-physics (magic) mechanics, and a captivating scene rhythm. Everything else is a bonus: good graphics and effects, pretty people, battle choreography, music, costumes, and even above average acting, Id say. Sometimes you can get away with mediocre acting and not ruin the immersion. We don't care about the color of anyone's skin, as long as it's the skin the source material describes. And if it doesn't, and it's a good fit for it, you can make them green for all we care. This is literally the formula. Its that simple. And in a world where the movie industry is so powerful and wealthy this is trivial to make. I know people that can make computer algorithms that can write book adaptations with such parameters and spit them out daily. But Hollywood can't be bothered.

“People with an axe to grind instead of a story to tell” brilliantly said sir, bravo

It amazes me that they can score an absolute unicorn of a lead actor like Henry Cavil, with the perfect look, the perfect acting chops and absolute love for the source material, and piss that all away because they just can't get over their hate boner for the fanbase and their obsession with woke politics.

Give this man a lead role in a different medieval fantasy show. He's perfect for these and it's greatly disappointing that his talents are wasted on Netflix' The Witcher.

We couldn't finish watching this mess. Two episodes in, we were looking for the silhouettes of robot heads at the bottom of the screen! Loved the series with Henry in it and the animated ones as well.

The fact that Henry is now in charge of a war hammer 40k show basically proves that at least some higher ups are actually competent instead of pandering idiots

Now it’s making more sense why Henry Cavill left his passion project. Smart move Superman

Inclusivity or not these writers would’ve given us absolute dribble.

Never forget the strong female character. So strong she can sink a movie

Henry was probably quite excited about being part of a franchise that he enjoyed and a lore he cared about. I felt bad for him when he discovered that he was the only one who did.

Ooh, perfect description of so much of modern media: “People with an axe to grind, rather than a story to tell”

Your solution to the use of diverse characters by putting different races in different tribes/nations/etc is something I've been whining about for a few years.

Polish series from 2002 makes way more sense and has way more climate of the books than any Netflix creations. Plus Żebrowski is so good there as Geralt and so is Zamachowski as Jaskier

"As believable and authentic as Steven Segal's hairline" may be the best Drinker line yet!

My biggest issue is that they portrayed the elves as humans…. Yes humans…. The source material that they ignored does clue us in on how they should act.

To call it an adaptation is like calling cactus a tooth brush 😂🤣

My wife and I felt lukewarm about the first season of the Witcher and we were pleasantly surprised by Season 2. We went into Season 3 excited, believing that momentum and learned lessons would result in further improvement. We were dead wrong. We couldn't even get past the first two episodes. The primary issue in those episodes is that Anya Chalotra (Yennifer) and Freya Allan (ciri) are black holes of charisma, and fail to sell any of the few emotions the script trusts them with having. Freya looks 10 years older than she really is, and her attempt to portray a 15-17 year old is hideous. The writing was terrible, the quips unfunny, the plot unengaging, and Jaskeir is a void of likable attributes. We basically endured every scene without Henry Cavill just so we can make it to the next scene with Henry Cavill. His departure from the show will leave nothing of value remaining. I think they should recast the show, replace all executives and creative talent, except costuming and CGI, and reboot this turn. Season 2 demonstrated potential.

“I don’t get it! We fixed all problematic aspects of the source material and adapted it for modern audiences, why does everyone hate us!?” - The dimwits that made this abomination and chased away Henry Cavil.

I have the feeling that the only good parts from the first seasons of Witcher (that stayed true to the book) were only there because Cavill fought for them. But Blood Origin is reminding me too much of Rings of Power ... and that scares me

I feel really bad for Henry cavill. This whole series could have been so great and something he could have been really proud of. I hope he’s at least proud of his personal performance cuz he really did do an outstanding job. It turned me into a Henry cavill fan as I’ve never seen any of his other stuff, but now I think I’ll finally give Superman a try. I thoroughly enjoyed the Witcher season 1, not knowing anything about the lore. But season 1 in my opinion was pretty good, even though Witcher fans had issues with it. Season 2 was an absolute punch in the gut and I was so confused about how bad it was. It barely had their one shining star involved in any scenes! Wth?! I won’t be watching the Witcher anymore and I hope cavill can get his chance to be excellent again in something more worthy of his talent and enthusiasm.

Sounded like you said “The Witcher: Blood Orange” which would have been a better title for this show.

"This is the kind of shit that happens when rich liberal Californians that have never been in a fist fight or a working class pub, have to write a scene about both." On the head!!!

Hollywood is literally using a lecture structure to tell you what to think, not a storytelling. 1 intro:tell them what u will tell them 2 body:tell them what it is 3: conclusion:tell them what you told them After waking your audience up, convince them you dont think they're idiots

Hello Drinker. I just finished reading Ghost Target - another great book - thanks. I'm having a problem finding Second Chances and Trial by Fire - interested only in a paperback edition, not a kindle or audiobook. Could you help, please? Greetings from Buckhaven.

When you're writer-director or producer you are constantly improving your skills. Self-awareness constructive criticism are so important going into that. But I feel that there is many of coming writers and directors who simply do not see anything that they need to improve that what they have is enough who they are is enough and no one but themselves can tell them otherwise.

Funny how when critics openly give a movie or show low ratings for political reasons, it’s “expert opinions,” but when fans who’ve known and loved the original source material for decades hate it, it’s “review bombing.”

First and foremost - if you have a source material full of Celtic and Slavic influences that is loved by people, you leave the Celtic and Slavic influences in the adaptation, obviously. They even had a full soundtrack from the games ready to use as an inspiration. 😢

The visual effects though, at 1:00 I was like why is there no bounce light anywhere? Why is that man hugging the purple eel? Are they not a full blown VFX studio?

Lenny Henry is so ashamed about Rings of Power and Blood Origin, that he doesn't even have them in his movie portfolio 💀

Witcher fans: "We want Henry!" Witcher producers: "You meant Lenny Henry right?"

I would like a show all about African, Asian, South American, or Middle Eastern ancient lore. I like learning about other cultures and it would never occur to me to question that a show specifically dedicated to a specific people when travel was extremely limited would largely only contain those people. If they want to make a futuristic story where travel is extremely common, I would find it completely believable to have a cast of characters of varying races. I just want it all to be realistic and logical and I don't want to be told constantly that the only reason I want things this way is because I'm racist and misogynistic.

Imagine the lengths one has to go through, the effort one has to put in, to create something that could rival "Rings of Power" in terms of suckage.

"It's what happens when people have an axe to grind, rather than a story to tell"

I always find it odd when mainstream critics don't positively review content that was clearly made for them.

If they were at war for 1000 years, it stands to reason the populace of each state would be rather homogeneous and speak the same and thus be different to each other. Even North Korea and South Korea have a different accent and they have only been separated for about 70 years

Drinker, you summed it up beautifully. Woke has put another audience to sleep. And Disney is still blaming COVID on the almost halving of their audience, stock price, and bottom line.

Wow, I almost didn't notice you came out with a new video of the Witcher! I mean, I can't tell the difference between "Disney willow", "Amazon rings if power" and this. I thought this was just another video of the latter.

Netflix, Disney and Amazon are trying to outdo themselves with these shows

Imagine having a Netflix budget, set of talented actors, already built fanbase and then you're like "nah, who needs the source material"

Modern Hollywood saw Southpark's Gooback episode and thought, that seems like a realistic goal we can push. "They took our jobs!!!" "Da Duk Da Dur!!!"

Just found your channel. HIGHLY ENTERTAINING...have it on in the back ground while cleaning and find my self lol ALOT! Thank-you

If you look close at this it shows none of the characters gets any dirt, grime, soot or shmegma on them from battle at all. These strong female and strong diverse female characters are so strong that not even dust can settle on their stunning and brave faces.

''This absolute cancer of a show!'' Love the honesty in these reviews!

Hey, I just wanna clarify some timeline stuff. Main story in books stars after 1260 year. First people landed on the continent 500 years earlier. First witcher was created by Alzur 300 years before main story. Conjuction of the spheres happened LOTS OF TIME before first people landed.

Couldn’t have said it better myself! They should be ashamed of themselves for this disaster.

I'm impressed that the writing team not only took advantage of the "bring your daughter to work" day but also let them do the writing

"The Witcher: Blood Origin is about as believable as Steven Segal's hairline" - the Drinker, 2022, paraphrased.

I'm a Polish Witcher fan that started with books, went through the games and must now deal with profanation of all 3 his most beloved universes: LotR, SW and Witcher. I'm not even angry that this is so shitty. I never dared to expect anything else from this. I hope at least some will get to the original books and get into this world of Sapkowski after watching this or the Witcher series.

Ohh this is hilarious, becoming a very distinguished warrior at a so young age that you already retired from it and go to your fine arts at young age.

I often wonder if the poor writing, bad set design, and half-arsedness of the production is a symptom of the writers' hatred of the source material or the cause of it. That being said, writers' hatred of the source material is so widespread that it has basically killed fantasy.

I kind of liked the beginning when the bard says “it is a boring story, told thousand of times” … and how right he was!

I think it also tried to be a sort of Fellowship Of The Ring, except without the mutual respect between protagonists, camaraderie, respect for the source material, interesting characters, geographically logical cast, and intent to make a good piece of cinema

It is said that Lenny Henry is still opening portals to worlds in the hope that he finds one that thinks he's funny

Game of thrones had diversity, there were strong male characters, strong female characters, light skin characters, black characters, disabled characters (the hound's burned face, Tyrion being a dwarf, Jamie losing his hand, Theon...), we had Brienne, a really tall/big woman who got bullied because of her height, we had gay/bisexual characters, but did it ever feel forced? no. Did it feel annoying? no. Was it the characters' only personality trait? no. That's because the story was great, and the characters were so well-written. Diversity is never a problem when it's well executed and when it's a subtle detail that doesn't change the whole direction of the story

I bet "yass queen" was said at least 9 times during the writing.

I was waiting for Inigo Montoya to pop up in your clip to say "You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means" haha!

Throughout the first two seasons I skipped so often to Geralt parts and had the feeling of missing nothing 😅- just annoying modern insanity can't keep their fingers out of great fantasies.

Poland here ;p Well, the most funny thing here is a fact that original Sapkowski stories were talking about racism and prejudice from totally different perspective than typical contemporary piece of art, so a reader/watcher could think: oh, this prejudice is so artificial, they look/think basically the same. But noooo... lets tell once again a story about Driving Miss Daisy. Also, yeah, it is possible to tell a diverse racial story even in historical medieval settings. Just look at the Cordoba or Constantinople where you could find people from any known corner of the world. But even then, they would be divided by guilds, houses, districts, temples, functions (military), not put all together as McDonald at the friday evening -_-

"I hate this nonsense... With passion." -Bilbo Baggins

Fun little detail I noticed, at 3:10 they showcase a map with a logo on it, this logo is legit copied from Dragon Age"s Kirkwall banner design.

You know something is bad when it is super woke and even the critics hate it