The Witcher
Netflix has returned with the final three episodes of The Witcher season 3, and yet they do not seem to have done much to change anyone’s mind about the trajectory of the series, and where things go from here.
Looking at the numbers, it’s kind of wild. Critic reviews have always been good, a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes for season 1, a shocking 95% for season 2, and now a 78% for season 3.
Fans have uh, been less receptive. But it’s not the usual “oh the nerds hate how this has been adapted” situation. In fact, in general, fans of both the books and games loved season 1 of the show, giving it an 89%, far higher than critics. In particular, Henry Cavill’s Geralt went from a meme (he’s too handsome to play him! what a bad wig!) to what seemed like one of the best casting decisions ever, helped in part by Cavill’s genuine love for the source material.
Then, things started dropping. Season 2 fans rated a rotten 56% as more and more changes started to be made from the books, the kinds of changes that behind the scenes, Cavill himself was reportedly pushing back against as well. Then, ahead of the release of season 3, it was confirmed that Cavill would be leaving the show and his role as Geralt after that, and yet the series wouldn’t end. It would continue with Hunger Games actor Liam Hemsworth replacing him.
The Witcher
That leads us to season 3 scores, a 22% from audiences, one of the lowest I’ve seen for a major series on the service. It’s even lower than the Resident Evil series on Netflix that burned all the source material and got a 26% score as a result.
You can see it on IMDB too. Season 1 had almost every episode rated an 8/10 or above. By season 3, most episodes were below a 6. Of the new episodes, episode 7 has a 4.5/10 and episode 8, Cavill’s finale, has a 5.5/10.
At some point part of this seems like protest votes to push back against Cavill leaving at all. Fans are mad at the series for losing him and thinking they can carry on without him. I don’t think season 3 is actually worse than season 2, but these low scores indicate fan anger when in season 1, it legitimately seemed that if handled correctly, this could be Netflix’s Game of Thrones-style original.
It was not handled correctly, and now the series loses an icon, and will have to brace itself for a new level of fan flaming when it returns for season 4. Sorry Liam Hemsworth, nothing personal.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
