Helmed by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, The Witcher Season 3 continues the story of Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri. Monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent are competing to capture Ciri so Geralt takes her into hiding, determined to protect his newly-reunited family against those who threaten to destroy it. Yennefer, who is entrusted with Ciri’s magical training, leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where they hope to uncover more about the girl’s untapped powers; instead, they discover they’ve landed in a battlefield of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery. They must fight back, put everything on the line – or risk losing each other forever.
It’s been a while since the last season of this series and a lot has happened since then, from the release of a very despised spin-off (Blood Origin) to the shocking announcement of Henry Cavill’s departure from the role after starring as the titular character for three seasons. I was unsure of what to expect or even feel about this upcoming season, given the news as well as the rather odd decision to split the season into two volumes, with the latter being released in July. Despite this, I was willing to give it a chance since I did enjoy the previous two seasons despite my massive lack of knowledge of the source material.
Now this review is only covering volume 1, which consists of only 5 episodes, and therefore should not be seen as an overall grading of the season, just part of it. With that aside let’s discuss volume 1 of season 3.
I felt that this first half of the season was very well done overall. It improves a lot from the previous seasons from a narrative standpoint and has me hooked with its direction for the characters and the story. This volume answers a lot of questions we have had from the previous seasons while also developing most of the characters and building up to major conflicts that will set the world on fire.
By the end, we have a major cliffhanger of revelations that definitely make me excited to see the second half of the season to see what happens after a promising five episodes. Some things hinder this volume from being perfect but I was still invested in everything that went on.
A lot of the reason I’m invested is largely due to the performances by the dedicated cast. Henry Cavill once again proves that he is meant for the role of Geralt, giving him an incredible performance this season. We see that Geralt is starting to gain his humanity back the more time he spends with Ciri, Yennefer, and Jaskier as his own found family, making him an even more compelling character than he already was.
This Geralt is still a vicious fighter that will kill without hesitation but he’s not as cold at heart as he used to be, showing a great deal of growth to his character as a result of the events in the previous seasons and the events in this first volume. Seeing Geralt experience a variety of human emotions was surprising yet I loved every moment of it because of Cavill’s performance. It’s honestly never going to feel the same without him after this season as he truly is what makes the character so special and investing.
Anya Chalotra reprising Yennefer is once again absolutely outstanding in her performance as the character but I will say I ended up loving her story in this season more than before. She no longer has any selfish intentions and is instead seeking to redeem herself for her past transgressions, mostly in the eyes of Geralt. Seeing them grow closer again after having been on some cold terms due to the events of last season was great to see and Anya owns every scene she is in, making the character completely her own.
Another great performance and growth can be seen with Freya Allen as Ciri. I have discussed before how I didn’t really care for her character in the first season but that she grew on me in the second season and now I’m fully invested in her in this season. She’s the central figure of the story, with everyone in the Continent trying to find her, but even amongst all that chaos we get to see her grow as a character who is struggling with her powers that are surfacing and is also trying to find her place in the world as a potential leader that could bring peace the right way. There is still much for her to learn but at the same time you can feel just how much she has grown after everything she’s endured and has been given proper love and guidance by Geralt, Yennefer, and even Jaskier.
And speaking of Jaskier he’s on a very interesting arc of his own this season. Is he the same hilarious bard we all know and love? Yes absolutely but he has also matured a bit as he goes selflessly out of his way to protect Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer from all the threats he can. Joey Batey delivers phenomenally as Jaskier this season and I’m very interested to see what his current path leads to.
All four together make for a fantastic found family that shares excellent chemistry and really drives this season forward.
Other characters involved are also given great performances by their respective cast members and they all have very interesting motives that are connected by one thing: Ciri. Everyone is after Ciri for their own gain, which is different based on the character or faction, and all of them are written well enough to be investing as well as make the narrative feel way more connected than it was in the past seasons, where characters were going off in multiple directions that would often be confusing, disorganized or even boring. I do still have trouble remembering all the names of certain characters but their faces and motives are memorable enough for me to still be on top of everything that’s going on.
Battle lines are being drawn, allegiances are being revealed and secrets are being unleashed that could tear this magical world apart piece by piece and all our main heroes want to do is just survive any way they can.
This first volume does feature some really well-crafted bloody action even though it is largely a build-up volume for even bigger battles ahead. Lots of great wide shots are used to showcase the action in full glory, whether it be with swords or magic, which makes me look forward to other sequences yet to come.
But I will say there is a downside that impacts some of the action as well as this first volume as a whole, and that’s the effects. Visually this season looks as good as its predecessors, with great use of practical effects, gorgeous landscapes, well-crafted sets, and some creature CGI that does look good. But then there are a lot of instances of very obvious unpolished CGI, especially with the magic effects and blood effects. There were a lot of times I was looking at some of the fights and was put off by the effects that were tainting the epic scenes. I know this is Netflix where the budgets can be 50/50 with their shows, but considering this is one of their most important ones I expect a lot more effort to be put into the effects, especially for the simplest things. I’m hoping things look better in volume 2.
The musical score is once again fantastic this season, really uplifting the mystical and brutal nature of the series as a whole while also emphasizing the soft emotional moments with various characters, making certain scenes hit the nail dead on.
This is only the first half of the season but it’s overall a great start. A lot of it feels more focused narratively and the main characters are still as investing as they were before, maybe even more so due to the growth they have had so far. Will the second volume live up to the expectations that this first volume has established? Guess we will find out in July. I’m going to give The Witcher Season 3 Volume 1 an A- = 93
You can find more of my writing on instagram, and check out my channel on YouTube!