The most anticipated series of 2019 Netflix was released - "Witcher"

Fans will like him at once, and those who do not know anything about him is closer to the end of the season

Netflix entered the “Witcher”-a fantasy series in the Universe of Andrzej Sapkovsky, which is called the main competitor of “Game of Thrones” with HBO. In the first day since the release, he had already managed to upset critics and please fans - the creators of the show managed to preserve humor, mythology, and even an atmosphere of computer games. Film critic Yegor Moskvitin tells whether this adaptation will become a replacement for George Martin's history.

Carefully! There are minor spoilers in the text. If you do not know anything about the plot of the series and do not want to know, it is better to read this review after watching the first season.

“Witcher” - the main weapon of Netflix

In the screensaver of the eighth series of the largest series of 2019 Netflix, it seems, secret meaning is hidden. Metal figures appear in it, resembling a dragon, a lion, a deer and (very remote) Kraken; They split into parts and are connected to form a wolf's mouth - a heral emblem from Rivia, rejected by people of a mutant with gray hair, possessing magical abilities and accustomed to kill for money. His craft is a hunt for monsters. Such as he is called witches. Lions, dragons and crackes are monsters from the Game of Thrones, who came to decapitate a new hero.

So we have been counting the last two years, observing the arms race between the Netflix streaming service and the HBO cable channel. The Game of Thrones has already ended, “Dark Principles” were replaced on the same channel-another fantasy-saga about a fictional world, in which, as in a muddy mirror, all the fears of the world of the present are reflected. Even the date of the premiere “Witcher” - Friday before the long Christmas weekend - seems to be a blow to HBO: there these days should show one of the climax of the “dark principles”. However, the scale of modern television blockbusters is such that you no longer know who the Witcher is fighting with. Maybe with the "dark principles", and maybe with the "star wars" who went to the film distribution. Both that and the other and the third are family sagas and novels of education. The two most important genres are for Hollywood, and for television, and for literature.

The main character is very lonely and hunts monsters

In the fairy -tale world that grew out of East European folklore and books of the Polish writer Andrzej Sapkovsky, war is brewing. The cruel army of Nilfgaard invades the peaceful gang - but its ruin becomes only a consequence of hunting for the young Princess Ciri. She is somehow connected with the witcher Geralt from Rivia. He does not know anything about this, and together with his horse roams the villages in search of work. His business is to kill the monsters (the first from the hands of the hero the swamp Kikimora will fall), so the Witcher's people, although they despise, are appreciated. The hero’s tragedy is that rare strangers who can understand his loneliness turn out to be either enemies or targets. In the first episode, this happens with the beautiful Renfrey - a princess of robbers, which the witcher will offer a sorcerer Stregobor to kill.

Critics disliked the series, and that's why

The expectation of a duel with the “Game of Thrones” led to the fact that a day after the premiere “Witcher” quarreled critics and spectators: the assessment of the first on Rotten Tomatoes is 58%, but received 90%from the second show. Similar ratings (57% and 86%), by the way, showed the last Star Wars, which were released the day before. Not all journalists are experts and fans of sagas, which can not be said about most spectators.

For anyone who was waiting for the new “Game of Thrones”, the Witcher will really seem to be a disappointment - too often the Netflix project enters the enemy territory and suffers aesthetic and dramatic lesions there. In the first episode there is a large -scale battle scene in a clean field, which loses in its entertainment and ingenuity and the famous “Battle of Bastards” with HBO, and even two Netflix television films - “King Outlaw” with Chris Payne and “King” with Timothy Shalama. It is much worse than the main competitor, the “witcher” is also given a parallel installation of scenes with a fierce military massacre and an alarming expectation of its outcome by civilian. Princesses and nobles again hide behind the walls of the castle, guessing about their fate, but they can’t empathize - after all, the viewer just met these heroes, and actors and dialogues are often not able to make their tragedy convincing. The coincidences reach the ridiculous: the “witcher” even repeats the scene of royal suicide, but in the “Game of Thrones” it looks much more tragic. And local prophecies sound much more unambiguous and simpler than the riddles of George Martin. Even the director Alik Sakharov, who became famous thanks to the “Game of Thrones,” in the Netflix show allows itself to be long.

At the same time, the Witcher is too quickly introducing the viewer to many characters. But those of us who have not read Sapkovsky’s books, and those who are poorly familiar with the actors (for example, playing the Russian president in the “Card House” Lars Mikkelsen will clearly not be content with the passing role!), They will not be able to distinguish important heroes from auxiliary. There will be a feeling of uncontrolled chaos. Moreover, the Witcher himself, from which the novice spectators are waiting for the role of the conductor, half the season will evade participation in the central storyline. Finally, the conflict of the series simply seems too fabulous to follow it as a real geopolitical adventure and perceive it as an allegory of real problems.

However, the show still turned out

However, in the eighth - the final - a series of the first season, the Witcher will be another large -scale battle. And it, too, at first will concede in its drama not only the dirty and convincing battal choreography of the Game of Thrones, but even the obsolete Paphos “Lord of the Rings” with his battle for Helmova Pad. But the real ending of this battle suddenly will not be a landfill of men in armor, but a duel of several women-magicians-and only in it, a minute to the credits, “The Witcher” will finally reveal his special style to the most rencessive audience. Fans will feel this intonation from the very beginning - and will spend eight with the series if not happy, then certainly pleasant hours.

The fact is that the “Witcher” (both book, and computer, and movie, and now television) - fantasy, in which there is not only darkness, but also irony. And not only high tragedies, but also a special, incredibly cozy objective world. In the “Witcher” you need to look not for reflection of reality, but a place where you can wait out the real winter. Heroes here use the East Slavic words unusual for big fantasy - therefore, the series is definitely worth watching if not with dubbing, then at least with Russian subtitles. The music that plays here will not meet either in the film on Tolkien or in the series on Martin. The local magic rituals may seem accustomed to the psychological realism of the “Game of Thrones” to the audience naive, but this is the idea of ​​this fairy tale for adults. The closest twin “Witcher” in the cinema is the old and in a good way the ridiculous film “Dungeons and Dragons”. It was shot based on the same system of board games - and the authors could not come up with a folding scenario, but they accurately conveyed the infantile spirit of these adventures.

The Witcher is a rare series that is not shy about its naivety and simplicity in the era of “premium” television. There are many bloody battles, and if mass scenes are shot without frills, then fighting with the participation of Henry Cavill (it is he who plays the main role) is the highest skill in choreography and operator work. There are plenty of erotic scenes, without which not a single HBO show has recently, but which suddenly became a sign of a bad tone in the final seasons of the same “Game of Thrones”. And the “Witcher” does not completely disdain the procedural logic of the computer RPG: while other heroes save the world, Geralt half the season is engaged in the solution of the most banal quests. Finally, the hero is not shy about long and thorough conversations with the roach - his own mare. Where in 2019 you will see such a miracle?

The fans of the novel and games such a direct dramaturgy will be delighted, and the new viewers should just be patient and remember: the texts of Sapkovsky and the game of the Polish studio CD Projekt Red also went to fame for a very long time. The writer began with collections of stories, and developers - with the conquest of the hearts of Polish gamers. In their global bestseller, their The Witcher has turned only to the exit of the third part.

It should also occur with the series. Since his hero noblely resists the labels that strangers hang on him, the show itself will be able to do this.

Egor Moskvitin