When Regis (Laurence Fishburne), a charismatic man of mystery, posits that “our Witcher is in a state of flux,” he might as well be talking about The Witcher, the series striving for a goal that seems forever out of reach.
Like its title hero, Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher has been fighting for so long it doesn’t truly know what it’s fighting for anymore. But at the same time, has it ever? The Witcher came up among a brood of shows designed to compete with HBO’s Game of Thrones, and it’s one of the last standing — but that’s less a credit to its quality or watchability than its dogged refusal to perish. The powers that be, from showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich to former leading man Henry Cavill, believe in this show. They’re passionate about its story, adapted from Andrzej Sapkowski’s beloved fantasy novels. But its previous entries have each proven that belief and passion aren’t always enough. Its last season was a particularly egregious low point; given that it was also Cavill’s last, its scattershot, downbeat cliffhanger could have (maybe even should have) been the coup de grace that closed this book for good.
