After the runaway success of the first series, Netflix’s “The Witcher” — a television adaption of the beloved Polish video game series and novels of the same name—returns for the second installment in the saga of Geralt of Rivia: the standoffish monster-slaying Witcher. Where the first season garnered praise for its brutal fight sequences but struggled to remain cohesive and legible between its several interwoven and anachronistic timelines, “The Witcher” season two takes a much more accessible, straightforward narrative approach: still centering the story around Geralt (Henry Cavill), Ciri (Freya Allan), and Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), but emulating the pacing of a story or quest from the video games as opposed to attempting to cram as much lore in as humanly possible. The result is a more steady, drawn-out season that — though somewhat lacking in urgency and compelling conflict — gives the series a chance to truly flesh out its sizable ensemble cast.
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Picking up in the immediate wake of season one’s explosive finale at the Battle of Sodden where Yennefer tapped into forbidden fire magic to turn the tide of a crucial military skirmish, “The Witcher” season two find Ciri and Geralt finally united and heading to Kaer Morhen — the fabled keep where Witchers take solace for the winter. As Geralt, under the impression that Yen was killed at Sodden, grapples with the loss of his on-again-off-again lover, Ciri struggles to build an identity outside of the walls of the Cintran palace — yearning to be a Witcher in her own right. Meanwhile, Yennefer finds herself behind enemy lines as an elven prisoner of war alongside Fringilla (Mimi Ndiweni), who grapples with a crisis of conscience after her allegiances are called into question.
“The Witcher” season two feels like a distinct and deliberate step in a different direction from its predecessor, thanks in major part to the aforementioned narrative structure: no longer beholden to setting up the franchise’s sizable lore for new audiences, season two is able to dive straight into the story and take a more measured approach to storytelling: and though it’s a relief not to struggle to navigate between locations and time periods, such a jarring structural shift not only slows the pacing but makes season two feel like an almost entirely different series. With the more accessible plot structure comes a similarly less severe tone: season one moved at a breakneck pace with cold, witty dialogue, but season two is softer around the edges, engaging in more grandiose and borderline romantic notions.
The season premiere lifts Nivellen and Vereena’s story directly from the first ‘Witcher’ novel and is the show’s approach to the classic Beauty and the Beast story — albeit with a more gruesome, violent twist. In many ways, the premiere feels almost like a standalone story — the kind of episode one might expect to find in the middle of a season, not the beginning. But the show’s decision to start the season with an uncomplicated, open-and-shut story helps ease viewers into the season’s new structure, as well as establish the narrative and emotional beats for the major players this season.
While season one was undoubtedly Geralt’s story to the core, the Rivian takes a backseat in season two, instead acting as a mentor and father figure to Ciri, who has come into her own as a young woman and a fully-fledged character in her own right: a far cry from the terrified young girl we met at the beginning of the series. Though season two takes a number of major characters in drastically different directions, it’s Ciri who benefits the most from this change – finally giving Freya Allan a chance to flex her emotional range: incorporating Ciri’s fierceness, heart, and even a dry sense of humor absent in season one.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Yennefer: where Ciri gets sharper, stronger, and rougher around the edges, the prickly, power-hungry sorceress spends the majority of season two grappling with the aftermath of her drastic actions at the battle of Sodden, and as a result, is put in a position of vulnerability and normalcy that feels foreign for such a cunning character. With less of a focus on her romance with Geralt and her training as a sorceress (which took up a majority of her plotlines in season one) season two explores Yennefer’s elven heritage and how it places her in a precarious position, given the Elven vs Human tensions brewing across the continent.
It’s strange to see a character notorious for her snark and ruthlessness reduced to having to fight with her words instead of her magic, but the change allows Chalotra the chance to explore a more softer, human side of Yen as she forges unlikely allegiances and friendships with characters she would likely never have bothered playing nice with before: namely Fringilla, and the not-so-humble bard Jaskier, who continues to be a scene-stealer wherever he pops up.
Though season one seemed to plant the series firmly on the “Yennefer” side of the “Yenneffer vs Triss” debate present in the video games, season two finally gives Triss (Anna Shaffer) the opportunity to come into her own. Shaken by the horrors of war she witnessed at Sodden, Triss struggles to heal from both physical and emotional scars, but nonetheless comes to Geralt’s aid and guides Ciri in her magical studies. Triss was perhaps the most unrecognizable character in terms of the video game-to-television adaption, but season two does a little bit of course-correcting: giving Triss her signature red hair and writing her gentle, earnest temperament more in line with the Triss fans already know and love.
The rest of the ensemble cast is filled out with a number of new political players absent in season one, and with returnees like Frignilla and the Black Knight present and stirring up trouble in Nilfgaard, “The Witcher “season two’s b-plot feels like an attempted emulation of ‘Game of Thrones‘ with sprinkles of ‘Lord of the Rings‘ mixed in — a disappointing but understandable progression considering how difficult it is to wrangle the scope of the video games into eight one-hour fractions. It’s disappointing to see the series veer more towards familiar territory instead of embracing the moral ambiguities and brutality that made the first season so memorable but the political intrigue thankfully usually takes a backseat to the more character-driven plotlines at the forefront.
“The Witcher” season two marks a distinctly new direction for the bloody and fantastical Polish epic: slowing down, changing its plot structure, and embracing a more down-to-earth attitude towards both narrative and character. Though the predictability and slower pacing means the series lacks the bite it had in season one, season two of “The Witcher” will likely still satisfy fans of the games and TV series alike. [B]