--- title: "The Witcher" year: 2019 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-witcher" fi1m_id: "the-witcher" imdb_id: "tt5180504" tmdb_id: 71912 wikidata_id: "Q47500433" fi1m_score: 61 critics_score: 59 critics_reviews: 16 published: "2026-09-23T13:09:03.292254+00:00" updated: "2026-09-23T13:09:19.975457+00:00" region: "TR" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Witcher (2019) Created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich · RTÜK 18+ · Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Action & Adventure ## Identity The Witcher - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/the-witcher - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** the-witcher - **IMDb ID:** tt5180504 - **TMDB ID:** 71912 - **Wikidata ID:** Q47500433 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5180504/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/71912, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q47500433 **Fi1m score: 61** · Critics 59 from 16 reviews *In a sentence:* Henry Cavill says hmm, kills something, has a bath; the plot is happening in another decade > Lauren Schmidt Hissrich’s adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books has a first-rate Geralt in Henry Cavill, a bard worth the trip and a first season that hides its own structure. The seasons after it grow the map and lose the man. ## Synopsis On the Continent, a land of small kingdoms and old monsters, Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) is a witcher: a hunter altered by potions, white-haired and yellow-eyed, who kills beasts for coin and is trusted by nobody. He rides into the town of Blaviken with a dead kikimora slung over his horse and finds a sorcerer and an outlaw who each want the other dead. In Cintra, the child princess Cirilla (Freya Allan) watches from the walls as the black-armoured army of Nilfgaard breaks the city, and a knight named Cahir (Eamon Farren) is sent to bring her in. Elsewhere, a hunchbacked farm girl, Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), is sold to a school of sorceresses on the cliffs of Aretuza. A bard, Jaskier (Joey Batey), decides Geralt needs a ballad. ## Review Lauren Schmidt Hissrich’s series takes Andrzej Sapkowski’s stories about Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter made by potions into something not quite human, and builds a Continent of warring kingdoms around him. Across four seasons of eight episodes it is decent and no more. The first season is good, muddled fun; the seasons after it add kingdoms and sorcerers and slowly mislay the thing that worked. The thing that worked is Henry Cavill. He plays Geralt in a white wig and yellow contact lenses, with a voice like a bag of gravel and a working vocabulary of about forty words, a good few of them “Hmm”, and he is funny, which almost nobody expected. Joey Batey’s Jaskier, a bard who attaches himself to the witcher uninvited, is the other reason to stay: he talks enough for both of them, and Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli’s “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” is a tavern song built to be hummed for a week. We hummed it. Anya Chalotra gives Yennefer of Vengerberg, a girl sold to a school of sorceresses for less than a pig, the only wanting in the series with real hunger in it. The craft is better than the writing. The market fight at Blaviken in the first episode is one long, ugly, well-staged brawl, Geralt cutting through a gang in a muddy square while townsfolk watch from the stalls, and we were properly gripped. Gavin Struthers and Jean-Philippe Gossart light the night scenes by fire, so faces come out of the dark in orange and everything else stays black; the swamps are grey-green and wet. Andrew Laws gives Aretuza white stone and sea light and gives Cintra a throne room like the inside of a coal scuttle. Tim Scotti-Henson and Lucinda Wright dress the Nilfgaardian army in black armour creased like a walnut. The structure is where the first season loses people. It runs three stories in three different decades and declines to tell you so. Jean-Daniel Fernandez-Qundez, Nick Arthurs and Liana Del Giudice cut from one to another, and the viewer is left to work out from a wig or a stray remark that the kingdom standing an hour ago fell years before. We admired the nerve and we resented the confusion. Around it the dialogue swings between blunt good jokes and speeches that explain three kingdoms, a treaty and a prophecy in one breath. Later the map grows. Fringilla Vigo (Mimî M. Khayisa), Vilgefortz of Roggeveen (Mahesh Jadu), Triss Merigold (Anna Shaffer) and Philippa Eilhart (Cassie Clare) fill the screen with plotting mages, Eamon Farren’s Cahir keeps hunting Freya Allan’s Ciri, and the monster hunting that gave the series its shape thins to a scene or two an episode. Somewhere in the third season we noticed we were checking how many episodes were left, and then we were cross with the show for making us count. It is a big, expensive, busy thing by then, and it had stopped being about a man and his horse. Every fantasy series after [*Game of Thrones*](https://film.one/tv/game-of-thrones) had to decide whether to be *Game of Thrones*. *The Witcher* wants the gore and the sex and the grey morals and does not want the politics, so what it has instead is people in cloaks saying the names of places to one another. It is a better programme when it is small. A witcher, a contract, a thing in the dark and a village that lies about why it is there: that is a form the series understands, and every episode built on it is worth an evening. Watch the first season with someone who has read Sapkowski and will explain the wigs. Do not expect the seasons after it to feel like the same show; they are bigger, cleaner and less fun. It carries a 15 certificate and earns it. The horse is called Roach and is the only character who never lets anyone down. *Fi1m score 61, published 23 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews split down the middle, and most critics land somewhere between grudging enjoyment and mild exasperation. What they agree on is Henry Cavill: gruff, committed and taciturn as Geralt, he is named again and again as the best thing on screen, and the swordplay around him is praised almost as often. Several notices also single out the scale of the production and the comedy, particularly Joey Batey’s exuberant bard, as the reasons the series works when it works. The complaints cluster on the storytelling. Critics find the timelines convoluted, the backstory dense, the exposition either absent or endless, and the tone unsteady, with humour landing where drama is meant to. Comparisons with Game of Thrones cut both ways, from a worthy successor to a cheaper imitation. The spread is wide: Collider and Paste call it well-built adult fantasy, while Den of Geek says it aims low and still misses, and The Times finds it ripe for mockery. ## Straight answers **Is The Witcher worth watching?** *The Witcher* is worth watching for its first season, chiefly for Henry Cavill's dry, gravel-voiced Geralt and Joey Batey's bard, and we scored it 61. The later seasons add sorcerers and kingdoms and thin out the monster hunting that gave the series its shape, so viewers who want a tight fantasy adventure should stop when the map starts growing. **How long is The Witcher, and what is it rated?** *The Witcher* is rated 18+ by the RTÜK in Türkiye. It is a sci-fi & fantasy and drama series. **Where can I watch The Witcher in Türkiye?** *The Witcher* is streaming on Netflix in Türkiye. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is The Witcher, and is it suitable for children?** *The Witcher* carries a UK 15 certificate and earns it, with hard sword fights, gore, sex and a bleak view of most people. The market brawl at Blaviken in the first episode sets the level: long, muddy and ugly. It is not for children; older teenagers who can take the violence will be fine, but the squeamish should look elsewhere. **How does The Witcher compare to Excalibur?** *The Witcher* is bigger, busier and less sincere than [*Excalibur*](https://film.one/film/excalibur), which treats magic and Arthurian legend with a solemn, unembarrassed seriousness the series never attempts. The series is funnier and better acted at its centre, thanks to Cavill; Boorman's film is the more coherent single piece, though its people can get lost in the telling. Choose the film for an evening's spectacle and the series for company over weeks. **What should I watch after The Witcher?** After *The Witcher*, try [*Excalibur*](https://film.one/film/excalibur) (1981, Fi1m 79): Boorman’s Arthur in green light and clanking plate; sincere, strange and unembarrassed by magic. Then [*Princess Mononoke*](https://film.one/film/princess-mononoke) (1997, Fi1m 88): Monsters with grievances and a hero caught between them, drawn rather than rendered; and [*Hellboy*](https://film.one/film/hellboy) (2004, Fi1m 71): Another gruff, mutated monster hunter with a soft centre and a fondness for cats. ### Reviews we read (16) - **The AV Club**, William Hughes (B+): The review finds the series improves after an overly grim opening episode that apes Game of Thrones, becoming more engaging when its protagonists interact and it leans into fairy-tale elements rather than grimdark posturing. The critic praises the chemistry between leads and the show's embrace of its fantastical tropes once the structure settles. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/netflix-s-the-witcher-is-a-lot-more-fun-once-it-stops-p-1840353612) - **Empire**, James Dyer (80/100, inferred): A rewarding, if convoluted, fantasy romp with a memorable hero and a vivid, grimdark world. Cavill is delightfully gruff in the lead, and the bleak, morally bankrupt world is unflinching with gore and rich in challenging themes. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/the-witcher/) - **The Guardian** (64/100, inferred): The critic suggests the show is for those who like this sort of thing, describing it as a Tolkienesque effects-heavy fantasy epic about monster-hunter Geralt of Rivia played by Henry Cavill. They highlight the toxic masculinity theme and note the convoluted names and wigs but acknowledge the appeal for fans of the genre. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/dec/20/the-witcher-review-netflix-henry-cavill) - **Radio Times**, Huw Fullerton (3/5): The series is flawed but ultimately lovable, with plenty of issues around dense backstory and focus, yet the critic completely and unironically enjoyed watching the whole thing. Cavill is a gift in the gruff, taciturn role of Geralt, with standout combat scenes. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/the-witcher-review-netflix/) - **The i Paper**, Jeff Robson (★★★): The opening episode is a little confusing but handsomely mounted, with Henry Cavill's Geralt looking every inch the sword and sorcery hero. Battle scenes, special effects, and locations are impressive, though the dialogue can veer into the silly. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/the-witcher-episode-1-netflix-review-henry-cavill-377180) - **The Telegraph**, Ed Power (3/5): The review calls the Netflix adaptation a missed opportunity that lacks Game of Thrones' grandeur and politicking, feeling muddled and more like a mindless fantasy rollercoaster. It praises Henry Cavill as the best thing about it and notes strong action sequences amid convoluted subplots and YA-tinged secondary stories. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/on-demand/0/witcher-review-netflixs-hotly-anticipated-sex-and-dragons-epic/) - **Variety**, Daniel D'Addario (50/100, inferred): The show lacks tonal consistency and feels overlong and centerless, with moments of drama and violence undercut by misplaced humor. The appeal may be limited to those already under the spell of the source material. [Read](https://variety.com/2019/tv/reviews/witcher-netflix-1203434525/) - **Vulture** (50/100, inferred): The piece uses a list of things absent from the show to highlight its dense, confusing mythology, lack of clear exposition, and surprising elements that defy expectations for a fantasy adaptation. It conveys a sense of the series being visually striking and eventful but hampered by restrictions and narrative opacity. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2019/12/the-witcher-netflix-review-no-spoilers.html) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (40/100, inferred): The series is mostly for pre-existing fans; when it takes itself seriously it is fairly bad with endless exposition, but when it doesn't it is reasonably fun thanks to cheeky elements and action. A curious neophyte may need patience. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/witcher-review-1264101/) - **The Times**, Hugo Rifkind (40/100, inferred): The critic describes the show as ripe for mockery, oozing with incel testosterone and lacking inventive wit, precisely the kind of fantasy those who disliked Game of Thrones expected. They note watching multiple episodes despite the flaws and that some will love it while others will loathe it. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/the-witcher-review-ripe-for-mockery-but-im-watching-every-episode-jzfvlsdwb) - **Paste**, Jacob Oller (8.3): The critic praises the series as a wildly entertaining high fantasy treat that brings D&D-style fun with excellent fights, body horror, and performances, rewarding viewers who stick with the narrative. They single out Cavill’s deadpan delivery, the tone balancing goofy and grim, and Jaskier’s exuberance for praise. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/the-witcher/the-witcher-netflix-review) - **Collider**, Tom Reimann (★★★★): The critic calls the series entertaining high fantasy for adults that is well-constructed, well-acted, and refreshingly straightforward, creating a believable world on par with early Game of Thrones. They single out the impressive scale, production values, swordplay, and Cavill’s charming performance for praise. [Read](https://collider.com/the-witcher-review-netflix/) - **NME**, Mark Beaumont (75/100, inferred): The critic describes the series as a fun, often thrilling romp that fills the void left by Game of Thrones with its bloodthirsty fantasy elements, sex, monsters, and comedy. They single out the lighter, cartoonish tone and strong comedy thread, particularly Joey Batey’s Jaskier, for praise. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/the-witcher-review-netflix-2589876) - **Digital Spy**, David Opie (60/100, inferred): The review likens the series to a flawed hybrid of Game of Thrones and The Mandalorian, praising Henry Cavill’s committed performance and the strong fight choreography while noting its potential as a fully realized fantasy world. It criticizes the pacing, the absence of the lead for long stretches, and the sense that season one functions mainly as an extended prologue. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a30284664/the-witcher-netflix-review-season-1/) - **The Ringer**, Alison Herman (40/100, inferred): The critic questions whether the show aims to be more than a source of ironic screenshots, framing the review as a list of interrogations about its bizarre elements rather than a standard analysis. She singles out the show's convoluted world-building, multiple timelines, and lack of clear explanations as central issues. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2019/12/23/tv/witcher-review-questions-henry-cavill) - **Den of Geek**, Matthew Byrd (1/5): The adaptation is criticized for aiming low and still missing, delivering caricatures instead of compelling characters, weak stories that lean on clichés, nudity, and violence, and serviceable but uninspired production values. It singles out the bard character’s unfunny jokes and the overall failure to capture the source material’s depth as major flaws. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/games/the-witcher-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Lauren Schmidt Hissrich - **Creator:** Lauren Schmidt Hissrich - **Director:** Alex Garcia Lopez, Stephen Surjik, Alik Sakharov, Gandja Monteiro, Sarah O'Gorman, Jeremy Webb, Bola Ogun, Loni Peristere, Tricia Brock, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, Charlotte Brändström, Louise Hooper, Edward Bazalgette, Marc Jobst - **Writer:** Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, Mike Ostrowski, Haily Hall, Matthew D'Ambrosio, Clare Higgins, Tania Lotia, Sneha Koorse, Beau DeMayo, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Rae Benjamin, Declan de Barra, Troy Dangerfield, Jenny Klein, Mike Otrowski, Clare Higgins - **Cinematography:** Jean-Philippe Gossart, Gavin Struthers, Romain Lacourbas - **Editor:** Liana Del Giudice, Nick Arthurs, Jean-Daniel Fernandez-Qundez - **Music:** Joseph Trapanese, Giona Ostinelli, Sonya Belousova - **Production design:** Andrew Laws - **Costume design:** Lucinda Wright, Tim Scotti-Henson - **Producer:** Beau DeMayo - **Cast:** Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia; Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia; Anya Chalotra as Yennefer of Vengerberg; Freya Allan as Princess Cirilla 'Ciri' of Cintra; Joey Batey as Jaskier / The Sandpiper; Eamon Farren as Cahir; Mimî M. Khayisa as Fringilla Vigo; Anna Shaffer as Triss Merigold - **Certificate (RTÜK):** 18+ - **Release (Türkiye):** 20 December 2019 - **Genres:** Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Action & Adventure - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb90gqGYP9c ## Where to watch in Türkiye - Netflix: streaming *Checked 2026-09-23.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Excalibur* (1981), Fi1m 79: Boorman’s Arthur in green light and clanking plate; sincere, strange and unembarrassed by magic. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/excalibur.md) - *Princess Mononoke* (1997), Fi1m 88: Monsters with grievances and a hero caught between them, drawn rather than rendered. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/princess-mononoke.md) - *Hellboy* (2004), Fi1m 71: Another gruff, mutated monster hunter with a soft centre and a fondness for cats. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hellboy.md) - *The Last Kingdom* (2015): Mud, swords and shifting kingdoms, with a lead who knows when to stop talking. - *Berserk* (1997): A mercenary with a huge sword and a worse destiny; bleak, bloody and committed. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/the-witcher