By Elizabeth Fitzpatrick
Features Editor
The fourth season of fantasy TV series “The Witcher” was released on Oct. 30, adapting material from the third and fourth novel of “The Witcher” book series by Andrzej Sapkowski.
With an ever more complicated plot and a recent casting change, the season has received a mixed reaction from fans and critics.
The show follows the monster hunter Geralt of Rivia (Liam Hemsworth) as he protects his adopted daughter Ciri (Freya Allan), who has a mysterious and powerful destiny that various warring factions all want to control.
Following the end of season three, Ciri is separated from Geralt and her adopted mother, the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra).
Scared of hurting those she loves, Ciri hides from her destiny by joining a group of thieves. Meanwhile, Geralt embarks on a quest to reunite with his daughter and Yennefer rallies s group of sorceresses to battle a mage she believes was involved in Ciri’s disappearance.
The choice to separate the main trio into different storylines harkens back to the structure of the first season, but where the three stories of the first season were brilliantly revealed to be intricately woven together, the fourth season fails to justify following so many different plots.
The season suffers from weird pacing, with some episodes jumping between too many plot threads and characters to keep track of, while other episodes are almost entirely dedicated to one storyline.
According to Roger Ebert.com, “the nature of splitting our three leads into protagonists of their own stories means this season introduces, or reintroduces, more recurring characters than ever before—so many, in fact, that it becomes almost overwhelming to keep track of them.”
The show felt meandering, with storylines that could have been condensed into an episode that were instead drawn out over the entire season. Characters had little development, ending the season in roughly the same place that they started.
An unexpected highlight was episode five, where Geralt’s travelling companions share stories around a campfire, with some stories creatively exploring an alternate format including a musical and an animated segment.
One major criticism the show has faced was the decision to recast the main character. In the first three seasons, Geralt was played by Henry Cavill but Liam Hemsworth took over the role after Cavill left the show.
To cover the change, the first episode of season four introduces a frame narrative of an old man telling the story to a group of children who complain about the way he tells it.
Unfortunately, the following montage of three seasons worth of important story beats reshot with Hemsworth highlights the awkwardness and artificiality of bringing in a new lead actor.
At times, Hemsworth does a decent job of imitating Cavill’s mannerisms, which feels as if he is attempting to play Cavill’s version of the character rather than just playing the character.
According to The Wrap, “Hemsworth is painfully one-note, feeling like a glorified cosplayer where a once delightful character once stood.”
Geralt’s solo storyline also leaves him little time to interact with Ciri and Yennefer, saving Hemsworth’s chemistry with the other actors, or lack thereof, from being compared with Cavill.
The cast of characters Geralt picks up on his travels lets him fade even more into the background. Overall, Hemsworth’s take on Geralt was bland and unmemorable.
The show continues to have beautiful costuming and dynamic fight scenes, but the fourth season feels like nothing more than a stepping stone, and a not very exciting one, on the way to Ciri fulfilling her destiny in the fifth and final season, which has already wrapped filming, according to Forbes.
“The Witcher” is available to watch on Netflix.
Photo Caption: Liam Hemsworth replaced Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia for the fourth season.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons