The Witcher Season 3 First Look Images

The Witcher can swing a sword with the best of fantasy TV, but its third season sure makes the series' monster-slaying fun feel like work. Netflix's thoughtful and frequently exciting adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher novels naturally comes packing all the baggage and courtly intrigue of its previous seasons. And while this has never been a show to hold the hands of its viewers, even seasoned watchers might be hard-pressed to keep up with this season's knottier twists and even more bloated character roster – to the point that they might find themselves yawning through frequent detours into clunky plot development chit-chat just to get to the fun stuff. Still, whenever Henry Cavill knocks back an airplane bottle of potion and starts slicing up an especially heinous-looking monster – and this season boasts one or two so far – it's clear The Witcher still knows how to rock. Season 3 is bigger and more confident than ever, and it needs to be. 

With so much at stake in its world and season 2 making sure we didn't forget about the more apocalyptic threats lurking further down the line (The Wild Hunt; I'm talking about The Wild Hunt), The Witcher has quite a lot of plates to keep spinning to stay as busily faithful to its source material as it's been. And as an adaptation of Sapkowski's Time of Contempt, book two in his Witcher saga, season 3 of The Witcher is unquestionably faithful. Too faithful? There's an argument for that.

 Here are my two orens (that’s like cents): People talk too much in The Witcher. Or, at least, they do during the first five episodes of season 3. Life on the Continent hasn't gotten any less complicated since last we saw Geralt of Rivia (Cavill), Ciri (Freya Allan), and Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalortra), and the characters who populate this world sure do go on at length about it. Here's what I mean - without spoilers, naturally:

There's Aretuza, Yennefer's former magic school, where shifty-eyed sorcerers (and Triss Marigold, played by Anna Shaffer) hang out under the fog of a gnarly conspiracy. The elves of the Scoia'tael are on a tear through the North because of a brutal death in the family of Francesca Findabair (Mecia Simson). Season 2 revealed that Ciri's once-hedgehog father, played by Bart Edwards, is not dead at all but is, in fact, this big-time Emperor Emhyr everyone keeps talking about. Over in Redania, we meet dopey Prince Radovid (Hugh Skinner), brother to the increasingly irksome King Vizimir (Ed Birch), who gives politics the old college try with the help of spymaster Dijkstra (Graham McTavish) and sorcerer Philippa Eilhart (Cassie Clare). Power in the Continent – be it political or otherwise – is shifting. For anyone who wants to survive and thrive in all this insanity, Ciri and her Elder Blood powers are the key.

That's a whole bunch of plate-spinning, but all this can be taken as standard procedure for a fantasy show. The Witcher rewards lore-hardened viewers with Wiki-busting details and convoluted conspiracy-map plotting – even if Netflix’s adaptation is still strangely short on displays of magic or gore-hungry fell beasts. (It is glaring how often the effects budget is worked around.) 

For the more casual viewer, there are solid drama points loaded with rich potential, like the chance to see Prince Radovid take more shape; he's obviously hiding a level of cunning behind his flimsy mask of incompetence, which makes Dijkstra look like a short-sighted dummy whenever he calls him things like "Prince Seed-waste." But The Witcher has developed a conspicuous rhythm to its storytelling – show something visually exciting, mysterious, or game-changing, only to spend the following four to five scenes with people who want nothing more than to yammer on about it. Its fussy insistence on base-covering, lore-elaborating storytelling saps precious energy, which remains a big reason why The Witcher continues to be a good show instead of a great one.

With a such a large cast, all this plotting and conniving leaves Cavill, Allan, and Chalortra – the trinity that holds the entire production together – just as lost in the shuffle as they've been in prior seasons. And, somehow, there are even more characters with secret ambitions than I just mentioned; most of them want to claim Ciri for at-times sinister reasons, so at least Ciri remains a topic of interest. But we haven't even gotten around to mentioning Jaskier (Joey Batey), once a series highlight, who now wears the most hideous wig and is yanked sourly from one predicament to the next so often that it's easy to forget that this mopey bard used to be fun to watch – especially whenever he flexed that beautiful voice of his. 

As for Geralt and Ciri, I missed the moments they shared in the wintry outpost of Kaer Morhen last season, where the surrogate father-daughter duo bonded over monster hunting and swordplay. There's precious little of The Witcher's fun procedural elements this season – in the first “volume” of five episodes, anyway – though there is a bit of sword-slashing to enjoy in the genuinely terrific premiere episode, which spends a thrilling amount of screentime strengthening the bonds between its three leads before events tear them apart once more. They split up in Time of Contempt, too, but with chemistry as pure as Cavill, Chalortra, and Allan’s – and good luck to anyone who tries to find its equal anywhere else in The Witcher – surely even the most ardent Witcher fan wouldn’t protest a deviation from the source material?

Cavill's never had a problem filling out his witcher leathers or grimacing through an expertly choreographed action sequence – and, boy, does the camera love him. He boasts the star-wattage that The Witcher has in precious short supply, and watching him find his footing as the series lead last season was remarkable. That's why it's so frustrating when the focus pulls away from him and his connection with Ciri and Yenn – Cavill is exceptional in this season, especially during one quiet scene that reveals untold depths to the Butcher of Blaviken. It's not a stretch to say that, as an actor, Season 3 of The Witcher is Cavill's most compelling outing yet. 

You have to wonder whether The Witcher, with its dry stretches of intrigue and other stuffy concerns over the next five steps in its elaborate chess game, will hold onto its appeal once Cavill passes his sword to Liam Hemsworth for season 4. Maybe more can be done to make Ciri feel like she can command a series instead of her continuing fate as a walking, talking McGuffin – pursued for her Elder Blood powers and her role in the Scoia’tel’s prophecy. As a presence in The Witcher, Allan is clearly Cavill’s equal. Whenever Ciri takes agency over her destiny, Allan slays. For the sake of the series' future, can someone please, please, toss a coin to this witcher?