Now that TV was great art, spending hours on Tumblr reading fan theories about secret Targaryens wasn’t a waste of time, it was serious artistic analysis.Īs Thrones prepares to make like Elissa Farman and fade away into the sunset, it’s time to take a look back. Coming at both the tail end of the Golden Age of TV, and the advent of the social media age, it also holds the distinction of being the most covered show on television. As our pop-culture consumption is increasingly determined by individual, algorithm-driven home screens, the HBO fantasy drama is one final vestige of the monoculture - the last thing in America, besides maybe Thanksgiving, that can bring woke millennials and their conservative uncles together. The deviations are as dull as they were thrilling when Game of Thrones did it and, given he's leaving, that's a big problem for The Witcher's future.There will never be another show like Game of Thrones. The Witcher season 3, part 1's ending is its strongest episode, and that's because it's more tightly focused around Geralt and everything is coalescing (as well as some narrative timeline trickery to make it stand out).
It may have had its leads - increasingly so by the end with Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen very much the main characters - but it worked as a true ensemble for a long time, and while the occasional story fell flat (such as Dorne), most things worked. In contrast, the supporting characters were Game of Thrones' strength. But because everything is so geared to his and Ciri's journey, then the other characters aren't as well-developed, and the sheer number of plans and discussions about Ciri, along with the wider scheming, becomes tiresome. The show has invested a lot in its main characters, and Cavill as Geralt in particular is the constant highlight. What's more, the reason is quite simple: The Witcher's supporting characters just aren't very interesting.
With various machinations at play and just about everyone up to something, there's a lot going on in The Witcher season 3, which also recalls the earlier days of Game of Thrones when there the sheer number of characters to keep up with was a challenge in and of itself.Īlthough The Witcher season 3 is trying to be like Game of Thrones in how it uses its large roster of characters and spins multiple story webs, it sadly falls short of HBO's show at the peak of its powers.
The focus is narrower in The Witcher, largely because of Ciri, but it nonetheless still tries to convey an epic sense of scope in its story and worldbuilding in moving between so many storylines. It's similar in approach to Game of Thrones, which also notably jumped from character to character and location to location, telling multiple stories within the span of a single episode and even more across a season. The show takes frequent deviations to Emhyr, aka the White Flame, to Francesca and her Elves, to Dijkstra and King Vizmir, and more. Aside from the main group, which is largely comprised of Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer, and occasionally Jaskier (though even they are broken up into different combinations at various points), there are lots of other characters audiences spent time with. The Witcher season 3's cast is incredibly expansive, and it spends more time than before flitting around the Continent, checking in with its many different, disparate groups (most of whom are united only by their shared goal of wanting to find Ciri).
0 kommentar(er)
