I initially saw this when it came out in 2019 and was really into it; the world felt fascinating, interesting, but also dark and realistic. I became so invested that I quickly played all the games and started reading the books, and now, two years later with season 2 on the horizon, I figured a rewatch would be worthwhile. This time around, I wasn’t quite as blown away. Being familiar with the characters, stories, and material from other sources allowed me to judge it both as an adaptation and also to analyze it more effectively as its own television show. It's now easier for me to grasp what is happening in the rather complicated plot and timeline. The series attempts to adapt two collections of short stories that act as a lead-in to the main Witcher storyline. These stories are frequently only loosely connected, though they share common themes, and take place across a vast expanse of time and locations. This format would be well suited for an anthology style presentation with recurring themes, characters, and world building. However, the show ambitiously tries to create a single narrative over eight episodes, and it doesn’t entirely succeed. So much nuance and detail is lost due to the limited episode count, and what remains is frequently poorly explained. I initially blamed myself for being confused during my first viewing, but now that I'm familiar with the source material, I don't feel the show does a good job of establishing the political context, instead jumping abruptly from one extreme to another—either overwhelming viewers with names and information without any explanation or resorting to caricatures like portraying Nilfgaard as Nazis. I never expected a movie or TV series to be able to capture everything from a book series where only the reader’s imagination sets limits, but I was surprised at how much more I preferred the voice acting and visual style of the video games compared to the show—from creature design to Nilfgaardian armor to character development. The acting in this show isn't particularly good overall, though I do like Cavill as Geralt. I still think the first season was pretty good and I enjoyed it, and I hope future seasons will improve, but it doesn’t really succeed either as an adaptation of the first two Witcher books or as a skillfully made television program.

Source on TMDB