Winter is coming, as they say. Especially for young Princess Cirilla (Freya Allan), who spends much of this second season of the fantasy saga based on the books by Andrzej Sapkowski moping around Kaer Morhen, a vast, chilly, snow-bound castle, where she tries to win the respect of her mentor Geralt (Henry Cavill) and his Witcher gang by training to be a fighter. It’s not exactly The Witcher’s most gripping plot-strand, and it’s hard to ignore the similarities between Geralt’s home fort and a place called Winterfell, especially for TV critics fond of crassly comparing every TV-fantasy epic that comes along to Game Of Thrones, but the relationship between the cautious, fatherly Geralt and plucky Cirilla does at least help anchor Series 2.
Indeed, the new season is generally more streamlined and focused, although no less sweeping and visually sumptuous. Where the first series jumped around between times and places to fill in the backstories of its main characters, in often bewildering style, the new run homes in on that mentor/trainee relationship between Geralt and Cirilla, allowing Geralt to tap into his soulful side, intercut with the parallel journey of Geralt’s onetime lover, part elf and sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and her gang. We’re also kept abreast of the machinations of those in power — Shaun Dooley (It’s A Sin) and Ed Birch (The Last Kingdom) are a particularly fun double act of super-entitled kings — and big ideas of imperialism and racism (elves are not treated well) hover over proceedings.
Cavill is generally very good in the role, commanding and dignified at all times.
But the show is at its strongest when it gets freaky. The opening episode’s very first scene featured Geralt grappling with a bizarre, giant, spider-like creature called a kikimora, and Season 2 begins with a gory, mystery-creature attack, complete with severed limbs being hurled through the air. It could be the opening of a pretty effective monster movie, and when the deployment of these beasts takes the show into out-and-out horror territory, it’s often on firmer ground than when it’s trying to be funny. Some of the banter between the carousing Witcher dudes at the castle, for example, is frankly excruciating. Thankfully, Geralt rises above it, and Cavill is generally very good in the role, commanding and dignified at all times, making the most of his dialogue, which is marginally less monosyllabic than it was in Season 1.
As for the new characters, Kim Bodnia, so effective as Konstantin in Killing Eve, does a fine job as Vesemir, Geralt’s mentor and father figure in the witchering business, even if his character is rather thinly drawn, and Mecia Simson is charismatic as uncompromising elven sorceress Francesca Findabair. Most of the best characters from Season 1 return, too, although the writers delay our gratification and make us wait for some fan favourites to put in an appearance. No spoilers, but let’s just say you can keep that coin in your pocket for a while before a certain bard will call on you to toss it.
