The Witcher: Blood Origin expands a universe without too many memorable monsters

Despite the latter actress’ intensity, her character is often marginal in the overall action and this runs the risk of being the biggest problem of the entire miniseries: having to build a very complex narrative setting in just a few episodes (stitched together by the voice of the mysterious character played by Minnie Driver), with a very large cast of characters and unpublished magical expedients, a lot of time is spent telling and explaining rather than acting. Many pieces are put together in rapid succession and the viewer must arm himself with patience to put all the pieces of the puzzle in place while waiting for a few more eventful scenes. The one who somehow made the fortune of a series like The Witcherat least on the small screen, is the ability to create chilling suspense and introspective depth also through brutal clashes with the most monstrous creatures. These too, in Blood Originlatent.

In general it can be said that those who are i strengths Of The Witcher: Blood Origin they are also its weaknesses: on the one hand, not having no counterpart literary or videogame base, allowed the creators Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich to indulge in a completely original plot, which however suffers from its own free complexity; also the continuous world building, which as a premise must lead to the creation of the first Witcher, causes the link with the wider saga is tenuous (except for the return of a certain bard named Jaskier and some other fleeting but striking connections). However, it must be said that even those who are not too familiar with it with the main series he can enjoy this other one without major hitches, being faced with a fantasy series like any other, albeit of excellent workmanship.

Netflix’s intent in this case is pretty clear: The Witcher it’s too mouthwatering and successful a franchise not to expand it in multiple directions. It had already happened with the animated film Nightmare of the Wolf, which delved convincingly into Geralt’s past, and now we try again with this origin story. Not all donuts come out with a hole, they say, but it is clear that this is a narrative universe with infinite ideas and potential. Certainly, however, that the risk is the same run by the characters of this new adventure: create gaps between one dimension and another can sometimes produce monsters. The important thing is that they are convincing.