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Making a successful sophomore season for one of Netflix’s most popular original series, let alone one of its biggest fantasy shows, is really a move akin to trying to capture lightning in a bottle the second time around. When Season 1 of The Witcher premiered around this time two years ago, there was a general sense of apprehension surrounding its release. Video game adaptations (even if The Witcher is also adapted from the series of short stories by Andrzej Sapkowski) have an unfortunate reputation for being so-bad-they’re-almost-good, comically bad, or this-never-should’ve-seen-the-light-of-day-bad — and the first images of Henry Cavill in character as Geralt of Rivia didn’t inspire much faith either (at least until he finally tried a different silver wig on for size). It was unclear whether the actor, himself a self-professed devotee of the games, would be able to channel that same singular focus into successfully rendering the titular Witcher on-screen — but the first season, while admittedly brimming over with fantasy tropes, was definitely carried by character work. The fact that said characters were divided into three different timelines, a plot point that didn’t reveal itself until much of the season was over, didn’t necessarily make things any easier to follow. However, Season 2, which comes to Netflix on December 17, seems to not only have learned from the missteps of its predecessor but is even willing to gently poke fun at itself in the process — and its once-taciturn White Wolf who’s starting to feel even more three-dimensional. Continue reading