The Witcher Season 4 - Episodes 1 & 2 Review: When Liam Hemsworth is the only change...

The Witcher: Season 4 has just fully released on a Netflix account near you. You can go watch the eight episodes right now, and that's what we're doing to bring you a full season review. But for now, over the past few days, I got to watch the first two episodes to get a taste of what this season is about and to see if it's trying to fix some of the many problems that came before.

There's something about this series that made me, and will keep making me watch despite the incredible decline in quality with every season. It's not a matter of "but it has so much potential" anymore, this late into the story. Nor is it about the now-gone Henry Cavill, much as we know and love him (by the way, Gamereactor was one of the very first outlets with which he shared his desire to follow more of the books' tone and arcs). After a decent but unnecessarily tangled Season 1, a diluted Season 2, and an insurmountable Season 3, here we are again, hoping for a few corrections at the very least.

But you'll find little of that in Episodes 1 & 2. Episode 1 follows the same hotchpotch structure as plenty of the episodes that came before it: fast-paced, with little background for the known characters or introduction for the new ones, too many silly moments, surprisingly discreet visual flair, and zero political charisma. You might vaguely recall what happened at the end of Season 3 with Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer, and why they (yet again) have to take a journey to be reunited; this time mostly against mage Vilgefortz of Roggeveen and King Emhyr var Emreis.

To introduce Liam Hemsworth as the new White Wolf, the first episode takes a page from the good ol' playbook of "this is a narrator telling a slightly different story." It looks a bit awkward, but surprisingly enough, Hemsworth works just fine in the role so far. There's little depth to his feelings and acting in Episode 1, a little bit more in Episode 2, but if you already take The Witcher as a casual watch, you shouldn't have much problem with him. Besides, he could actually add something new to the table, and that's one of the hooks this season could have if played well. Also, his voice sounds incredibly similar to Cavill's, which, forced or not, hilariously helps.

He also performs just okay during combat with humans and fights with monsters. However, the series tries too hard to show that our White Wolf is very wounded and very angry by increasing the gore on screen up to eleven. I'm fine with splatter as long as it makes sense, but here it looks like a childish attempt to appear more serious and mature. In my opinion, it ends up being ridiculous when there's been no buildup to those gross moments. In other words, despite the nice choreography (at least most of the time), someone has to tell the showrunners that more gore doesn't necessarily mean better action sequences.

With the quick and poor introductions established in Episode 1, Episode 2 follows more of a classic structure in pace and storylines, and thus it just works better as your average piece of entertainment. It didn't, however, make me care at all about the "Thieves" arc, this group of "Rats" Ciri joins to survive. I didn't like any of the characters, nor their cliché resumés (including the inevitable fisstech junkie). As much as Freya Allan's role has been sustaining the show since Season 2, I can't help but think she's only gone downhill since her boring desert detour.

Meanwhile, an equally weakened Yennefer by Anya Chalotra tries to convince old friend/rival mages to join her new reconnecting cause in too-plain, cameo-like sequences (there's a mage encounter in the woods that looks like a Japanese video game cutscene), and Cahir keeps coming and going, a misuse of such an interesting character they still have time to fix. Elsewhere, I think Milva from the Witcher party could have her moments, Jaskier could come back into shape, and Laurence Fishburne's Emiel Regis brings the much-needed pause to all this Chaos (pun intended), because you can't get enough Morpheus flavour in this.

The Witcher is not (and will never be) one of the greatest fantasy shows of all-time; that's something we've all come to accept. Will this season avoid stupid time leaps, create some character development, fill in the many holes, and make good use of the magical lore? I don't know. However, if you're like me, a sucker for the franchise and even for this series, who keeps watching just to see where it dares go next despite having hit rock-bottom several times, then go ahead. Even if there are just a few traces of ephemeral joy left in our journey, even if Hemsworth might look as fake White Wolf at first, let's see where this ends and whether it manages to make any sense to renew.