I'm up to Episode 5 now. In general, I'm enjoying this, though I find the writing a bit uneven at times (like when the queen called a formal ball a "shindig" or the bard says "I'll just stand here and spout exposition", it's sometimes oddly anachronistic). The bard was a bit irritating at first, but I think he plays off the dour, taciturn Geralt nicely. The action scenes are great and kinetic and as balletic as you'd expect from the source material. The fight with the striga is easily a high point for me.
Some of the stories got a little neutered though. The whole motivation for Blaviken kind of gets muddled, while the bit at the end of the worlds erases the entire bittersweet message of "you can fight against past injustices, but you can't make things the same again" in favor of tough-guy talking and abortion jokes. I'm happy to see other stuff is still there though, like the ruminating on the nature of monsters.
Y's backstory and C's subplot aren't working as well for me. Y's story felt unnecessary and filled with more of the needs-a-rewrite dialogue. C's is moving rather slowly and doesn't offer the actress enough for us to build a connection with this woman. I'm hoping that improves once the story lines come together.
The decision to intercut among story lines happening at very different times is interesting. In some ways I like that the show is trusting you and asking you to be engaged enough to keep up. At others though I do kind of wish we had even just a title card or something with the year.
I reviewed the original short story collection it's based on here:
https://one-way-mirror.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-last-wish-witcher-series.html
