Just finished season 2 and I'm really disappointed.
I thought the writing was poor, almost childish (constant F bombs just felt really weird and out of place), almost every character (especially younger cast) had the same exact dialogue and way of speaking that it made it difficult to distinguish between them. Aside from the core characters, the ocean of exposition and running waffle from the constantly rotating cast, all using the same voice, was so dire it was difficult to get through.
Unless they narrow the focus onto the main cast, which should be 90% Geralt and Ciri, then it'll continue to go down the drain. Fringilla, Francesca and Cahir's is a tale for Geralt to hear on his travels, not hours of waffling nonsense between badly adapted characters with a poor script. Let novels be novels, television needs to be television. CDPR adapted the novels to tell stories in videogames really well, surely Netflix can find people to do the same for television?
I want to see Geralt being a Witcher, I want to see monsters from the lore and legend, I want to see him teaching Ciri the world of monsters and men, I want the supporting cast to teach her about her power. I want to watch her as she uncovers her destiny and deepens her relationships with the core cast and gradually becomes more independent. The story and script needs to be adapted to better suit audiences and the relationships between these core characters, everything else needs to facilitate this. Locations and its people need to be better represented and easily distinguishable from each other.
Skipping from character to character, location to location might work in Game of Thrones, but here, with these writers and directors? Nope. If they don't change it, I'll be surprised if Netflix goes beyond a 3rd season. Because right now The Witcher is a sporadic series of quality moments floating in a sea of drudgery. And yet, there's so much potential for something incredible, they're just going about it in the wrong way.
I'm on the fence on this - baring in mind not all the audience or potential audience for the show will be coming from the games or books.
If they use it as a springboard for subsequent seasons it can work - if the next season is just more of the same though it is going to fall flat on its face.