When fans have your back, you can face anything. The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich is learning that, as fans enjoy the eight episodes of The Witcher Season 1. The Netflix series stars Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia and just premiered on December 20. But that's fans as opposed to critics, with one outlet in particular getting some shade from The Witcher boss and viewers.
Over at Rotten Tomatoes, Netflix's The Witcher has a "rotten" (but barely) score of 58% from critics with an enthusiastic 91% audience score. As we showed in our roundup of The Witcher reviews, most critics found something positive to say amidst constructive criticism.
However, the folks at EW tag-teamed their review of The Witcher to give it an "F" grade. One critic planned to review the show but only watched half an hour of the premiere before asking for backup. The two critics mostly ripped the series apart back-and-forth.
At one point, the first EW critic said he skipped ahead to Netflix's fifth episode. Critics not even watching all eight episodes before giving an "F" grade really upset a lot of fans. The Witcher showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich responded to the reviews, throwing some winking shade on that particular "F" review without mentioning the outlet:
Nice! The fans are the priority, as they should be, especially since The Witcher showrunner has talked about aiming for seven -- or 20? -- seasons. More than the one that's already out and the one already in the planning stages, at any rate. A show can be beloved by critics and die after one season. But a show beloved by fans can go on and on.
That's not to say all critics are evil and anyone who says anything negative about the show is the bad guy. Constructive criticism is fair game, as Lauren Schmidt Hissrich tweeted:
Very true. Sometimes people gleefully feed off hate -- like everyone ripping apart the Cats movie. And hey, at least The Witcher hasn't had a Game of Thrones coffee cup-style error yet. They almost did in Season 1, but caught it in time. That's the last time we should compare The Witcher to Game of Thrones, though, since the show has had enough of that. Still, the point is that they worked hard to make the show and Season 1 is already a hit for millions of fans.
The Witcher certainly hasn't had enough from Henry Cavill yet as Geralt, and the showrunner has talked about hoping his Superman fans watch to see what else he can do. The Witcher author himself is pleased with Cavill's performance, and the series, and hopes fans come away with one specific feeling. (I think it worked.)
If you've finished watching The Witcher Season 1 on Netflix, check out CinemaBlend's chat with actress Anya Chalotra, who explains Yennefer’s physical transformation. We'll have more interviews up later this week with The Witcher Powers That Be. Do you think Season 2 will reveal this mystery or should they keep it open to fan interpretation?
