Back when The Witcher launched on Netflix, I happily declared that it didn’t need to be that great. Unfortunately, that might have triggered something on The Continent (and I’m sort-of kidding) because although Season 2 had its undeniable merits, the third season is not a banger. This did not escape Henry Cavill, obviously, given that he decided to ditch those leather pants and the white wigs, which will now both be worn by Liam Hemsworth if Season 4 still happens. Netflix hasn’t said otherwise, after all.
Henry, for his part, absolutely adores Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher books and the video games, yet he hasn’t badmouthed anyone about the show’s downward spiral, and he will be nerding hard elsewhere (over at Amazon, where he will star in and help produced Amazon’s adaptation of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop RPG universe). Back in The Witcher land, producer Tomek Baginski was in a decidedly more salty frame of mind while recently talking with Polish publication Wyborcza (via Hollywood Reporter). Baginski seemingly blamed the American audience for allegedly forcing the show to make “simplifications” to the source material:
“When a series is made for a huge mass of viewers, with different experiences, from different parts of the world, and a large part of them are Americans, these simplifications not only make sense, they are necessary … It’s painful for us, and for me too, but the higher level of nuance and complexity will have a smaller range, it won’t reach people.” Previously, Baginski suggested stories also need to simplified due to young viewers being inspired by only “emotions” rather than plot due to being raised on YouTube and TikTok.
It’s not the most diplomatic (or productive) way to address how the show’s audience stopped tuning in to greater degrees with each passing episode in Season 3. Forbes’ Erik Kain also took Baginski to task after the Wyborcza journalist told the EP that he was part of the show’s target audience as well as a YouTube and TikTok enthusiast, and Baginski responded, “Okay, so it’s time to be serious. Dear children, what you do to yourself makes you less resilient for longer content, for long and complicated chains of cause and effect.”
Foot-in-mouth statement speaks for itself, no further commentary needed.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter & Forbes)