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Geralt goes live action, but does he slay?

First things first: the Witcher series on Netflix is not an adaptation of The Wild Hunt, nor any of CD Projekt Red’s beloved RPGs. Many elements will seem familiar to anyone who spent dozens of hours on The Continent (Roach, Geralt’s raspy voice, nudity), but the show sticks closely to Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher Saga – notably short story collection The Last Wish.

This is no bad thing. Sapkowski’s Eastern European spin on an unforgiving fantasy world is a rich and original work, something the Netflix show at least aspires to. Split into eight hour-long episodes, it focusses on Henry Cavill’s Geralt (pretty much as you remember him), Anya Cholatra’s Yennefer (a young witch-in-training) and Freya Allan’s Ciri (a princess on the run) as they make their way through a brutal world.

Pleasingly, each episode plays out like one of The Wild Hunt’s extended quest lines, with Geralt typically thrown into the middle of a conflict that’s far from black-and-white. All manner of creatures pop up (often stretching the limited CG budget), and a certain bard tags along to provide unexpectedly earwormy ditties.

Cavill makes a fine Geralt, even if the wig takes some getting used to. Early episodes are a bit of a slog as they cram in a library’s worth of lore, and the jarringly contemporary dialogue (“Gross!”) is an odd fit alongside fantasy archetypes. But

Geralt’s small-screen debut is worth hunting down. Jordan Farley

Henry Cavill is a huge fan of the games, and completed The Wild Hunt three times.