HAVE A VIDEO YOU WANT TO FEATURE ON OUR PAGE?

Submit Video

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Not now
OK
Advert
Advert
Advert

'The Witcher' Season Two Audience Score Sees Huge Drop From Season One

Ewan Moore

Published 
| Last updated 

'The Witcher' Season Two Audience Score Sees Huge Drop From Season One

Featured Image Credit: Netflix

The Witcher's recently released second season doesn't seem to have gone down brilliantly with fans.

Advert

The Netflix fantasy series has come under fire in recent weeks for its approach to the source material, with a number of controversial changes that have been met with plenty of criticism.

Loading…

Much of that criticism has been reflected in the show's audience score on reviews aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. At the time of writing, The Witcher season two has a score of 62% based on 2,381 ratings.

Advert

It's worth pointing out that this is by no means a horrendous score, but it is a significant drop off from the first season. The Netflix show's 2019 season boasts an impressive audience score of 91% based on over 20,000 reviews.

Interestingly, we're seeing the complete reverse from critics. The Witcher's first season has a critic score of 68%, while the new season has a much-improved 94%. Proof that critics and fans rarely agree on anything.

One of the more criticised moments in season two is the death of Eskel, an old Witcher friend of Geralt's. Eskel, who doesn't die in the books, transforms into a monster and is killed by Geralt in episode two of the new season. Fans were less than thrilled.

Advert

"We knew we had to kill someone in that episode," said showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich said in defence of the move in the behind-the-scenes special The Witcher: Unlocked. "We knew that we wanted a monster to enter Kaer Morhen and have something to do with Ciri, and both Geralt and Vesemir and the brothers realize that bringing this girl into their Witcher keep is going to fundamentally change things.

"And, in all honesty, the very first version of the script that we wrote was a brand new Witcher that we'd never met before, we'd never heard of, and all of a sudden we were like... Oh, our audience is going to meet Coen and Lambert and Eskel and, you know, John. And who's going to die? John is going to die. So we thought about it really hard and I know that there are fans who love Eskel and who feel like, why would we do that?

"But, honestly, his death is what changes everything for Geralt and I think it propels Geralt's need to figure out what's going on with Ciri and to do it fast, because he knows that he's going to risk losing her and his brothers if he doesn't. And we really just wanted to motivate that character journey for him."

Topics: The Witcher, Netflix

Ewan Moore
More like this
Advert
Advert
Advert

Chosen for YouChosen for You

Steam

Steam's new free Stardew Valley-like is blowing up right now

13 hours ago

Most Read StoriesMost Read