The Witcher: Blood Origin Is Officially Netflix's Worst Show Ever
Yikes, it's not a great time to be a fan of The Witcher right now, is it? If the shock departure of Henry Cavill following the upcoming season three wasn't enough, its Blood Origin spin-off has been royally panned.
Although Netflix started off strong with its live-action adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's books and CD Projekt Red's game series, it's clear behind-the-scene troubles are undermining what could be a great franchise.
What's Wrong With The Witcher: Blood Origin?
Away from the main series, The Witcher: Blood Origin was supposed to be the next big thing. Taking place 1,200 years before the ongoing story of The Witcher, it has an all-star cast that includes the likes of Minnie Driver and Michelle Yeoh.
Unfortunately, Blood Origin has been panned by critics and casual viewers alike. On Metacritic, the series has a 1.3/10 audience score. On Rotten Tomatoes, there's a critic score of just 32% and a damning 13% from audiences.
"Jesus wept...god awful," writes one. "Just why? Terrible writing doesn't even touch it. With Cavill gone cancel all Witcher projects." Another added, "This is worse than getting coal for Christmas. Save yourself a migraine and go read the books."
A third concluded, "You couldn’t make a worse show if you tried. Who seriously gave a green light to this? They need to be fired. Along with the writers and the showrunners. If you wanted to see something related to the Witcher, believe me don’t bother. It has 0 to do with the Witcher."
The pros weren't much kinder, with Variety's Joshu Alston writing, "Blood Origin is to The Witcher television show as a slapdash downloadable expansion pack would be to the massively popular Witcher video games. Only completists need apply."
Forbes' Erik Kain goes one further and concludes, "A truly atrocious mini-series that adds next to nothing to the main show, and doesn’t seem concerned in the slightest with the source material. It’s dull and makes big changes to The Witcher lore for no discernible reason."
Is The Witcherverse Doomed?
At a time that HBO is praised for giving us (possibly) the greatest video game adaptation of all time with The Last of Us, it's not a good look for Netflix right now.
There's some serious damage control going on right now, with The Witcher showrunner Lauren Hissrich saying she's looking forward to Liam Hemsworth ushering in a new era as Geralt of Rivia in season four.
After accusations that the show's writers actively dislike the source material - and some thinking it played a part in Cavill's departure - Hissrich has also promised that season three will be closer to the books.
Blood Origin already had a mountain to climb because it was review-bombed before it was even released. Still, it sounds like it's not just Cavill supporters saltily bashing the show, and that it's actually worthy of being dubbed Netflix's worst show.
Netflix isn't having much luck, with the recent Resident Evil series getting a disappointing 22% score from audiences. By the looks of it, the streaming giant should leave its video game adaptations to the likes of HBO.
