Toss A Coin To Your... Who The Heck Is That?

This is the one streaming series (and its spinoffs) I get the most excited about new content for, and keep coming back to for rewatches. (If one ignores my nearly life long emotional attachment to Star Wars for the moment, that's cheating.)

I had doubts with one of the main characters (and early on, THE main character) changing actors this far in, hence the title. That thought did occur when he showed up on screen in the initial episode, but everyone else does such a fantastic job, and their interactions are so strong that the overall structure held up spectacularly well. This is especially true for the other main focus points, Ciri and Yen (Yes, and Jaskeir, too.) More importantly, Geralt's character arc had him changing so much as the show went on, it is hard to say which different elements in the performance are from organic character development and which are from varying actor choices. 

Showing the framing scenes with the storyteller changing, along with a recap of key past scenes with the new Geralt in them were nifty ways of handling this as well. Overall the transition was very smooth and the show still "feels" the same.

I broke my "no room in my head for any more fictional universes" rule for this show because it feels similar to playing Dungeons and Dragons. This remains the best way I can explain and understand the three plot threads in season four. 

Fine, technically, there are four main plot threads. One for each of the main characters, and then the political intrigue stuff across the continent. However, that is mostly background to explain why the leads are doing what they are, and was likely thrown in to appeal to Game of Thrones fans I guess. I focus on the people I like.

Geralt (and Jaskier) are traveling on an overland quest in a very high level and experienced adventuring party. Jaskeir remains a constant hoot, but with heart. His songs elevate any episode they are in and he is frequently the emotional core of a lot that is going on. We have some great people added from previous seasons such as the combat ready, good hearted and foul mouthed dwarf Yarpen along with the unflappable, brave yet compassionate (and accurate) archer Milva in the party. Former foe Cahir, after a great deal of convincing, brings his expert swordsmanship and an interesting redemption arc to the gang. This season adds the entertaining and battle hardened dwarf and gnome pair of Zoltan and Percival. Plus Laurence Fishburne as Regis, who is simultaneously incredibly cool, highly classy and completely terrifying.

I'm hoping for a Regis spin off. 

The "Witch Burning" scene was a perfect example of how to do realism in a fantasy setting. The realistic part was how the priest twisted everything the good guys said, even contradicting things he himself had recently proclaimed, to keep the downtrodden, uneducated horde on his side and against the new comers. They never truly defeat him, but in the chaos, those wonderfully violent dwarfs paid him his due.

There are many and varied excellent action and conversational moments from this gang. The epic battles on the river and bridge that ended the season were ones for the ages. The rescuing of the woman in the farmhouse combined combat with character growth, and the shared back stories around the campfire scene added a great deal of depth to the characters.  

Ciri continues to grow into the main lead character of these tales. She's a highly competent mid level character with a combination of thief, fighter and magic user abilities, to continue my Dungeons and Dragons riffing. (Heck, Jaskeir should teach her a musical instrument, she'd be a textbook First Edition Bard.) She teams up with the Rats, a low level party trying to make their way in the world. She's clearly smarter and more competent than them, but lets them lead the way most of the time, stepping in when they need help, whether they admit it or not. When she leaves them, they head directly into an encounter with the amusing, if lethal, Leo Bonhart. An extremely high level warrior and bounty hunter. Clearly, the Dungeon Master planned on their encounter with him to involve negotiation or escape. Being overconfident well beyond their abilities, they ran directly into a (horrendously losing) battle with him. The Rats "mini movie" that was tacked on at the end of the season had two things going for it. The first was it made the group much more likeable and relatable, showing them in a stronger light which explained their overconfidence.

The second was the casting of Dolph Lundgren as a washed up Witcher who gets his power and confidence back working with this young gang for a last hurrah. His involvement brought me back to my "sword and sorcery films of cable" watching teen years most impressively.

The third lead, Yennefer, remains resourceful, commanding, powerful and generally magnificent. She rallies the remaining sorceresses of Aretuza, brings in several other known and new magical women and convinces some Witchers to join for battle and fight training to defend Montecalvo (checks spelling) from (checks spelling again) Vilgefortz and his group of evil, teleporting choas wielding wizards. It was unquestionably the best large scale battle in the series, and may be the best large scale magical battle I've ever seen. (RIP Istredd, you were a real one.)

The music continues to be excellent. I have collected all the franchise's soundtracks. While this is something I do kind of frequently, the quality of this one does stand out.

I'm sad there is only one season left. They filmed it already but that still leaves me plenty of time to watch this one again to make sure I didn't miss anything. 

Oh yeah, the two (I think there's two) animated films are well done. Not as good as the show, but still eminently watchable with some cool surprise moments.

A nice box set of physical media for the whole shebang once it ends would be appreciated. Thank you.