It’s never a good sign when a show’s best moment comes within the first few minutes. But so it proves with The Witcher: Blood Origin, a spin-off to Netflix’s flagship fantasy series set 1,200 years before the stories of Geralt, Yen and Ciri.
In a brilliant scene best for you to discover yourself, Joey Batey’s Dandelions are drawn in from the main series. The prologue is everything the story that follows is not: mysterious, faintly anarchic and anchored by a Danskier character overflowing with magnetism and charisma – something that Blood Origin is desperately crying out for.
What follows is a flat, limited series that makes you question its very existence—including how it enhances The Witcher’s universe. Faced with the cataclysmic Conjunction of the Spheres that sees worlds combine to form the continent, a group of seven adventurers embark on a fateful mission. All the while, in Xin’trea and Pryshia, a pair of warring kingdoms undergo a serious paradigm shift, and the creation of the very first witch begins.
At the head of the seven is Éile (Sophia Brown), an elf shunned by her clan for favoring music over fighting. She’s one of Blood Origin’s few bright spots, offering genuine warmth, a rollicking first impression in a bar fight, and brutal scenes that harken back to Geralt’s duel with Renfri in The Witcher’s premiere. She even finds time to serenade the crowd, though her songs don’t quite match the “Toss A Coin” earworm from Jaskier’s lips.
However, the rest of the main cast of characters range from woefully undercooked to serious missed opportunities. Fjall (Laurence O’Fuarain) is a gruff warrior who never rises above his seen-it-all-before archetype, while Brother Death (Huw Novelli), and the mages Zacare (Lizzie Annis) and Syndril (Zach Wyatt) offer little more than background noise. Even worse is how Michelle Yeoh’s Scian is treated. Fresh off a career-best performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once, the nomadic elf is criminally underused and Yeoh’s one big fight scene is disappointingly clumsy and stiff. At least the last member of the seven, the dwarf Meldof (Francesca Mills), jolts the series into life every time she appears. Her silent musings to her hammer – named Gwen, naturally – are among Blood Origin’s best moments and drip with affection and personality.
When the ensemble eventually gets the chance to bounce off each other, there’s a hint of something magical in the air. But every time Blood Origin threatens to build any momentum, its legs are knocked off by cutting to an endlessly boring story involving Princess Merwyn (Mirren Mack). The plodding plot sees the royal puppetry of Chief Sage Balor (Lenny Henry) and Eredin (Jacob Collins-Levy), each with their own secrets and sinister motives. Even Henry’s wonderful clay pantomime villainy serves to remind you that the far superior Rings of Power, in which the actor also appeared, exists.
The back-and-forth between the two stories is wrapped in a structure that has clearly been butchered in the shearing shed. Origin of blood very public change from six episodes to four is written all over its hasty history. One character’s arc, for example, is ridiculously sped through: they’re a royal bodyguard, banished, then asked to return — all within the first 20 minutes.
The reeling approach means that the show’s worst plot device, the narrator, has to stitch the story together. Awkward and exposition-heavy voiceovers, instead of character work and rich dialogue, fill the gaps between a patchwork collection of scenes. As a result, declarations of love, blood oaths and betrayals go unearned as the series refuses to settle down and instead races through plot points before reaching its final act.
There are some glimmers of quality that shine through every now and then, even if they are fleeting. Blood Origin’s creepier elements introduce a more macabre visual language to a journey otherwise characterized by lifeless hills and janky CGI. The franchise has always been at its best when it’s embraced its grittier horror edge — see The Witcher Season 2’s adaptation of The Last Wish — and it shows again here.
Blood Origin’s representation should also be commended. Too often the fantasy genre plays it safe with its cast. Among several actors of color, Blood Origin has well-rounded and concrete roles for deaf actors and those with dwarfism. In a series devoid of any real experimentation or bravery, this (rightly) stands out as a creatively well-executed choice.
In a year filled with great fantasy – House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power among them – this ultimately ranks near the bottom. A pre-Witcher exploration of the genesis of the mutant species and the story of how the worlds of monsters and men collide should have enriched the main series and excited in itself. This does neither. A few lonely sparks aside, Blood Origin is packed with wasted potential and wasted talent in its short four-episode run. Let’s hope our next trip back to the continent for Henry Cavill’s Geralt swan song helps boost what is quickly becoming a franchise on shaky footing.
The Witcher: Blood Origin will stream on Netflix from December 25.
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