Guilty as charged. After the train wreck that was season 2 of Netflix’s The Witcher, I kind of told myself that I couldn’t go back for more. After Henry Cavill left and the writers casual disregard for the source material, I was done with The Witcher. I love the books. They’re great. Why come back for another season of crap? Unless you just wanted to see how bad it could get. Like driving by a car crash. You have to look. Right?

That’s what I did last night with episode one of season 3 of The Witcher. Here’s where is gets strange: I liked it. As the plot of show unfolded, you almost get the sense the writers are making a pivot back to the books. In terms of plot and characters, I was getting that vibe. After the season 2 blah, blah that didn’t really move the story forward, we’re getting glimpses of a possible reset to get close to the source material. Yen is slinging magic. She and Geralt are on the outs. It’s awkward. Yen is trying to teach Ciri how to use magic with very little luck and at the end of the episode they have to split up. Yen and Ciri go one way and Geralt goes the other. Good. Stay in that groove, writers. Steer back to the books. The back and forth of “Dear, Friend” letters was especially a welcome surprise. No one liked season 2 because the writers were making shit up left, right and center. And what you were inventing was crap compared to the books. I have no idea about what else is coming in season 3. However, episode one was enjoyable just because it felt like the writers were at least trying to get back to the good stuff. Let’s hope that’s the case.