Pictures: Netflix
The final batch of three episodes for The Witcher season 3 has been voted some of the worst in the series’ history, with the audience review scores continuing their declining trend season over season.
Released over the course of two volumes over the summer, The Witcher season 3 continued the story of Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer, with the trio facing new threats from the Continent and beyond.
Here’s your look at the IMDb score of individual episodes over time, with episode 7 of season 3 being the lowest in the series’ history with a shocking 4.3 score. The season finale of season 1 remains the best-reviewed episode from audiences with an 8.8 rating.
| Season – Episode | IMDb Score (Number of Votes) |
|---|---|
| S1 – E1 | 8.2 (25,429) |
| S1 – E2 | 7.7 (21,540) |
| S1 – E3 | 8.6 (21,287) |
| S1 – E4 | 8.4 (19,576) |
| S1 – E5 | 8.3 (18,344) |
| S1 – E6 | 8.1 (18,158) |
| S1 – E7 | 8.3 (17,859) |
| S1 – E8 | 8.8 (21,024) |
| S2 – E1 | 8.5 (14,373) |
| S2 – E2 | 7.6 (11,864) |
| S2 – E3 | 7.7 (10,403) |
| S2 – E4 | 7.7 (9,996) |
| S2 – E5 | 7.9 (9,680) |
| S2 – E6 | 8.0 (9,594) |
| S2 – E7 | 8.2 (9,669) |
| S2 – E8 | 8.4 (11,895) |
| S3 – E1 | 6.8 (5,860) |
| S3 – E2 | 6.1 (4,941) |
| S3 – E3 | 5.7 (4,762) |
| S3 – E4 | 5.4 (4,804) |
| S3 – E5 | 6.0 (5,040) |
| S3 – E6 | 7.0 (2,272) |
| S3 – E7 | 4.3 (2,452) |
| S3 – E8 | 5.3 (1,902) |
The average IMDb user score for each season (average of the individual episode scores):
- Season 1: 8.3
- Season 2: 8
- Season 3: 5.8
How about Rotten Tomatoes? There you can see a growing divide between the opinions of professional TV critics and audiences over the course of the three seasons.
- Season 1
- Critic’s Score: 68%
- Audience Score: 89%
- Season 2
- Critic’s Score: 95%
- Audience Score: 56%
- Season 3
- Critic’s Score: 76%
- Audience Score: 22%
That’s just the main show’s audience and critics’ reviews. The Witcher: Blood Origin was released in December of last year to abysmal scores too. That series currently sits at 30% from critics and 13% from audiences on RT, and only a 4.9 on IMDb.
Picture: Netflix
The news of poor reviews from fans for the series shouldn’t come as any surprise if you’ve been following The Witcher’s online discourse for any time.
You’ll know the discussion around the show is rather toxic, to say the least. There’s been much coverage of the growing anger and/or apathy from a large contingent of the fanbase aimed particularly at the show’s writers, which was only exacerbated by Henry Cavill’s departure from the show.
The most common complaint among the reviews on IMDb was that this season was simply boring with poor pacing. Many also criticized how little Henry Cavill’s Geralt featured and poor dialogue.
Whether it’s rumors of writers being actively hostile to the source material or ongoing complaints on various controversial plotlines over the show’s history, or niggly things like costume choices, character trait choices, or even relationships throughout the show, it’s fair to say the show isn’t quite the smash among fans as Netflix would’ve hoped.
Despite fans’ poor reception, the show still seems to be a big viewership driver for Netflix, although is notably down on season 2, but that’s almost certainly down to the split season release.
Since volume 1 debuted on Netflix, the show has featured in the top 10s weekly, picking up 191.70 million hours watched between June 25th and July 23rd.
We’ll keep an eye on the viewership numbers in the coming weeks.
The Witcher is still full-steam ahead at Netflix with a fourth season confirmed (a fifth season is expected to be filmed back-to-back with the fourth), plus at least two spin-offs on the way, including The Rats and Sirens of the Deep.
Did you like season 3 of The Witcher? Let us know in the comments.
Netflix Synopsis: "As monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent compete to capture her, Geralt takes Ciri into hiding, determined to protect his newly-reunited family against those who threaten to destroy it. Entrusted with Ciri’s magical training, Yennefer leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where they hope to uncover more about the girl’s untapped powers; instead, they discover they’ve landed in a battlefield of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery. They must fight back, put everything on the line – or risk losing each other forever.
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