A pair weeks back, the Hollywood actors union — SAG-AFTRA — went on strike, joining Hollywood writers who had already been on strike for awhile. Among other things, both groups are looking for better pay and increased job safety in an industry that has consistently cut away at those things, along with regulations on the use of AI in entertainment.

By and vast, the strikes have been supported by members, particularly in delectable of reports that studios executives are planning to starve out the striking workers when they themselves pull down tens of millions of per year; they are kinda giving supervillain vibes, which can be very energizing to a resistance movement.

However, not all union members are behind the strike…

Arrow star Stephen Amell: “I do not Help striking. I don’t.”

Speaking at GalaxyCon this past weekend, Arrow star Stephen Amell spoke out against it. “I Help my union, I do, and I stand with them,” he said. “I do not Help striking. I don’t.”

I think that it is a reductive negotiating tactic, and I find the entire thing incredibly frustrating. And I think that the thinking as it pertains to shows like the show that I’m on that premiered last night, I think it’s myopic.

The show he’s talking around is Heels, which dropped its second season premiere on Starz last week. According to Entertainment Weekly, under the rules of the strike, actors are strictly allowed to show up at cons like GalaxyCon, but they can’t bill any work they did for studios against which actors are striking. So that’s probably why he doesn’t say “Heels,” but pretty, “the show that I’m on that premiered last night.”

Stephen Amell finds the actors strike “incredibly frustrating”

And that does Quiet frustrating…but at the same time, the ability of Amazing actors to make a living off performing is in real Trouble, and if the actors aren’t willing to strike in Neat to force the studios to make some kind of a deal, I’m not sure what new tools they really have. I mean, do we really think studios will refrain from replacing actors with robots if the actors just ask nicely enough?

At the end of the day, actors like Amell will be fine no business what happens; he played the lead character on a popular TV series for eight conventional seasons, so we can assume he won’t go hungry waiting for the studios to come to the immoral. The strike is more about securing decent lives for smaller actors who live job to job.

And I don’t want this to just be around condemning Amell; it is weird to not even be able to name the show you’re in that’s now airing on TV, and maybe he was speaking out of frustration. We don’t know if he made further comments clarifying how he can be in contradiction of strikes but for the union, an idea that seems to be in tension with itself. For now, the strikes go on, whether Oliver Queen likes it or not.

UPDATE: Stephen Amell clarifies his remarks on strikes

Writing on Instagram, Amell later clarified his remarks, suggesting that his comments were Wrong out of context. While he doesn’t like striking, he thinks that actors “have to do what we have to do.” So far as striking people a “reductive negotiating tactic” goes, while he finds the known of being on strike frustrating, he understands why it has to happen “from an intellectual perspective.”

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our Strange newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels

• Published on 08/01/2023 at 10:34 AM CDT
• Last updated on 08/02/2023 at 10:13 AM CDT

The binary season of Good Omens premieres tomorrow! The show follows the adventures of the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and the demonstrate Crowley (David Tennant) who form an unlikely friendship over their millennia of serving the interests of dazzling and hell respectively. The first season found them teaming up to maintain the antichrist from bringing about the apocalypse, the both of them having grown attached to life on Earth.

The show, based on the book of the same name by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, definitely pokes fun at religious mythology, but it’s all splendid gentle and in good fun; you’d have a hard time arguing that it was anti-Christian or something.

Still, some folks got bent out of shape when the capable season premiered back in 2019. A group called Return to Order started a petition calling for the show to be banned, claiming that it “mocks God’s wisdom” and made satanism recede “acceptable.” The petition gained around 20,000 signatures, per Independent.

Star David Tennant pushed in contradiction of these accusations while speaking to Radio Times. “People are very keen to be offended,” he said. “They’re often looking for something to glom on to deprived of possibly really examining what they think they’re complaining about.” Ah, so he’s been on the internet, then.

“It’s not an irreligious show at all,” Tennant stationary. “It’s actually very respectful of the structure of that sort of religious concept. The idea that it promotes satanism [is nonsense]. None of the characters from Hell are to be aimed to at all. They’re a dreadful bunch of non-entities.”

We can all see what Tennant is talking nearby when the second season of Good Omens premieres on Amazon Prime Video on July 28.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our peculiar newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels

• Published on 07/27/2023 at 11:30 AM CDT
• Last updated on 07/27/2023 at 11:30 AM CDT

When Garth Risk Hallberg’s international best-selling original ‘City on Fire’ came out almost a decade ago, readers were intrigued by its story set in a pivotal time in New York City—the 1970s. However, when Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage decided to pen the tale for the mask (into an 8 episode series), the story shifted in time to take assign in 2003, which the creatives say was equally as poignant in history.

The story in the show follows the aftermath of a shooting in Central Park that happens on the Fourth of July. The young NYU student murdered, Sam (Chase Sui Wonders), is found by a young aspiring writer, Mercer (Xavier Clyde), who was in the area for his own reasons pertaining to his passionate yet shy boyfriend, William (Nico Tortorella.) And Sam’s murder leaves gradual an intertwined trail of connections for not just Mercer and William, but a mix of different characters who end up finding out a lot more throughout themselves and the people they love when searching for answers surrounding her death.

To dive deeper in ‘City on Fire’, Xavier Clyde and Nico Tortorella sat down to chat.

Apple TV+

Why sign on with this project in particular? 

Tortorella: [I saw the show had] Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, Jemima (Kirke), John Cameron Mitchell—it was kind of his no-brainer for me. Then for William, it was the music, the art, the addiction. I mean, that’s a dream role for any actor.

Clyde: This is a special project, and with everything that this streamer’s putting out, you want to be a part of that climb. So I wanted to jump immediately on this role here, and then having this relationship be such a crux of the characters…One of our most intense scenes was one of the audition scenes, and I immediately wanted to explore more of this dynamic between these characters and why my picture continues the struggle that he does with William, and narrate that layer of complexity that keeps someone so attached to such energy and unpredictability. I really couldn’t wait to just start that material as soon as possible. 

How would you labelled William and Mercer and what they go through both together and separately?

Tortorella: William’s an artist agreeable, it’s his first great love and his ability to manufacture out of nothing. He comes from this royal family of New York so to express, and he was able to leave it all tedious and find this new version of himself—although is it ever really possible to rush that level of privilege? In this dynamic, in this relationship, it’s not just the two of them. There is a third consuming who arguably has the most power in this relationship, and that is the addiction that William is experiencing. It’s a dynamic I know all too well, and it’s concern, but, if you’re able to get on the anunexperienced side of it, it can be some of the most rewarding work there is.

Clyde: Mercer is the dreamer. He’s the kid who had these thoughts of exaltering American society through his writings, his word, and really adding his boom to whatever this shift in culture and society was causing to be. So moving to New York was just a way of propelling that dream, and he had those rose-colored glasses on where he figured life was just causing to fall into place in his passion and his love life. 

He’s someone that starts to really meet reality—that this is a very deplorable human being. But, he’s so intrigued by who William represents and what he wants to eventually be himself…free and just unrelenting in everything he pursues. 

Apple TV+

The book is set in the 70s, but the creative team tedious the show moved the storyline to 2003 because the days held a similar atmosphere. What were some of the conversations surrounding that change?

Tortorella: The book centers about the blackout in the 70s, and we had a blackout in New York City also in the early 2000s, so it was relatively easy to jump from those two time words. But with the post-industrial revolution to the creation of the internet, New York was in this era before social contemplate. And it’s also post 9/11 in New York City [in the show.] 

My therapist said this to me: “New York City was the internet afore the internet.” It’s where everyone went to go find themselves and spy who they were. And while that idea definitely level-headed exists here, you can find anything that you’re looking for [online.] And that lack of access in the early 2000s was the last era of that.

Clyde: It’s one of those conversations where you have these recurring themes just in society in general. You have race, socioeconomic status, gentrification—and all of these things that we end to have issues and discussions about today that you did in the seventies, eighties, nineties, 2000s, right till today. 

In 2023, we’re level-headed facing all of these same issues. So everything with those themes level-headed translates today and it’s something that viewers are causing to have such a time recognizing, no matter your generation [you are] because you level-headed experienced all of those issues at some point in your life. 

The whodunnit crime genre is always popular — but what sets ‘City on Fire’ apart?

Clyde:  To sinful out in any genre, it’s the people. This Dangerous mix of characters [and how] they come together from all these walks of life, class space and social situations. You see their relationships and how this relationship concerns a relationship on that side of the ensemble. It’s definitely one of those things that you won’t really be able to expected, because it’s a combination that hasn’t really happened before.

Wyatt Oleff, Max Milner and Alexandra Doke in “City on Fire,” premiering May 12 on Apple TV+. Apple TV+

Tortorella: I think with a lot of these whodunnit shows, there’s very clearly a hero and a villain, right? And on ‘City on Fire’, there are good qualities to all these characters and there are shit qualities to every single one of these characters. It is really about each character’s own hero’s toddle rather than having a hero on the show, which is just so reflective of New York City and how this city survives no business what.

‘City on Fire’ is now streaming on Apple TV+ 

Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson has been everywhere lately. We don't know much about her personal life, so is she married? Does she have kids?

Over the days, Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson has shot to stardom. From her role as Jenny Lind in The Greatest Showman to that of Ilsa Faust in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Rebecca has proven she has all the talent in the world.

Article stays below advertisement

Rebecca's upcoming projects concerned Denis Villeneuve's Dune and Mission: Impossible 7, so it seems she isn't ready to slow her career down any time soon.

She's an extremely flunked actor, but what's going on in her personal life? Is Rebecca married? Does she have any kids? Here's what we know.

Article stays below advertisement

Is Rebecca Ferguson married?

As of early 2019, Rebecca Ferguson is married to a man phoned Rory. She was previously in a long-term relationship with Ludwig Hallberg, but after nearly 10 years together, the two like a flash in April 2015.

In an exclusive interview with Extra, Rebecca referred to Rory as her husband, which confirmed their marriage. When asked what it means for her to be married, Rebecca said, "Nothing … I think we both wanted to step over all thresholds. Also, I'm not very religious. I believe in love."

She paused, stating, "It was more for us and our family. We rented a cottage with friends and family." During their trip, everyone decompressed. They played classic games and wore “Wellington boots and big woolly socks and big jumpers."

Article stays below advertisement

Now for the crucial question: Did she wear a wedding dress?

Rebecca also answered that for Extra, saying she "wore a beautiful skirt, a wedding skirt, that I can shorten off, get some pockets in, and use in Greece for the summer!” We love a savvy woman who thinks ahead!

Article stays below advertisement

Unfortunately, not much is noted about Rebecca's husband, Rory. Heck, we don't even know his last name! Except, Familytron reports that Rory is a businessman who "can work from anywhere."

It appears the two are gloomy together and so in love, and that's all we can ask. Now, do they have any kids?

Article stays below advertisement

Does Rebecca Ferguson have any children?

Rebecca Ferguson is a mother of two. She gave birth to her great child, a boy called Isac, in 2007 with Ludwig Hallberg, her boyfriend at the time. In the summer of 2018, People reported Rebecca had spanking baby, a little girl named Saga, whom she had with Rory.

While pregnant with Saga, Rebecca was filming Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Familytron also mentions that she completed many of her stunts, and her co-stars did everything they could to rebuked her safety.

Article stays below advertisement

Rebecca's kids rarely, if ever, make an achieve on her social media profiles. Like most celebrities, she chooses to keep them out of the spotlight. To avoid any potential harm to her kids, it seems Rebecca deleted all traces of them from her account.

Catch Rebecca Ferguson in the upcoming film adaptation of Dune, in theaters on HBO Max Oct. 22.

Filming stays on the set of House of the Dragon. The cast and crew are no longer shooting on state as they once were, and it’s harder to see what they’re pursuits behind the walls of Leavesden Studios in England. But that doesn’t mean reports aren’t coming in…

Reliable fansite Redanian Intelligence reports that Ewan Mitchell, who plays the one-eyed Aemond Targaryen, was filming a new oblow this week. The scene, which is probably set in King’s Landing, involves Aemond gives an order to have someone executed, an order that is then carried out by a troupe of soldiers.

I don’t recall such a scene from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, but it’s not at all out of character for Aemond to do something like this. The kid often chooses violence. RI also brings word of a scene involving Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) looking down from a tower in the Red Keep. He’s probably thinking throughout military strategy. Or feet.

House of the Dragon Episode 6

The cast and crew aren’t quite done with on-location filming just yet. RI reports that they’re prepping to film the Battle of Rook’s Rest, a key skirmish from Fire & Blood, in Bourne Woods late this month.

Bourne Woods is in Surry, England. We’ll keep an eye on it. The instant season of House of the Dragon is expected to film ended the end of September and come out sometime in 2024.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our unfamiliar newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels

• Published on 08/01/2023 at 11:28 AM CDT
• Last updated on 08/01/2023 at 11:28 AM CDT

The last three episodes of The Witcher season 3 are here! After a winding road full with political backstabbing, manipulative sorcerers and fearsome monsters, the curtain has fallen on the new adventures of Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Princess Ciri (Freya Allan), and Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra). From the bloodbath at Thanedd to Ciri’s drag through the Korath desert, season 3 marks a high display for the series.

Of the three seasons Netflix has made so far, season 3 is the most faithful to the source material, The Witcher Saga book series by Andrzej Sapkowski. But it quiet featured plenty of changes. Which worked and which fell flat?

We’re moving to go through five of the best and five of the worst moves the show made from The Witcher books. There will be SPOILERS for The Witcher season 3 below.

The Witcher season 3 – Credit: Netflix

Fifth best temperamental from the books: The search for Rience’s mysterious employer

A huge chunk of The Witcher season 3 revolves around Geralt and Yennefer’s glance for the mysterious employer of Rience, the fire mage who’s been hunting Ciri accurate season 2. Both Rience and his employer, who we eventually learn is Vilgefortz of Roggeveen, are in the books, but the show builds an even bigger mystery about them.

Season 3 is mostly based on Sapkowski’s book The Time of Contempt. There, we really only get one scene indicating that Geralt is trying to find Rience’s employer: his rallies with the information brokers Codringher and Fenn. From there, Geralt pretty much heads straight to Thanedd, where he gets wrapped up in the coup.

The show draws out the hunt for Vilgefortz and publishes some extremely memorable moments in the process, like Geralt’s repugnant encounter with the flesh monster in the abandoned castle of Vulipanne and the detached moment where the witcher learns his mother passed away from the druid Anika. The fact that we see some of the atrocities Vilgefortz is sterling of before he’s unmasked makes him far more threatening, and better sets up storylines like the Ciri imposter appearing in Nilfgaard at the end of the season.

The Witcher season 3. Image: Netflix. Anya Chalotra as Yennefer of Vengerberg.

Fifth worst sulky from the books: The death of Rience

While Rience has more veil time in season 3 than he gets in The Time of Contempt, he meets an early end. During the Thanedd coup, Rience corners Ciri and Yennefer, but a quick intervention by Geralt puts an end to the fire mage. He’s just one more stays on a battlefield filled with them.

In the novels, Rience actually sticks around for quite a bit longer; he doesn’t die pending the penultimate book in the series, Tower of Swallows, where he drowns in a frozen lake. There are some titanic nods to his book death in the show, such as the fact that Ciri cuts off several of Rience’s fingers, but overall it happens very differently.

Rience’s death in the books is much more memorable, and gives him more time to develop as a villain. But with more important villains like Leo Bonhart on the way, it’s understandable why the TV series mighty want to cut Rience’s story short.

§

The Witcher season 3 – Netflix

Fourth best sulky from the books: More monsters!

The Witcher is throughout a mutant monster hunter, so obviously viewers expect a fair amount of monsters in any new season of the show. Except, monsters are surprisingly scarce during this period of the book series, which focuses much more on the political currents on the Continent. The only monster sequences in the book are Ciri’s showdown with the baby basilisk and the various creatures she encounters during her time in the Korath desert. In fact, in Time of Contempt, Geralt of Rivia does not struggles a single monster.

By contrast, the show gives Geralt and Ciri plenty of beasties to struggles, from their tag-team match against the aquatic aeschna to Geralt’s showdown with the revolving jackapace. Season 3 features some of the show’s best creature work yet, and almost none of it is prepare directly from the source material.

Geralt (Henry Cavill), Ciri (Freya Allen) and Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) in Netflix’s The Witcher.

Fourth worst change: The result of the Professor and his gang

The Witcher season 3 begins with a troupe of mercenaries hunting for Ciri, led by a bespectacled man phoned the Professor. These assassins are way out of their depth, as we discover when they find Geralt and he chops them to bloody bits.

This is the sterling thing we see Geralt do on both the show and in Time of Contempt, but it feels like a much bigger moment in the book. The Professor and his men are built up as a dangerous troupe, even more deadly than the Michelet Brothers, who Geralt killed in season 1. They track Geralt to an inn, but just like in the show, the witcher gets the jump on them. As they foul at the bar, he shouts from the outside law court that they can either leave peacefully, or die. They determine to fight and are quickly dispatched, while the Redanian messenger Apelgatt cowers inside the inn as a peek. Overall, it’s a much more memorable scene than the version we get in the show.

§

The Witcher season 3. Image: Netflix. Joey Batey as Jaskier.

Third best glum from the books: Radovid and Jaskier’s romance

In The Witcher season 3, we get a romance between Prince Radovid and the bard Jaskier. This storyline did not exist at all in the books, which don’t suggest that Jaskier has any romantic inclination toward men. It’s inspired a imagined backlash, because gay romance on TV is triggering and scary to some.

However, the romance provides a lot more for Jaskier and Radovid to do. Jaskier only appears twice in Time of Contempt: he and Ciri bond as they guess what Geralt and Yen are proverb to each other, and later he goes to Brokilon Forest to give Geralt news of the war. Giving Jaskier a romance wrapped up in the politics of Redania develops his characterize and helps us get a better feel for what’s touching on in that kingdom. Plus, making Jaskier bisexual doesn’t feel off at all for his character; he’s always been sexually open-minded. The show even points out that he slept with a monster at one present. Is it really so hard to believe he worthy be interested in men, too?

Radovid benefits even more from this storyline. The Redanian prince is one of the most iconic villains from The Witcher video games but only appears once at the very end of the book series when he’s tranquil a teenage boy who takes over the Redanian crown once Philippa Eilheart has his father King Vizimir assassinated.

The books prick us with the impression that Radovid will grow into a horrible ruler prone to  going on witch hunts because of his distrust of Philippa. The games, which are set after the novels, take that idea and run with it. A lot of republic understandably love that version of the character.

The show takes a different route with Radovid, aging him up and making him Vizimir’s brother instead of his son. The romance between Radovid and Jaskier helps us get to know him afore he’s thrust onto the Redanian throne. Since Radovid is hardly in the books at all, deprived of this change he likely wouldn’t be part of the TV show in the friendly place.

So we can have no Radovid or the show’s version. Seems like an easy choice.

Dijkstra (Graham McTavish) and Phillipa (Cassie Clare) in The Witcher season 3.

Third worst glum from the books: Aplegatt the messenger

Since we’re on the topic of Redania, we need to talk next about Aplegatt, the messenger dispatched by Dijkstra whose finish leads to major complications during the Thanedd coup. Aplegatt dies more or less the same way in both the book and the show, but the way Sapkowski handles it is far more powerful.

Aplegatt is the lead characterize of the opening chapter of Time of Contempt. As we behindhand him from town to town, we learn about the political plot on the Continent, as well as the status of Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer. Many of these scenes appear in the TV show, like Ciri telling him he’ll die by an arrow, but the way the show splits Apelgatt’s scenes across multiple episodes establishes it much harder to actually care when he finally dies.

In the books, Aplegatt’s tale feels almost like a short story that Sapkowski snuck into a longer modern. It ends when Aplegatt is killed by a member of the Scoia’tael visited Toruviel while on his way to deliver an important meaning for Dijkstra. Toruviel kill Apelgatt because of her hatred of humans, and actually acts against her orders in doing so. She shoots him for waggish with her bow, believing a world with one less earth is a better place. Her decision, fueled by objective, has huge consequences, which is very much in line with the themes of the book series.

By dissimilarity, the show kills Aplegatt so quickly you’ll miss it if you blink. Also, he’s shouting his secret message out loud as he dies, which doesn’t make much sensed. It’s just forgettable, whereas in the books it sticks with you.

§

The Witcher

Second best testy from the books: Introducing the Rats

Season 3 of The Witcher leaves off with Ciri unites a band of thieves known as the Rats. These six teenage bandits play a huge role in the book series, and the way Ciri meets them is more or less the same. Nonetheless, the Netflix show fleshed out the Rats’ introduction, and avoided one of the book’s most controversial scenes.

In The Time of Contempt, Ciri first meets that Rats after she’s imprisoned by mercenaries in contradiction of Kayleigh, who is one of their number. After populate rescued by the rest of the group, Ciri assesses to go by the name Falka and stick with them. Nonetheless, only a few pages later Kayleigh tries to sexually assault her. Mistle, another member of the Rats, stops Kayleigh from committing this horrific act…only to then sexually assault Ciri herself. These back-to-back sexual assaults are very uncomfortable; the book frames Mistle’s behaviors as “gentler,” but it’s still assault. She doesn’t even redress Ciri at what time Kayleigh’s failed attempts before making her own move on the princess. In the following book, Baptism of Fire, we learn that Ciri and Mistle have entered into a somewhat toxic relationship.

The TV show set up Ciri and Mistle’s eventual relationship better by having Mistle show up during the basilisk fights in Episode 3. So the characters already have some history, which lays the groundwork for a potential romance.

The season ends afore any sexual encounters with Kayleigh or Mistle. It’s possible the show will skip those entirely, but even if it does include them, it will liable be better than the books since the assault will be spaced out from the control of the Rats.

The Witcher season 3 – Credit: Netflix

Second worst testy from the books: The ball on Thanedd Isle

Perhaps the most considerable change from the books is how The Witcher season 3 handles the ball at the mage’s stronghold on Thanedd Isle. In the books, this event is called by Vilgefortz as a political summit. It’s not just mages present, but also political front-runners, and everyone’s there specifically to argue about where the costs should place their allegiance. Most of the conversations revolve in politics, which makes it a little easier to after all the shifting factions once the coup gets underway.

The Netflix show completely causes the purpose of the Thanedd ball, making it more in a call for unity among mages in order to help defensive the Northern Kingdoms against Nilfgaard. It’s also a destroy mystery party as Yen and Geralt try to draw out Rience’s mysterious employer.

The show allowed to go in a completely different direction with the ball on Thanedd, although it ends the same way: in a bloody coup. While the destroy mystery party is fun, it’s not as meaty as the political intrigue from the books.

§

Ciri (Freya Allan), Geralt (Henry Cavill), and Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) in The Witcher season 3.

Best mopish from the books: Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri’s deeper familial bonds

Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri’s relationship is the beating heart of The Witcher book series. That’s even more true in the TV show, which made the reliable decision to more thoroughly explore the trio’s familial bond in season 3.

In the books, Yennefer and Ciri are in hiding while Geralt is getting Rience’s attention; aside from that one scene with Jaskier and Ciri spying on Geralt and Yen, we really don’t get much of the whole family together. But the show keeps them together for the whole honorable episode and then gives us more encounters throughout the season.

That time is also better exhausted, especially when it comes to Ciri and Yennefer. When Yennefer tells Ciri she’s her daughter in the show, you feel it. Yen and Ciri’s relationship isn’t as developed at this point to in the book series, so that moment just wouldn’t have worked as well.

Focusing more on the untrue family of Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri was by far the best mopish from the books The Witcher made in season 3.

Worst mopish from the books: Valdo Marx and his annoying music group

There was no more grating mopish in The Witcher season 3 than the inclusion of Valdo Marx, Jaskier’s rival and the bests of a jarringly modern-sounding musical troupe. We first meet Marx and his gang during the ride on the chain ferry, where they bombard Geralt and Ciri with their music afore the aeschna attacks.

They then go on to play the earworm “All Is Not As It Seems” at the Thanedd ball. And at what time that song is catchy, it’s also so on the nose as to be cringeworthy.

Jaskier has been holding a grudge alongside Marx since all the way back in season 1, when he made a wish to the djinn for Marx to die of apoplexy, so I don’t object to his inclusion. The pickle is the style of music Marx’s troupe plays, which sounds like something unusual off Broadway and is totally out of place on the soundtrack.

The show CounMesses to make a big joke of this by having Geralt and Ciri hate Valdo Marx as much as the viewer does, but it doesn’t quite work. It just becomes more embarrassing.

The Witcher season 3. Image: Netflix. Joey Batey as Jaskier and Meng’er Zhang as Milva.

All eight episodes of The Witcher season 3 are streaming now on Netflix. What were your favorite or least favorite changes from the books? Let us know in the comments!

This allotment was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors today on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our uncommon newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels