Netflix's The Witcher Season 2 Has Surprisingly Low Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

The Witcher Season 2 is a monster hit for Netflix – so it's somewhat shocking to learn that the show has a surprisingly low Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes. At the time of writing this, The Witcher Season 2 is rated with an impressive Critics Rating of 94% (based on 47 reviews). However, the 2126 user ratings of Witcher Season 2 come in at a decidedly less favorable 62%. Many critics (including our own – see below) have praised Witcher Season 2 for telling a much more linear and clear story with a more confident performance from the principal cast and much better production values from Netflix and the show's crew. 

So why aren't audiences liking The Witcher Season 2 as much as critics? 

Well, as is often the case with these kinds of big adaptations of popular books/comics/video games (of which The Witcher series has dipped in) fans of the source material seem to have it out for the show. Most of the lowest user reviews tend to cite changes The Witcher Season 2 makes from the books and/or games as the main grievance: 

"One star for Henry, because only he feels and understands the world created by A. Sapkowski. Huge potential has been reduced and wasted. This is not an adaptation, it's a.... fanfic," says user "Kiara K. "Sad."

"Had a feeling lauren would not be up for the task of this show adaptation and im sad to say i was right," user "Chris L" writes. "Changing some things from the source material plot and character wise is one thing, but completely going off the deep end and abandoning it is another. Well established characters do things that make no sense. The plot itself is all over the place. This show is practically GoT season 8 and is only on season 2 of its adaptation. Wont be watching this butcher this series any longer."

User "Eliabe T" may have the wisest view of the larger issue here: how The Witcher Season 2 is being received by those who know the source material, vs. those who don't: 

"The producers gave a lesson on how not to make a film adaptation. A joy for the franchise's uninitiated, and a sadness for game and book fans. This series is a de-service and spits in the face of fans of literary and electronic material."

The Witcher Season 2 has set off a bomb of social media buzz about a major (unexpected) death that occurs, as well as other big deviations from the source material that caught longtime Witcher fans by surprise in the worst way. Clearly those changes are sparking the sort of biased "review-bombing" reactions that begin to throw the scales of aggregate sites off-balance in their scoring accuracy. 

However, the high praise for Witcher Season 2 also seems pretty consistent; in fact, plenty of mainstream viewers seem to prefer the changes that have been made: 

"Still the best fantasy show going right now, the Witcher Season 2 delivers," says user "S W". "Once again Henry Cavill really does carry the show with his splendid rendition of Geralt of Rivia. The writing went in a slightly different direction this season, but I was overall pleased with the end result. Now to wait for Season 3."

Our Official Review of The Witcher Season 2 agrees with that sentiment. The show is now streaming on Netflix.