Let’s get one thing out of the way: if you have enjoyed Seasons 1 and 2 of Netflix’s The Witcher, then Season 3 will probably work for you. The fact of the matter is that this is the same show as it has been since the start; it continues the story from where it left off at the end and advances the relationships between the characters we have come to love in meaningful ways. If you want to go into this series as blind as possible and know whether or not you will like it, the answer is almost certainly yes.

Season 2 left Geralt (Henry Cavill), Yennifer (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan) on the run. Yennifer is teaching Ciri to control the magic that courses through her elder blood, but every time they stop to make a home, it only lasts so long. Someone seeking to exploit Ciri’s blood shows up, and they are forced to leave again. In case that wasn’t enough, Geralt is still not speaking to Yennifer after the events of last season, despite them now living together as a makeshift family.

This running and hiding isn’t sustainable, so they make plans – with the help of friends we’ve met along the way – to confront the leaders and politics of the continent head-on and forge some livable peace. In addition to the many groups of people chasing Ciri, a hidden figure is pursuing her for their own ends that Geralt begins to discover as the season progresses. To say the season is rife with intrigue would be an understatement.

Now entirely abandoning the timeline shenanigans that made the first season both clever and divisive, the story plays out as a more standard quest and mystery. Herein lies the one problem for this critic: despite the acting, production, and writing all being to the same standard as before, it’s harder getting into the story, at least at first. There isn’t much new here, and the conspiracy plot is one we have seen a million times before, right down to the “magic blood” trope of so many films of the 2010s.

Thankfully, these five episodes come together satisfyingly as all the plots coalesce toward the final episode, which plays out a massive party with multiple plot threads and character interactions from multiple angles and perspectives. The episode does a great job of creatively disentangling characters’ pasts and presents, their motivations, and just enough red herrings that the inevitable cliffhanger will likely catch you off guard.

There isn’t much else to say. Cavill, Chalotra, and Allan all slip back into their roles like a comfortable pair of shoes. Returning supporting players like MyAnna Burning, Graham McTavish, and Joey Batey are all reliably good too. Batey’s Jaskier, in particular, gets way more of a character arc this season than he did in Seasons 1 or 2 but, unfortunately, there’s no new total banger of a song this year.

It feels like this season will be made or broken by the final three episodes, releasing in late July. That’s not to say that it isn’t good, just that it doesn’t offer anything as new or compelling as the first two seasons did. A proper ending might supply those things. Again, the show is well-made and well-acted, and there’s a lot of care involved from the people who need to care. If nothing else, it’s never not fun to hear Cavill growl his way through Geralt’s dialogue or any of the action scenes. The effects, hair, makeup, and costuming teams also continue to outdo themselves. There is plenty to like in these five episodes, but the real meat of the season is yet to come.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzS8Ao0H6Co]

The Witcher Season 3, Volume 1 is now streaming on Netflix.