Because he is not a fan of the series doesn't mean that he will do a bad job or skip on source material study. I guess I will reserve my judgment until I see a couple of episodes.
They changed their strategic direction for the show.
Go back and re-watch the first season, then try to watch the next two.
The first season is trying to compete with what HBO used to be known for: high-budget spectacles. It's like a blockbuster movie stretched out into a series. The lighting, the costumes the editing, the special effects, the casting, the writing, the sound design. It's comparable to Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, Band of Brothers, Wanda Vision, The Last of Us, Breaking Bad, the Walking Dead, the Mandalorian, American Horror Story, Westworld, etc. Of course, those shows aren't all perfect but they have high production values (or at least started that way) and were meant to be premium technical showcases. Back before the days of streaming, this was the quality of show where you'd have to pay your cable company extra to get that channel.
Immediately with season 2 of the Witcher, everything feels worse. The most obvious to me is how Yennifer went from her ridiculous outfits to dresses that look like they're on sale at Kohl's today. The lighting, the makeup, everything. It's the quality of basic daytime cable TV, the kind that is still broadcast over the air for free.
Not surprising. The issues they had with Cavill were directly related to the fact that he knew the source material and how they were fucking it up.
Especially egregious since they were extremely vocal about staying true to the source material in the books, then immediately throwing that out the window after they got the names of places, characters, and general occupations.
First season was mostly fine, but those penis armored nilfgardians...
Second season completely undermined established characters' morals. Yen acting like a 60s "irrational female character" archetype because "I want a baby", Vesemir just being OK with the prospect of creating more witchers, the way they made Eskel out to be an asshole and then just killed him...
There were even bigger structural issues than that. A good production team could make the "I want a baby" motivation work. A good production team could make changes to characters work. The show did not have a good production team.
I can't remember which season, but there was one scene where Jen takes Ciri to a bank (I think). They wanted to have the man they met with deliver a few lines of exposition explaining how he had run into Jen in the past, she had helped him, and now he was in her debt. Nothing wrong with that. It's not Shakespeare, but it's perfectly functional storytelling.
The problem was that they had Ciri being moody and bored, walking around the set and poking at props. Meanwhile Jen was sitting across the desk from the guy delivering the lines. That meant that this dude was sitting there telling Jen her own backstory.
That means that either the writers were idiots who fucked up their own blocking and nobody on set questioned the script, or somebody on set insisted on the blocking despite it making no sense. My wife is a fan of the books and games, but I'm not. Even with no knowledge of the story being adapted I could tell something was deeply wrong with how that show was being made.
Same, the first season was pretty faithful and really good. The second went off the rails.
I understood the novels needed to be changed, if you stick to the novels, you would get 4 out of 5 seasons where Geralt/yen/Ciri aren't even in the same room or ever meet up. It's a constant chase that never has a resolution and they never find her.
But they changed not just the format of the story but the characters. Yen betraying Ciri was insane and goes against her character and how she feels about Ciri
I don’t think the actor does, but the director and/or production has to. If it’s not similar to the source material just call it something else, but I do get saying “based on XYZ” makes for easier marketing.
Because they didn't want a primary source. Especially not one that would try to correct them instead of letting them make their own shitty story in the universe and destroying existing characters in the process.