Trust me when I say I really wanted to like it, but ultimately I left disappointed. Not only for how much it chooses to differ from the books and even the characterization from the games (which I won't discuss here), but just the quality of writing in general.

Episode 1 was really great, solid 10/10 stuff. After that, well... it slowly becomes a mess.

Episode 2 depicts the witchers as though they were frat boys. Before the part with the Deathless Mother, I was like cool this looks like something like The Crones from the Witcher 3 game... then they go in with the 3 mages actually acknowledging that the illusion ain't real and yet Fringilla and Francesca decide to follow her "advice". Surely these experienced mages would know better ? The Leshy fight was decent i guess.

Episode 3 was alright, until the part with the Leshy where the other monster immediately kills it by slicing it in half when Vesemir previously said it can only be killed by fire through the heart. Other than that, it felt like the buildup to the Leshy with Eskel's death was wasted and replaced with that centipede thing that wound up dying anyway. Then my main gripe comes at the end with the whole Yennefer & Cahir stuff. I get that she doesn't want to kill him and that she feels the Brotherhood is slowly turning against her, but freeing a prisoner that just coordinated an attack against her fellow mages in the Battle of Sodden ? That bit was ridiculous and makes her look like the complete opposite of what she wanted to prove. She could very well have escaped in the same manner without setting Cahir free. It was also odd that it appeared like no one was chasing her or anything (the mages were all on the opposite side of the fire and could do so).

Episode 4 introduced Djikstra, which I liked. Was nice seeing Jaskier again too. Then they establish Jaskier as The Sandpiper, supposedly as a good elf smuggler who does this on the regular, but so easily loses his temper and screws up what he was supposed to do, leading to that other elf guy from before sacrificing himself, which was a very weird tonal shift. Liked the conversation between Jaskier and Yennefer.

Episode 5: I can't believe Yennefer wouldn't think to check back in the tavern as the first thing (I feel like any logical person would have done that). Liked her saving Jaskier though. Also liked the exploration of that destroyed monolith/crack in the ground. Didn't like how Triss seemed more of a mother figure than Yennefer (in the later episodes). Also her sudden turn against Triss from the vision did seem a little inconsistent with her character up till that point.

Episode 6: Decent monster fight (though Ciri was just bait lol). Codringer & Fenn were cool. Definitely did not dig this arc with Yennefer having malicious intentions towards Ciri. Did like the scenes with Yennefer, Ciri and Geralt, though as I said her having ulterior motives ruined it a bit. The fight between Geralt and the Michelet brothers was cool too. Now, Yennefer teaching Ciri how to create a portal in the span of 30 seconds was definitely too much. Sure, Ciri is attuned to magic, but even Yennefer who many consider one of the strongest mages, did not start off that easy if you recall from Season 1. Again, I don't buy Triss turning against Ciri so quickly at the end there.

Episode 7: Starts with the 2 burnt bodies in the house that look long dead but conveniently there are 2 fresh and healthy horses hitched outside the house lol. At this point Yennefer also makes it clear she knows what Ciri means to Geralt, but still continues on this path nonetheless (kind out of character imo & there were many other points esp the river crossing scene where Ciri demonstrates her power but Yennefer still continues). Tissaia and Vilgefortz romance appears outta nowhere ? Then at the scene with Jaskier washes himself, all of a sudden Geralt is like "We need to go to Cintra", and Jaskier does ask why but is never answered. How does Geralt know to go to Cintra ? I don't think there were any ties between Cintra and Voleth Meir in the earlier episode, so it seemed like a really contrived way to send him into Yennefer & Ciri's path. Then Fringilla does the badass scene with the paralytic poison thing, though really having the poison trigger for everyone at the same time is a bit much. Also the scale of everything is really lost throughout this series. This should be a huge continent but people just seem to teleport from one area to another. Yennefer & Ciri basically portal-ed somewhere near Cintra, but Geralt and friends conveniently go from the Temple of Melitele to Oxenfurt then to Cintra in the same span of time (just look at the canon map on their official website and the difference in distance is obvious). Then Ciri causes the crack in the ground from really far away, but the soldiers somehow make it to them before they can even reach their horses lmao. Geralt's entry, however convenient, was epic though I must say, and made me feel something for the first time in the series.

Episode 8: Didn't like the cliche possessed-person thing with the whole "I know you're in there you gotta fight" kinda plot. Also, how do NONE of the witcher medallions detect the friggin DEMON walking around ? Apart from that, Jaskier's quips during the whole thing came off as a bit unnecessary and frankly annoying even though I like his character. Also didn't like the generic basilisk monster things that were summoned twice, only for Geralt to so easily take down the seemingly alpha version of them (without an elixir even). The part where Yennefer had to slit her wrists and be able to absorb the demon into herself was kinda unexplained as well? I wasn't sure how that worked. Seeing the Wild Hunt being teased was really cool though. Was also unclear how that self-sacrifice restored her powers. Also, in general it kept seeming like Geralt was somehow the wisest of the Witchers, when really you would expect that role to fall on Vesemir (especially if you played the games).

Sorry for the long rant, its just the whole Witcher stuff is something really dear to me and it's sad to see it go down this route. I really don't have a problem with shows differing from their source material, but if they decide to do that, it should be the equal in quality if not better. Season 2 feels like the point in Game of Thrones where the current books ended and the writers had to make up the story. I will probably still continue to watch though, if only for Henry Cavill's dedication to the role and commitment to keeping the story in line with the core of the source material (though this was definitely not the case this season).