As Merwyn forges an uneasy alliance to achieve her plans for Elfkind, the battle begins in Xintrea,

So the limited series ends with half a dozen more clichés and opportunities for character development missed.

It’s a real shame. From a criminally underused Dylan Moran to Lenny Henry being on screen only really to provide something for other people to do. There are some decisions and events that will make sense only if you’re aware of the lore from other parts of the universe. For example (and this is no spoiler) fire magic is not a thing in the Witcher – using fire consumes the user. Blood Origin showing someone controlling fire is used as a device to show how they’ve ‘levelled up’ only for them to not use it at all and, when a big confrontation occurs, for it to be forgotten about as quickly as it arrived.

The central battle is a valiant attempt to inject some tension into the drama but for an empire there are precious few actual citizens and, apparently, even fewer soldiers.

The contrast in both tone and sensibility between this and the main Witcher series (and even the animated Nightmare of the Wolf) is stark. The Witcher sees victories for Geralt cost something meaningful. It sees battles have weight. Neither of those things are present on Blood Origin and the dramatic contrivances are not earned.

There’s not a lot more to say except the series has gone from bad but enjoyable to downright terrible at its conclusion. The fault here is not with the actors who do a decent enough job with what they’re given. I’m not sure even the writers and showrunners can be blamed.

Given the talent on screen it feels for all the world that this was intended to be a tentpole show that got the number of episodes chopped in half and had at least that much budget taken away.

As a result the characters are given only the barest bones of life while being expected to deliver all the main emotional beats – something that’s simply not sustainable.

Verdict: So this spin off ends with a whimper and I’m not convinced we’ll see many more – not simply because Blood Origin was bad but also because the problems here seem to be as much to do with Netflix as they are with the show and that’s something no amount of talent and dedication can fix.

Rating? 5 missed opportunities out of 10.

Stewart Hotston