THE WITCHER Producer Puts Blame on American Audiences for Show's Simplified Writing and Plot

The Witcher gets a lot of criticism from fans for its writing, how it regularly deviates from the source material, and how the plot lines have been simplified and dumbed down. Well, it turns out that one of the reasons for this is because apparently, American audiences can’t handle deeper more complex stories. Catering the series to American audiences is at the forefront of the creative team’s mind.

According to producer Tomek Baginski they want the show to cater to a wider, American-heavy audience. He admits that sometimes certain things are changed and watered down so that the show appeals to the largest audience possible. He notes that "the higher level of nuance and complexity" the less likely it's going to engage the broader target audience.

"When a series is made for a huge mass of viewers, with different experiences, from different parts of the world, and a large part of them are Americans, these simplifications not only make sense, they are necessary. It's painful for us, and for me too, but the higher level of nuance and complexity will have a smaller range, it won't reach people. Sometimes it may go too far, but we have to make these decisions and accept them."

I love how he throws American audiences under the bus for their silly creative decisions. It’s so funny because a lot of American audiences are the ones complaining about these things in the series! I don’t know about you, but I want a higher level of nuance and complexity! That’s what helps make a great story!

Hey Baginski, please don’t simplify things because you think Americans can’t handle a complex story, go ahead and go nuts! It doesn’t have to be “painful” for you, you can really make the show that you want to make, if you really want to. American audiences will be fine and appreciate it.

He does go on to say that there are other reasons that they have to make certain decisions. Sometimes it's the result of production issues that lead to plot changes and rewrites. He explains:

"Sometimes the changes are the result of production chaos, because, for example, an actor fell ill and his plot needs to be edited and rewritten within a few hours so that it can be shot the next day, because this is not a plot for which the whole production machine will stop. There are a lot of understandable reasons why controversial decisions are made, but the viewer does not have this context, so sometimes it hurts because something was better in the book."

That kind of stuff makes sense, I get that! What I don’t get is the fact they feel they need to dumb things down for American audiences. That’s silly to me, but if they are thinking that, that must be how most Hollywood thinks!

Via: Redanian Intelligence.