Review: Henry Cavill aces being a fantasy dad in solid second season of Netflix's 'The Witcher'

Henry Cavill is your new fantasy daddy.

The former Superman continues his quest warming dragon-loving folks’ hearts as stoic monster hunter Geralt of Rivia in the second eight-episode season (streaming Friday, ★★★ out of four) of Netflix’s enjoyably bingeable “The Witcher” series.

The show found a following as a witty and gory B-movie sword-and-sorcery adventure based on the Andrzej Sapkowski novels – more “Xena: Warrior Princess” than “Game of Thrones,” with one heck of an infectious bard tune (“Toss a Coin to Your Witcher”). This “Witcher” go-round, the storytelling structure and vibe get a twist toward the conventional as its hulking, yellow-eyed central warrior becomes more protective father than beast hunter.

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The first “Witcher” season, set in a fantasy landscape called the Continent, followed  three main characters – Geralt, mysteriously magical Princess Ciri (Freya Allan) and powerful sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) – through separate intertwining nonlinear timelines. They finally coalesced in the season finale as Geralt, tied by destiny to Ciri, finally meets this young girl with the power of foresight, and Yennefer, Geralt’s quarter-elf love interest caught in the middle of a war, disappears after wiping out an army using flame magic (which is quite the no-no).

After some time’s passed, Geralt and teenage Ciri travel the land with his faithful steed Roach, running into old friends and finding sanctuary in the Witchers’ mountainous keep. After losing her entire family and kingdom in Cintra, Ciri seeks to find her way and understand her abilities. But Ciri’s also pursued by several forces, so Geralt juggles keeping her safe on multiple levels while also dealing with an uptick in new deadly monsters.

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Meanwhile, the rest of the Continent’s in a time of political tumult. Elves, driven from their land by the Northern Kingdoms apparently due to racism, fall in with the aggressive Nilfgaardian Empire from the south. Yennefer turns up and is torn between various sides of the conflict, reuniting with fellow spellcaster Fringilla (Mimi Ndiweni) and finding an uneasy alliance with on-the-run Nilfgaardian army commander Cahir (Eamon Farren).

The shift to everyone being in the same time and space eliminates a lot of exposition, as we know the main “Witcher” personalities now, and the series builds out its mythology as more of a usual fantasy show: Everything’s played a lot straighter, and it’s missing the hot-blooded camp quality the series initially embraced. The show at its core is still pretty enjoyable for a dark fantasy, and the reappearance of rock-star tunesmith Jaskier (Joey Batey), plus new characters like the flame-conjuring rogue mage Rience (Chris Fulton), help in that regard.

Yennefer, a hunchbacked girl turned into a sexy witch in return for giving up the ability to conceive, was by far the most interesting personality of the first season, though she takes a back seat in the second. (Her role in the narrative gradually builds back up over the course of the first six episodes). Instead, the focus is more on Ciri’s journey: There’s a familiar coming-of-age element, but Allan shines as a youngster trying to figure out her own agency vs. prophesied destiny, all while surrounded by large winged bat-monsters, cursed boar dudes and other weirdness.

Of course, Geralt is a magnet for various odd creatures, and Cavill is top notch when slicing and dicing various things and people. It’s the quieter moments, however, like when Geralt’s having a heart-to-heart dad chat with Ciri, that the actor gets to showcase the beating heart of a guy who’s not supposed to have a human side.

With an onslaught of fantasy fare vying to be the next “Thrones,” from “The Wheel of Time” to the anticipated “Lord of the Rings” series, toss a coin to Cavill for keeping it real.