By: Eammon Jacobs, Huw Fullerton
The Witcher season one was a little divisive – while millions tuned in and it became one of Netflix‘s biggest ever hits, there was some criticism levelled at its confusing timeline structure, as well as a few unlikely plot turns over the course of the adventure.
Now, in season two things are more straightforward, with everything taking place on the same timeline – but that doesn’t mean The Witcher has forgotten the backlash, poking some gentle fun at its critics in one episode of the new season.
First, some background. With The Witcher season two now available on Netflix, audiences have finally been able to see how Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer, Jaskier and the rest of The Witcher cast all cope with the continuously dangerous landscape of the Continent after the dramatic ending to season one. One of the many changes in the second batch of episodes is the fact that the Northern Kingdoms have started treating Elves with vicious cruelty.
Although not all is lost, as a mysterious individual called the Sandpiper is helping smuggle Elves to safety on ships out of Oxenfurt… Spoilers, it’s Jaskier. Jaskier is the Sandpiper. It’s a surprising step up from the self-professed “lovable lutanist.” Anyway, when the bard also helps Yennefer and Cahir out of the city, he ends up crossing paths with a jobsworth seaman who tries to get the bard to show his transit papers.
Thankfully, the bard makes the seaman realise who he is with a quick song to get out of the paper situation, how cunning. Unfortunately, the sailor has a few ideas about Jaskier’s songs which are actually many of the criticisms levelled at The Witcher season one. “It’s a bit complicated… Took me to the fourth verse to understand there were different timelines” and “That magic kiss? That was a bit cheap. I spotted the dragon reveal a mile away!” Ouch. And here we thought the dragon reveal in season one, episode six was cool.
!["MM_04_02_2021CS114SSUSIEALLNUTT-143.dng"]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2021/12/Jaskier-9e5e1db.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"MYSTERIOUS")
Jaskier actor Joey Batey told RadioTimes.com that this was a deliberate move – “It’s meta!” – before confirming the criticisms were a long-planned gag for the series from showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.
“Yeah, that’s very much Lauren going, ‘You know what? F**k you.’” he laughed.
“Most of that is in the scripts, but then myself and Lauren, on the day, we were shooting that at like four in the morning,” he added “I would start to ad-lib – particularly the insults, I very much started to go off-piste, and sort of almost Shakespearean with my insults.””
Those aforementioned insults are playfully Shakespearean to say the least, as Jaskier yells, “If you could write yourself a little song, if you could sing yourself whatever you please, but you can’t ,can you? Because you are a dockside scapegrace, a qualling feculanta, a beef-witted, hell-hated, addlepated goon…” And it just goes on from there, until one of the Elves decides to sacrifice himself so the others can escape.
Batey explained that he worked with showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich on his venomous responses, saying “I would constantly be yelling to Lauren, ‘Too much?’ And she’d be like, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ or ‘Keep going’ or ‘Do this, do that’.”
The star also added that it was “great fun” being “the mouthpiece for that.” Batey also pointed out that Hissrich’s approach actually balances well against the source material. “Lauren’s got a great number on knowing her own tone, and kind of winking at the show, in that sort of metatheatrical way – in much the same way that Mr [Andrzej] Sapkowski does.” He added, “He kind of quite frequently breaks the fourth wall, and quite frequently addresses a reader, or starts to do this sort of third-person indirect narrative stuff.”
So although The Witcher is based on Sapkowski’s novels, this is “her version that’s translating onto screen.” And the perfect character to embody that? Well. Jaskier – because of his theatrical persona, it wouldn’t work any other way.
“If I literally turn to the camera, it’s not going to work,” Batey said. “But it’s Jaskier’s way of kind of getting through life – it’s enjoying his own metatheatricality.”
He added: “I think he always just assumes he’s got an audience around him, and that’s really, really fun to play.”
The Witcher season two is streaming on Netflix now. For more, check out our dedicated Fantasy hub, our guide to the best series on Netflix or our full TV Guide.
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