Mythic Quest is in the full swing of its second season on Apple TV+. Robert McElhenney (of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) executive produces and stars in the comedy series about the world's most popular online role-playing game. Mythic Quest is really an office sitcom set in a video game studio. McElhenney has stressed that the show isn't just for gamers, and the second season highlights that point. Video game literacy isn't a requirement to enjoy the show, though gamers will catch fun references throughout the episodes.
Apple TV+ aired the first two episodes of the new season last Friday, May 7th. "Titan's Rift" and "Grouchy Goat" gave Mythic Quest a strong start. The episodes highlighted some of the minor characters from the first season and played up the character-comedy aspect of the show. While neither was a high watermark for Mythic Quest, the episodes promised plenty of great things to come.
The third episode comes to Apple TV+ on Friday, May 14th. It dives headfirst into deeper character issues and mines them for comedy. Episode three is the funniest of the season so far, but there still seems to be more waiting just around the corner.
#YumYum
Episode three, "#Yumyum" centers on the competing leadership styles of Poppy Li (Charlotte Nicdao) and Ian Grimm (McElhenney). The episode opens with the co-creative directors planning a new expansion for the Mythic Quest video game. Also attending the meeting are Brad Bakshi (Danny Pudi) and David Brittlesbee (David Hornsby). When Poppy and Ian decide to split the expansion into separate halves, David gets flashbacks to his divorce. He wants to dive back into the dating world, and Brad decides to help.
Pudi and Hornsby get the biggest laughs of the episode. The overconfident Brad walking David through modern dating is rich comedy fodder. The first two episodes of this new season seemed to hint at David struggling to become more of a boss in the office. "#YumYum", surprisingly, turns the character back into a comedic punching bag. Even when Brad's dating scheme decimates David's confidence, the moment is still played for comedy.
Mythic Quest goes to great lengths to humanize most of its characters. The show's ability to summon empathy for everyone on-screen is part of what makes it so special. With that in mind, its treatment of David Brittlesbee feels out of place, but there's no denying how hilarious all of it is. Hornsby has some of the best comedic timing and acting chops on the show. Mythic Quest always goes for the laugh with his character, but it always lands the joke, too.
As David struggles to find love, Ian and Poppy manage separate teams working on a new expansion for their game. Ian's utter disregard for the feelings of his co-workers will be uncomfortable for some and hilarious for others. Any Sunny fans will feel right at home in Ian's scenes which are perfect examples of "awful person comedy". For her part, Poppy struggles to do anything but recreate her boss's management style. Nicdao does an incredible McElhenney impression as she yells at her underlings, but the show frames Poppy becoming Ian as a darkly comic tragedy.
Better Every Minute
Mythic Quest pulls comedy from its characters' worst moments. At the same time, the show never loses sight of how much better everyone could be. Near the end of the episode, Ian and Poppy almost share a moment of genuine vulnerability. Unsatisfied with his half of the expansion, Ian goes to Poppy to ask about bringing the halves back together. Poppy, also struggling with her expansion ideas, more or less agrees to "get back together" with Ian before a new catastrophe sends them into the divorce-like fight David feared from the beginning.
The "divorce" moment is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. Most of the time Mythic Quest isn't doing comedy for comedy's sake. The show insists on having a cost to every joke and generally refuses to let characters be anything less than fully human. In Sunny, everyone is an archetype. In Mythic Quest, Ian can go from irredeemably mean one moment to painfully vulnerable the next.
That insistence on humanity is the show's greatest strength and weakness. It's what makes Mythic Quest stand out from other sitcoms, and even what makes the show more than just a sitcom. At the same time, it makes moments that are entirely joke-focused, like a negotiation with C.W. Longbottom's publisher in "#YumYum", feel somewhat unsatisfying.
Mythic Quest is at its best when it combines the hilarity of something like Sunny with the heart-on-its-sleeve earnestness of last season's "A Dark Quiet Death". Even when it misses the mark, the show is still funnier than most sitcoms out there. Luckily for its viewers, Mythic Quest comes closer to perfecting its combination with every passing episode.
Mythic Quest airs on Apple TV+ on Fridays, now through June 25th.