The penultimate episode of Mythic Quest Season 3 has arrived and one has to wonder if they always planned it out to arrive on the penultimate day of 2022. There isn't any direct ties to New Years in this episode of the hit Apple TV+ series so it seems unlikely that this is anything more than an interesting little similarity. However, the one signal that this particular show did send out on Friday was that the showrunners still understand how to make a very good installment.
That was in doubt after last week's disastrous Mythic Quest episode that was both a bit of a bummer and the least funny episode of perhaps the entire series. The third season of the show has been really up and down so far with several very good ones and several very mediocre ones. Luckily, this episode was very, very good and it is hopefully a hint that viewers are going to get more of that in the season finale next week.
Mythic Quest Gets Back To Its Roots
It's probably not coincidence that one of the reasons "The Year of Phil" was so good is that it almost directly calls back to a trick the show did all the way back in Season 1 of Mythic Quest. In "Permadeath" Poppy is sent into the motion capture studio to try and talk Ian out of doing something really dumb and after talking to him for a while, she decides to give up fighting his bad ideas and just starts doing the same kind of silly behavior.
In "The Year of Phil," it's Ian that is sent into the motion capture studio to try and talk Joe Manganiello into stopping what was a bad idea about the Mythic Quest movie. This is just the second episode that Manganiello has appeared in after first appearing in the Mythic Quest episode that was all about brunch. In that previous episode, he was signing on to play The Masked Man in the new film and in this installment he has certain ideas about the character that David truly hates. So just as he sent Poppy in to talk to Ian all those episodes ago, he sent Ian in to talk to Joe for many of the same reasons. He simply doesn't feel comfortable telling the person with the bad ideas that they're having bad ideas. And just like before, Ian ends up coming around and joining in on the bad ideas.
There is a bit of a twist form what happened in the first season of Mythic Quest and is done so as a way to show that David has grown over the course of the show. As it happens this might be the only character growth the show has seen that is actually a positive. There were only so many laughs that could be harvested from David being totally spineless and incompetent. This episode almost seems to say that out loud as Jo makes him say some things that he's been needing to say for years to various characters.
The other changes to various characters personalities since the beginning of Season 3 of Mythic Quest have been a variety of annoying. And while this installment was mostly a return to form, there was some more annoyances with what they continue to do with Dana in particular. The series has made it clear that she might be the character that might have the most growth. She's someone who went from a tester who didn't really know her place in the world to an assistant to now someone who yells at Poppy and tells her that she doesn't like her. In the process, she's become one of the more unlikeable characters on the show.
Dana's character in general was better when she was just delivering a few sarcastic lines an episode and then also realizing that she did work for Ian and Poppy. The heel turn towards being an Ian clone simply hasn't worked out. They've made several references throughout this season's run on the Apple TV+ series that she's supposed to basically be another Ian. It's never worked and continues not to work in this episode.
A Return To Form With A Few Problems
There is more than one way this was a return to the old formula that has made the show so great. Carol was back on Mythic Quest for the first time in quite a few episodes and she managed to bring her special brand of bad human resources leadership with her. This is where the title "The Year of Phil" comes into play and the show does a fantastic job of bringing back one of the funniest tangential characters. Phil, the much-maligned and much beaten down art director has his biggest part in any season.
The show also focuses a bit more on the video game industry, which has not always been a strength of Mythic Quest. Especially not this season. However, instead of really delving into video game development, it made a rather funny statement about the age of people that are generally thought to be working in the industry. Phil, who is over 40 years old, appears to be the oldest employee at the company other than David and Carol and at first he sees this as an absolute win thanks to Carol making it clear she doesn't want to have older people working there.
At first, Phil thinks this is finally the opening he can get in order to find some real success in his life. Because Phil is never supposed to have nice things, he soon finds out that his best-laid plans don't quite go the way he hoped. The episode in general does a nice job of taking advantage of a character the audience doesn't really know that much about but has seen him pop up every now and then. His comedic turns offset the one thing that still really didn't work about "The Year of Phil" which was still having Poppy and Ian at odds with one another.
New episodes of Mythic Quest debut Fridays on Apple TV+