REVIEW Mythic Quest: Everlight
The second special episode of the Apple TV+ comedy series is hilariously heartwarming.
Ahead of the debut of season 2, scheduled for May 7, Apple TV+ released a special episode of Mythic Quest (officially listed as the eleventh of season 1, even though it technically is its own thing). It is the second special the show has produced, and in both cases such a choice made perfect sense narratively and thematically.
For those in need of a refresher, Mythic Quest is a workplace comedy that takes place at a videogame company (the subtitle of the first season, Raven’s Banquet, refers to the new expansion of the company’s flagship game). It premiered, with all nine episodes at once (a departure from Apple’s usual approach), on February 7, 2020, i.e. roughly a month before the whole world went into lockdown.
While figuring out how to proceed with the already commissioned second season, the team put together a special episode called Quarantine, showing how everyone was coping – or not, in some cases – in these troubled times. It was the episode that truly embodied the series’ potential for greatness, the (unplanned) culmination of a storytelling path that featured its fair share of genre tropes – conventions, casual workplace sexism – but also gradually unearthed a more humane core (see the heartfelt moment where main character Ian reveals he spells his first name “Eye-an” to distance himself from his abusive father).
Everlight – named after a celebration that occurs in the game and at MQ headquarters on a yearly basis – marks the return of the staff to the office. Everyone is back, save for head writer C.W. Longbottom (F. Murray Abraham), who drops in remotely as a precaution (a plot development that, based on what we’ve seen so far, will continue in the regular season). It’s a time for joy, although there are still some issues to deal with, especially when a few people take the traditional tournament part of the evening more seriously than anticipated.
From the get-go, the episode’s purpose is to make us feel good and forget the woes of the world – a task that is easily achieved by having none other than Anthony Hopkins narrate the opening sequence, which sets up the Everlight storyline within the game. The Welsh actor’s soothing tones add a peculiar warmth to the epic text, setting the stage for a special that is all about camaraderie, with a sense of normalcy kicking in as everyone sets foot inside the MQ building (granted, your emotional response will depend on how you feel about these characters in general).
Eleven episodes in, the regular cast members are perfectly comfortable in their roles. In fact, casting has always been the show’s core strength, even as it was figuring out how to balance broad comedy and sincerity in the early episodes, with some choices being self-referential (Abraham in full Salieri mode as the self-appointed underappreciated genius) and others brilliantly counterintuitive (Danny Pudi as the money guy who doesn’t give much of a damn about nerd culture or fun in general).
It's 31 minutes of happiness, with the added layer of delicious irony that comes with a streaming platform – chief among the entities that actually thrived during lockdown – telling us that everything will be ok soon. And while we wait, I will happily watch every minute of the next batch of episodes, less than three weeks from now. Huzzah!
Mythic Quest: Everlight (USA 2021, 31 minutes)
Director: Rob McElhenney
Writer: Ashly Burch
Cast: Rob McElhenney, Ashly Burch, Jessie Ennis, Imani Hakim, David Hornsby, Charlotte Nicdao, Danny Pudi, F. Murray Abraham
Distributor: Apple TV+ (streaming)