Discovering your work/life stability has been a buzz-phrase lengthy sufficient that merely mentioning the phrase “boundaries” is sufficient to ship anybody listening sprinting again to their awful job or horrible residence life. “I do know I work an excessive amount of! I do know I don’t spend sufficient time with my family and friends! Whats up, welcome to capitalism — now cease telling me to ‘discover stability’ prefer it’s a misplaced pet or one thing else that truly exists.”
However, expensive readers, what for those who actually have been empowered sufficient to realize such stability? What if the problem of balancing work and life wasn’t sensible, however psychological? What for those who — now bear with me right here — love your job a lot it turns into your life? What for those who actually love your co-workers, too? What for those who get a lot achievement out of doing what pays the payments that it’s unattainable to think about doing the rest? Loads of weary souls crunching numbers in barren cubicles could dream of such a possibility, however stability isn’t solely mandatory if you have to work greater than it’s best to. It’s additionally very important if you need to work greater than it’s best to.
For the cheery staff at “Mythic Quest,” wanting something aside from a profitable profession isn’t only a low precedence, it’s additionally a sensible impossibility. In any case, their jobs — as programmers, inventive administrators, and numerous different workers positions behind a massively profitable on-line role-playing sport — create the setting and narrative of the collection. Sufficient of them have to like what they do for the comedy to click on and for the story to attach. If Ian (Rob McElhenney) or Dana (Imani Hakim) abruptly didn’t need to make video video games anymore, it could be like Leslie Knope giving up on authorities work, Larry Sanders leaving late-night TV, or Dennis Reynolds abandoning Paddy’s Pub for household life in North Dakota. The office comedy simply wouldn’t work anymore.
In order that’s precisely the impassable path “Mythic Quest” fearlessly treks in Season 4. After studying the best way to respect one another’s boundaries on the finish of final season (which first premiered in January 2023), Ian and Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao) set out as soon as once more to construct a brand new enlargement for his or her MMORPG. However the place their previous obstacles have been vocational — establishing an equal working partnership, deciding to department out into a brand new sport, and re-establishing how their equal working partnership can truly, you understand, work — now the duo faces an outdoor risk of the non-public selection. Poppy has a boyfriend. And what she will get from him isn’t one thing Ian can provide her. Heck, it’s not even one thing Poppy knew she wished.
Sure, a kind of wants is intercourse, which Poppy relishes along with her new beau Storm (Chase Yi) however can’t think about getting from Ian with out retching up her green-flavored Massive Gulp. No, a romantic relationship for his or her platonic companions is a non-starter, some extent “Mythic Quest” emphatically makes simply sufficient occasions (and with simply sufficient humor to make every repetition humorous). However her different wants are extra nuanced. Spending time with Storm opens Poppy as much as new views, concepts, and avenues. She’s nonetheless the identical Poppy, however abruptly she’s distracted from the very factor she’s been absolutely, fortunately invested in for many of her grownup life: Mythic Quest.
This delicate however seismic change creates fairly an issue for Ian. He’s dedicated to respecting Poppy’s boundaries with a view to be one of the best inventive companion he could be, however that leaves him feeling out of the loop when she not desires to spend all her time working. What occurred to the Poppy whose model of an “early evening” was going residence after 10 p.m.? What occurred to the Poppy who was always obtainable, listening to his massive concepts and turning them into (digital) actuality? What occurred to the Poppy who he lastly discovered the best way to work with?
The quick reply is she’s lastly exploring a facet of herself that doesn’t contain Ian, doesn’t contain “Mythic Quest,” and doesn’t actually contain “work,” at the very least as she’s come to know it. Poppy is altering, which could be a problem when Ian very a lot desires every thing to remain the identical. The stress between them is rooted within the unknown; in breaking what’s already working with a view to uncover one thing new; and it’s a philosophy “Mythic Quest” has all the time embraced, even whereas producing a comforting, endlessly rewatchable sitcom.
Whether or not it’s the quarantine episode that was shot and launched throughout the early days of COVID, the tone-shifting departure episodes that gained acclaim each season, or constructing off these experiments to launch a full-blown episodic anthology spinoff collection (“Facet Quest,” premiering March 26), “Mythic Quest” isn’t a sitcom content material with coasting. Sure, the collection is tightly scripted, inviting in its tone and composition, wealthy with charming performances, and usually, reliably hilarious. But it surely additionally simply retains pushing the boundaries of what these sturdy attributes can help. Season 4 is simply as refreshing as earlier seasons. It’s simply additionally taking a basic dynamic and bending it so far as it might, whereas rising the principle characters in thrilling, relatable methods. (As if “Mythic Quest” is acknowledging the appreciable problem it’s set for itself, Poppy’s preliminary process is to “code braveness into the sport.”)
So if you end up enamored with how “Severance” illustrates the unattainable pursuit of blissful and wholesome Innies and Outies, then you definately owe it to your self to take a look at “Mythic Quest,” too. One’s a drama, the opposite a comedy. One’s science-fiction, the opposite actuality lite. One is firmly rooted within the perspective of people that hate their job (or ought to), whereas the opposite focuses on staff who love what they do. (That being mentioned, I think about Mythic Quest’s artwork division would extra simply see themselves in “Severance.”) The MDR staff exist in a cage made by Lumon and entered into by their different half. The Mythic Quest staff function in a cage, too, however a gilded one in all their very own making, the place they maintain the important thing. The severed staff can’t simply give up, and the MQ staff doesn’t need to give up. Each teams need the identical factor — the liberty and help to observe their very own desires, out and in of the workplace — however neither state of affairs provides a easy resolution.
Taken collectively, the 2 exhibits strike a pleasant stability. One is only a lot funnier. And are available on now — don’t you deserve a pleasant break?
Grade: A-
“Mythic Quest” Season 4 premieres Wednesday, January 29 on Apple TV+. New episodes might be launched weekly by way of the finale on March 26.