‘Side Quest’ Review: Apple TV+ Anthology Is A Pleasant But Aimless Ramble Through The ‘Mythic Quest’ Universe

If there’s One Thing Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest Loves, It’s A Detour. This was been True Since the Very First Season, Whoa Paused Midway Through for a One-Off about Two Characters We Hadnn’T Met Before and Haven’t Seen Since. I Remoned so on subsequent seasons that Devoted Entire Episodes to Detailing the Backstories of Members from the Core Ensemble, or Catching Up with a Minor Character Weng.

Now It Extends All The Way to The Series’ First Spinoff, Side Quest. As the cute title might suggest, this is essentally a Mythic Quest that’s nothing But Those Standalone Chapters – That Steps Well Outside MQ to Explore The Other Corners of the Show’s Universe, One Quirky Tale at A Time. But As It Turns Out, A Detour’s Only a Detour WHEN THERE’S A SET PATH TO BE DEVIATING from. Without One, It’s Just An Aimless, if Largely Pleasant, Wander.

Created by Mythic Quest Vets Ashly Burch, John Howell Harris and Katie Mcelhenney, Side Quest begins in a place that will be Familiar to fans of it predecessor. The Premiere, “Song and Dance,” is the most overly Mythic Quest-Y Entry of the Season’s Four Half-Hours, to the Point WHERE IT Feels Less Like The Start of A New Project Than A LEFTOVER SEGMENT FROM The OLD ONE.

IT FOCUSES ON A Character We Already Know (Derek Waters’ Perpetuly Put-Put-Put-Put Art Director Phil), and Features a Cameo by An Already Existation Lead (Rob Mcelhenneyeye Ever-More-Unreasonable Demands). Plot-Wise, Is Another Variation on the Well-Trod “Mq Staffer HAS NO SENSE OF WORK-Life Balance ”Formula. IT EVEN TIES DIRECTLY INTO MAINLINE Mythic Quest by Showing Us The Other Side of A Phone Call We’d Seen Referencyd A FEW Weeks Earlier on that Other Series.

But the fact that it begins with Phil on vacation with his beautify and patient But IncreASING FRUSTRATED GIRLFRIEND (Anna Konkle), Rather Than in the Office, is a a aubtle But Crue. While a typical Mythic Quest Arc Might See An Employee’s Workday derailed by their Personal Issues, this choice subtly reframs the Dynamic so the job beans the most Imping on the Parts of Phil’s I The Opening Argument in What Will Turn Out to Be A Recurring Thesis For Side Quest: the idea that there might be more to life than this game.

In that vein, the Third Outing, “Fugue,” Serves Up Another Account of An Artist Nearly Undone by Her Devotion to Her Career – This Time A Cellist, Sylvie (Annaamarie Kasper), Buckerii) LANDING A DREAM Job with The Mythic Quest Touring Orchestra. Parts Two and Four Jump Over to the Consumer Side to Visit with Fans, But Place The Emphasis Less on Their Love of the Game Thanksa.

If the broader themes don’h vary Much, Thought, the style do. Side Quest‘s anthology structure-none of these self-Conted Arcs Have Anything to Do With The Other, and Aside from “Song and Dance” have Little Connection to Mainline Mythic Quest – Frees It to Experiment with Form and Tone, to Agreeably Varied Effect.

The Fourth in this Quartet, “The Last Raid,” Follows Team Dab Queef, A Group of High School Buddies Gathered for a Long-Overdue Play Session. Lightly echoing Mythic Quest‘s 2020 Standout “Quarantine,” IT Plays Out Completely Over a Screen-We’re Mistly Watching In-Game Footage of Avatars Battling Monsters while Bicker Overls. Faces in Video Chat Mode. The Plot Becomes A Testament to the Power of Such Digital Spaces to Bring People Together, But Also Their Limitations: In the End, Despite The Best Effrts of Team Leader Devon (Van Croby) Virtual Watering Hole Can Keep Together A Friend Group That’s Been Drifting APART IRL.

And episode two, “Pull List,” Feels so Much Like Its Own Thing that It Might As Well Be A Backdoor Pilot for a Whole Other Mythic Quest Spinoff. Written by Leann Bowen and Javier Scott and Directed by Mo Marable, It’s A Hangout Comedy Set Within a Comic Shop Owned by the Dedicated But exhausted janae (shalita Grant).

Her Customers Represent A Lively Cross-Section of the Geek Community-Brash MISFIT CERRY (Bria Samoné Henderson), The Thirsst Trap Cosplayer Mike (Rome Flynnnnnn) They serve up a specially black take on the Nord Culture while Also Finding A Diverse Array of Opinions and Tastes with that Purview. While Its Comedy Can Occasonally Veer Too Mannered, With Chunks of Dialogue that Feel Like Repurped Bits from A Stand-Up Set, It’s Refreshing to Get Such-Clear-Cut. I Also Simply Fun to Kick Back and Hang Out As this Group Argues Over Who’s Got The Most Cred or Riffs on WHich Characters. DougPiccolo from Dragon Ball Zthe teletubbies because they ‘a group of friends Singing, Dancing, Living Their Best Life – It’s Basically Living Single“).

But if “Pull List” repressents the most promising of what Side Quest have to Offer, It Also Highlights of the Oddness of this Enterprise.

On One Hand, Is Endearing How Keen Mythic Quest is to get to Know the More Obscuure Recesses of It Broader Universe. On the Other, It’s Not Always Clear What these Yarns Gain Creatiely from Being Positiored As Mythic Quest Spin-Offs, Particularly Who (Unlike Alt-Histories Like For all mankind or Outright Fantasies Like Marvel) The Show’s Reality Isn’t Much Different from Our Own. A Standout Like “Pull List” works Well Enough on it own that tenuos link to the Original Property Sems Unnecossary. Meanwhile, A Sweet But Thinly Conceived Entry Like “Fugue” Doesn’T Feel Richer Just Because Sylvie and Her Colleagues Theoretically Breathe.

The best of Mythic Quest‘s detours have the ones that have had deened the Main Narrative’s themes or the people with. “A Dark Quiet Death” distilled and refrakted ITS Central Ideas About Art Versus Commerce. “BackStory!” or “Sarian” Expanded Our Understanding Not Just of the Characters at Their Center But The Pasions and Tensions they Bring with Them Into Their.

Side QuestPresumable, Means to do the same. But The Distance It Puts Between Itself and Its Parent Proves As Much A Curse As A Blessing. Siloed Off Into A Separate Realm, These Odds and Ends Struggle to Find Much of a Way Forward on Their Own.