'Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet' Episode 1: Apple TV+ show hits all the right notes in this workplace comedy
*Review contains spoilers*
Apple TV+ launched a couple of months ago with star-studded series like 'See' 'For All Mankind' and 'The Morning Show'. However, the debut was rather bleak and mind, compared to what one would expect from the Tech giant. Yet, if there was consensus on one thing, it was that Apple could bring out some unusual content, as proved in the cases of 'Little America' and 'Servant'.
Apple's latest offering, 'Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet' is slick, sharp and incisive, going by the first episode. While medical and legal dramas and sitcoms have reigned supreme, it's strange that there hasn't been much focus on the video game industry, which is a booming one. Deciding to change this around, 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' makers decided to explore the politics behind a lucrative video-game business and just have fun with it. Keeping to the tone of a workplace comedy with the usual character archetypes, 'Mythic Quest' still manages to break away from the normal office sitcoms with its own brand of humor. Moreover, it redeems the idea of gamers in popular culture and provides them with the respect they deserve.
We've usually seen gamers as geeky bespectacled men sitting in the stereotyped 'mom's basement' and playing games and having no semblance of a social life, let alone interactions beyond their immediate circle. The idea of a woman playing games has been somewhat of a novelty and unbelievable. 'Mythic Quest' changes that around. While the main character Ian Grimm (Rob McEllheney), who plays an insecure boss is determined to take all the credit, the real brains is Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao), who is trying to battle all the mansplaining men around her, without much success. She wants a shovel in the video game 'Raven's Banquet', where the players can just dig up the ground if needed. But the men around her are determined to make the shovel a weapon of murder.
Though the men are all around, the women aren't going to let go without a fight, to make their presence felt on the show. 'Mythic Quest' slyly touches on the cringey sexualisation of women characters and the constant focus on their bosoms and legs. But Poppy won't have it, especially when people try to run her ideas down.
The intriguing part of 'Mythic Quest' is that it knows that it's a show from the current era and it's keen to make the women's voices heard, and takes digs at the numerous chauvinists we see in our daily lives. One clear example is when F. Murray Abraham's character CW Longbottom dismisses Poppy's BA study of Women Studies as irrelevant.
The acting is quick, sharp and thoroughly enjoyable. The chemistry between the cast members is highly commendable and they just want to have fun in each scene. The best example being Abraham, who just seems to be having a blast in each frame that he is in.
'Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet' has already got a season 2 in queue.