Side Quest is an anthology spinoff of Mythic Quest; it was created by MQ star Ashly Burch. The four-episode first season concentrates on staff members we may have seen briefly on the main show, but it also gives viewers stories about fans who are dedicated to everything MQ.
SIDE QUEST: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A screen full of drawings of Mythic Quest game characters. Then the desktop switches to loving sketches of a woman.
The Gist: The loving look at the drawings is interrupted by a call from Ian Grimm (Rob McElhenny). He’s calling Phil (Derek Waters), MQ’s art director; Ian loves the work Phil has done on a new dancing game — Mythic Dance. He needs Phil to do some work. One problem: Phil is in Hawaii, on a long-anticipated vacation with his girlfriend Maude (Anna Konkle).
As Ian keeps interrupting Phil’s vacation, and telling him he needs to fly immediately to Japan to meet with people there, Maude, who until now has put up with Phil’s dedication to work, decides to finally put her foot down. He wants to spend more time with her — he’s even thinking of proposing — but Phil is getting in his head that he’s not good enough for her. So when Ian asks him to make hats for the dancing orcs, he starts sketching hats.
That story is in the first episode of Side Quest. In the second episode, Janae (Shalita Grant), who owns a comic book shop, has to deal with five customers fighting over the only copy of the latest MQ issue that she receives. Cherry (Bria Henderson) fiercely and loudly defends her favorite titles; Dominic (Ramon Reed) is a teen who has a crush on Janae; Mike (Rome Flynn) is a handsome cosplayer; and Jared (Leonard Robinson) is a stepdad who need to get in good with his wife’s son. Duncan (Gary Kraus) comes in for his hentai fix, but is also interested. There’s also Earl (William Stanford Davis), who’s been there since the store was a strip club, and he crushes all challengers at Magic The Gathering.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Side Quest definitely has the same irreverent tone as its parent show, Mythic Quest.
Our Take: Of the four episodes of Side Quest, only one deals with characters we’ve seen on the parent show before. The other three are stories about fans of something in the MQ universe, whether it’s one of the games or the comic or something else. We watched the two we described above, and we found that, while the episode with McElhenny, Waters and Konkle was funny, the episode that starred Grant was funny and heartwarming.
It might be because the episode explores what being a Black comic book fan is like, including being treated crappily by the vendors who only sent Jenae one copy of the latest MQ book. But it’s also about a place that fosters a community that wasn’t there before, as we hear Earl mention to everyone as they all fight for that single issue, not wanting to get spoiled by their online friends.
Or it could have been that, instead of seeing the egotistic Ian making someone else’s life miserable, we see the impact that MQ has on people outside the company. It shows that the efforts Ian, Poppy and everyone in that office to make MQ and its associated titles as good as possible is really building an outside community that they may not fully appreciate.
Sex and Skin: None in the first two episodes.
Parting Shot: Phil finally decides between Ian and Maude.
Sleeper Star: Bria Henderson was hilarious in the second episode as Cherry. But her years on The Good Doctor allowed her to play both the funny and serious sides of Janae’s best and worst customer, who just wants a place where she feels she fits in.
Most Pilot-y Line: Ian seems to be very attached to the glittering diamond studs in his years; they even provided inspiration to create Mythic Dance. But the closeups of how they’ve infected his earlobe were just gross. Funny, but gross.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Side Quest gives fans of Mythic Quest a funny look at how the universe of the title video game has made an impact on its fans and employees outside of the core we’ve seen on the main series.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Side Quest’ On Apple TV+, A ‘Mythic Quest’ Spinoff Featuring Stories About Staff Members And ‘MQ’ Fans appeared first on Decider.
