Jumping the shark: Mythic Quest & Master of None
Is my boredom with these shows justified? Probably not.
Mythic Quest on Apple TV had a good first run. Their COVID-19 special which aired last year was also stellar. After all, the program’s creators (Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day) are the funny people behind It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX), a show whose signature mature subversive style of humor, while cringe-y at times also enriched our lives with an abundance of laughter and brought back into our lives Danny DeVito - urging us to show up week after week wondering what heinous antics this band of frenemies would unleash upon each other and how the gang could possibly up the ante to surpass their prior hijinks.
But that was It’s Always Sunny and this is Mythic Quest. When the latter came around, my husband and I were looking for some hearty laughs but not network sitcom-level laughs. We’re too high brow. Translation: We love dark comedy and usually the sitcom level humor doesn’t cut it. So that’s how we found Mythic Quest.
Rob McElhenney as Ian (pronounced “eye-in”), the megalomaniac Head of Creative of an uber popular video game, is that healthy balance of egotism with just enough sprinkling of humanity that you want to root for his redemption - and believe that he won’t always be this shallow but you also know better…
When he’s not sparring with the chief engineer Poppy (played by Charlotte Nicdao) who never gets the same esteem that Ian does even though she brings more raw, reputable and unharnessed talent to the table, Ian is finding ways to escape work. Poppy, the opposite of Ian in her work ethic, is a lot like Ian in other ways in while she is passionate about her work, she is also completely self-involved. While Ian is overly confident, Poppy is completely unaware of her agency or how to own it which renders her representation as almost infantilized in some ways.
The show flaunts an impressive cast where each of the actors holds their own. Of note, David Hornsby, who was also phenomenal as a loathsome swindler in Good Girls, plays Dave Brittlesbee, who in theory runs the place - he’s the Executive Producer of Mythic Quest, but is ineffectual in his position because he is so paralyzed by his own lack of confidence, especially when faced with Ian’s bravado. Still Dave is likable and a good foil for both Ian and Poppy.
In summary, watch Season 1 and the COVID-19 special (included a trailer for it below) but don’t bother with Season 2. The first episode of Season 2 barely held my interest and had my wondering, “Why bother?” This show did so much with its plot and narrative progression in its freshman run, it’s likely not going to do much better than that. What laughs are left? The show does some its best work when it focuses on Ian’s relationship with Poppy and that was less of a direct focus in the 1st episode.
The other factor in all this, which my husband swears by, is the waiting element. True what Tom Petty, crooned, “the waiting is the hardest part.” You wait too long between seasons and long enough for the next season that you fall out of love with a show and often in the interim you fall in love with other shows. Maybe I’m guilty of a little of that myself with this show.
Master of None on Netflix.
Season 3 of Master of None was not played up a whole heck of a lot. In fact, I think there was only a week of obligatory, ceremonial Netflix pomp ahead of the premiere of Season 3 which felt off the mark to me when I considered how much of a popular, beloved show it once was…well, 4 years ago.
That was before the #MeToo allegation happened where the show’s star, Aziz Ansari, was accused of sexual misconduct and he went into hiding for well, 3 years, to reflect on his actions and take a step back. He extends that step back in Season 3. He’s barely seen.
If Season 3 of Master of None is slow (unable to find its pace), dark and dreary in places, Season 1 of Master of None, was funny, smart and touching. Season 1 dealt with a certain period of time in a young adult’s life where you are figuring out your path, it’s messy and sometimes traumatic, and most of your friends are figuring out their paths too and no one is really paired up so they are your family. Your friends are your family.
Ironically, this was a line that Friends series creator David Crane, commented on in the Friends reunion now on HBO Max. What made the show appealing was the glue of friends being there for one another. In the case of Friends, the theme song repeats, “I’ll be there for you.” There’s nothing more intoxicating for young folks (and older ones) than the idea of being truly seen and accepted and having your friends be your home base, like literally.
Master of None Season 2 was a jaunt to Italy and some weird arthouse film expression that I can only assume was Ansari’s desire to pay homage to French new wave greats like Goddard and Italian neorealism cinema. I indulged it because it was Ansari’s character, Dev, embracing the shell of a dream he’d had - going to Italy, which had romanticized and where he could focus on perfecting the art of pasta making. In the end, it didn’t work out, but such is the way of dreams often times. The reality vs the build up in our heads - that clash playing out over the course of many episodes. That also felt authentic. It wasn’t a great sophomore run but it was OK.
And look, in Season 3, Master of None, does its signature, “not shying away from the uncomfortable” broaching that next phase of adulting. This time we fast forward 4 years and reality isn’t idyllic - Denise is dealing with fractures in a marriage and navigating those. Do you stick around? Do you bail? Either way, the season doesn’t play for laughs as we watch the demise of formerly an ensemble character, Denise (Lena Waithe), and her marriage to Alicia (Naomi Ackie)
We see the end of Denise’s marriage coming from the first episode on. At a dinner party where Dev and his partner (Reshmi) come over to Denise and Alicia’s house, at first, it’s all poky laughs but slowly we see play out in the mean spars between Dev and Reshmi that Dev’s relationship is broken - he and Reshmi are embittered and resent each other. And Alicia worries it’s contagious and questions the state of her own marriage and its fragility.
As the fighting reaches a fever pitch, Alicia and Reshmi go off to one corner of the house, while Denise and Dev go outside and have a heart-to-heart. This is perhaps the best moment in the entire episode and harkens back to first season in its ease. The conversation between Denise and Dev is fluid and honest.
Denise (Waithe), now a successful, upwardly mobile author living in a beautiful, rustic country home in upstate NY, asks Dev, who is not making it as an actor and living at home with his parents, why he never told her he had moved back home. Dev comments that they never talk to each other anymore and while Denise attests that she’ll always pick up the phone for him, we get the impression that Dev doesn’t feel like he can call her anymore and similarly, if Denise really wanted to, couldn’t she call Dev?
Such is the reality of the unraveling of intense early adult friendships and friends you think will always be there for you, because well, you can’t imagine ever being without them. The dissolution of those relationships doesn’t end with a bang, but with a whimper, which can be even more heartbreaking.
If Master of None Season 3 gets anything right, it’s that acknowledgement. This show was really a love story and not in the romantic sense, but in the friends’ sense. The navigating of romantic entanglements was often driving the plot but at its core home was always the place with friends, doing things together, because only they got you.
And now a little bit of TV trivia…
