As any fan of large-scale video games can tell you, many games employ literal armies of people and affect the lives of many more.Mythic Questfinds considerable comedy in the quirky interactions of game studio heads, their beautifully eccentric creatives, disconnected investors, and so on.Side Quest, a spin-off ofCharlie Day,Megan Ganz, andRob McElhenney’s flagship Apple TV+ homage to game studios, has a scant four independent episodes, each centered on a population that circles the Mythic Quest game — artists, comic fans, musicians, and gamers.
Standalone episodes aren’t unfamiliar toMythic Questfans, soSide Questmakes sense on paper, and the flexibility allows for a series of fun interludes that are a reminder of how built out theMythic Questworld can be. At the same time, the largely successful episodes are still somewhat uneven, and an anthology with a four-episode season is engaging but feels oddly truncated and inconsequential as a whole. Altogether,Side Questis a charming outing exploring facets of theMythic Questworld, but it also feels likean asterisk at the end of the flagship series' sentence rather than an entry in its own right.
What Is ‘Side Quest’ About?
UnlikeMythic Quest, which centers explicitly around a popular MMORG and the concrete team that spearheads it,Side Questfollows four independent stories, each centering around the Mythic Quest game and its extended universeof projects and merchandise. The first, “Song and Dance,” follows Mythic Quest artist Phil (Derek Waters) on vacation with his wife, Maude (Anna Konkle), who is desperate to get Ian Grimm (McElhenney) to leave him alone while he’s taking time off, bringing to a head a long-suppressed desire to gain his independence.
“Pull List” highlights Dominic (Ramon Reed), Cherry (Bria Henderson), Jared (Leonard Robinson), Mike (Rome Flynn), and Earl (William Stanford Davis), Black comic fans awaiting a major new issue of the Mythic Quest comics (titled “Le Noir: Broken Oath”) when the store only receives one single copy. “Fugue” centers Sylvie (Annamarie Kasper), a cellist whose anxiety in performing Mythic Quest orchestration gets the better of her, and “The Last Raid” tells the story of a set of young players joined for one final campaign right before their friendships fall apart.
‘Side Quest’ Is An Engaging, But Somewhat Odd, Experiment
Mythic Questis far from a stagnant sitcom,finding novelty and fresh experimentation even in its excellent recent fourth season, and the series has alwaysembraced the freedom of standalone episodes.Expanding on this, the blank check versatility ofSide Questallows fora unique array of experimentation in topic, tone, and even genre.Side Quest’s episodes are wildly different from each other, even at times within the context of a single installment. “Fugue” toes the horror lineas Sylvie’s anxieties take over, while “Pull List” hitsparanoid ensemble-cast heights. “Song and Dance” has beats from strong romantic dramas, whereas “The Last Raid” is at times a somber radio play (much of it sports drama through narration, as the players chat while playing the game). It’s an interesting experiment, and while there are standouts (“Pull List” is a solid ensemble piece, while “Fugue” is a complex character study), the one-shot episodes work quite well overall (though “The Last Raid” is perhaps the least interesting of the bunch, despite excellent voice work from the young performers).
Annamarie Kasper stands out as an anxious musician who bends under stress because she can no longer “hear the music,” giving a layered performance in an episode that capably experiments with genre. In the same episode,Esai Moralesplays a smaller role as her stern conductor, but delivers nonetheless. Derek Waters is fantastic as a hesitant artist trying to carve himself a worthy life. A larger cast excels in “Pull List,” with Rome Flynn and Bria Henderson offering excellent on-screen charisma.The scripts as a whole find relatable human drama in these situations— like Sylvie’s anxieties, Phil’s relationship struggles, or the erosion of a group of friends' cohesion as they grow apart right before our eyes.
Rob McElhenney Won’t Let Derek Waters Vacation in Peace in ‘Side Quest’ Sneak Peek [Exclusive]
The ‘Mythic Quest’ expansion series begins its journey next week on Apple TV+.
It’s abreezy but odd addendum to theMythic Questworld. Originallygreenlit as an eight-episode series,Mere Mortals,back in 2022,the series was shaved down to a tight four installments andrepackaged as “Side Quests” in November 2024. These four episodes are engaging overall, breezy at brief runtimes, and sport strong performances, but the project makes more sense as an eight-episode anthology. Four sub-hour episodes is somewhat of an odd number of stand-alone stories, large enough that it’s a clear commitment from Apple TV+ but not large enough to truly flesh out the world ofMythic Questfurther. It’s at just the right size to suggest a set of standalone episodes that couldn’tquitefit within aMythic Questseason: enjoyable, but that feeling is inescapable.
‘Side Quest’ Is a Charming Extension of the ‘Mythic Quest’ World
Side Questisa pleasant but slight expansion of theMythic Questworldthat boasts some solid performances, strong writing, and situational novelty. The episodes are fun little windows into the larger universe, and they surely entertain. That said, the series is a little uneven in its impact, and knowing that the project originated as a larger standalone series before being whittled down makes sense.
At eight episodes of at least this same quality,Side Questwould feel like a loving tribute to the flagship series that gives viewers a grander view of the corners they’d never really see. With a mere four, however, it feels more like a series of excursions into the ripples of the video game world that couldn’t be fit into a standard season —delicious leftovers, but leftovers nonetheless. That’s not to say the episodes aren’t worth watching or dramatically successful, because they largely entertain, but it’s regrettable thatSide Questends up as more of an afterthought overall.
Side Questpremieres March 26 on Apple TV+.
Side Quest
Side Quest is an enjoyable look into the corners of the Mythic Quest universe, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that it is now just a truncated part of a larger intended project.
