Lots of shows have done special ‘at home’ or quarantine episodes. Some have even found a way to carry on in our new work from home conditions. Lots of it has been watchable, but Fast Company’s Steve Berkowitz thinks that with its latest episode of Mythic Quest, Apple TV+ has the first great piece of quarantine TV.
The most remarkable thing about the episode is that it mostly feels like any other installment of the show. Cocreator and star Rob McElhenney spent a whole season with his creative team (Charlie Day, Megan Ganz, and David Hornsby) sketching out various dynamics—between the titular game’s creator, Ian (McElhenney), and its lead developer, Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao); between the put-upon cofounder, David (Hornsby), and the shameless CFO, Brad (Danny Pudi); and between lovestruck Rachel (Ashly Burch) and her fellow game tester, Dana (Imani Hakim)—not to mention a deep bench of side characters. The new episode nimbly toggles between all those plotlines in mini-vignettes that are so organic, the Zoom format feels almost incidental at times. (Except for a running bit about making spatial illusions in Zoom that culminates in a grand payoff.)