My brother turned me onto this Apple TV sitcom, and I’m glad he did. It offers up an intriguing mix of mostly amoral, mostly broken characters who are all stewing together in an extremely specific, high-octane environment where creativity, ego, and personal profit are constantly colliding in entertaining ways.
Over at the office for Mythic Quest, a fantasy MMORPG on the brink of launching its latest expansion, tempers run high most of the time. Creator Ian Grimm is a self-important A-hole who knows shockingly little about physically making video games, but his creative spark has built the entire empire. Lead programmer Poppy Li sullenly describes herself as Ian’s “favorite brush,” the tool with which he executes his grand vision. Both of them run roughshod over executive producer David, a skittish guy who struggles to impress his authority upon anyone. Throw in a faded-star sci-fi novelist scripting the stories, a ruthless monetization expert, an assistant who displays cultlike devotion to the most powerful voice in the room, and a pair of unsung game testers who may or may not be shyly falling in love, and you get a recipe for, well, everything. Lots of chaos, lots of heartbreak, and shining moments of genius that make it all worth it.
As I said back when I reviewed Free Guy, I’m not a gamer and really don’t have any interest in it. But just like I can love Ted Lasso without caring about sports, a good story is a good story, and making me feel invested in characters when I have no connection with their world takes a special sleight-of-hand. When it comes to the gaming industry and that culture, the series feeds us enough of what we need to know that my novice knowledge is sufficient, and while there are inside baseball references that I don’t get, I don’t get lost or confused watching the show.
Instead, the characters draw me into this world, and they make me care about it. I can feel the devotion when writer C.W. and tester Rachel each help the other appreciate their respective penchants for scripted cutscenes and collaborative gameplay. I can feel the artistry behind the arrogance when Ian discusses his latest idea, and I can feel the slightly manic love that Poppy pours into every line of code.
The interpersonal dynamics are so well done. None of these characters are “good” people, and each carries around their own type of damage. That means all of them infuriate the others at times, or argue with them or hurt them. But each is also capable of recognizing (often just a bit too late) when they’ve gone too far and need to make amends. Which they do, clumsily and insecurely but with heart. The show serves up a strong dose of jaded cynicism while also offering those jaded cynics a hand to hold when they’re lost, mixing just enough sweet moments into the sharpness that the combination is irresistible.
Rob McElhenney of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia leads the cast as Ian—he’s also a creator of the show, along with It’s Always Sunny collaborator Charlie Day and Community writer Megan Ganz. He does an excellent job of projecting Ian’s overwhelming ego, which he uses to conceal his fears and uncertainties. I love Charlotte Nicdao as Poppy, who’s often hyper-focused, weirdly amped, and/or bristling with anxiety. Every time she and McElhenney share the screen together, it’s fantastic. The cast also features It’s Always Sunny alum David Hornsby, Danny Pudi in an excellently un-Abed role, and F. Murray Abraham (although his character was written out due to sexual harassment allegations from others on the show.) I also want to shout out Jessie Ennis, who brings such fabulous unhinged energy to David’s assistant Jo. I didn’t recognize Ennis when I started the show, but now that Better Call Saul’s final season is up on Netflix, I realize she also plays one of the associates at Davis & Main.
Warnings
Strong thematic elements, language (including assorted off-color insults from a character “of a different generation,) sexual references, violence (mostly within the context of the game,) drinking, and involvement of an alleged sexual harasser.
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