The creators of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia are ditching Paddy’s Pub for Silicon Valley in a new series for Apple TV+. Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet comes from Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney, and stars McElhenney as Ian Grimm, the egotistical creative director of a video game development studio.
Joining the cast are F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus) as the game writer, Charlotte Nicdao (Please Like Me) as the frustrated lead engineer, as well as Danny Pudi (Community) and IASIP alum David Hornsby, aka Rickety Cricket. The synopsis for the series reads, “Meet the team behind the biggest multiplayer video game of all time. But in a workplace focused on building worlds, molding heroes, and creating legends, the most hard-fought battles don’t occur in the game—they happen in the office.”
The world of gaming is ripe for satire, and frankly I’m surprised it has taken this long for a workplace comedy to take on the pressure cooker that is video game development. The show will naturally draw comparisons to tech comedy Silicon Valley, which ended its run last year. But unlike Mike Judge’s acclaimed series, Mythic Quest has something the HBO series never had: women.
While Silicon Valley smartly skewered many aspects of the tech industry, the series was annoyingly bereft of female characters. With the exception of Amanda Crew as VC manager Monica Hall and the hysterical Suzanne Cryer as CEO Laurie Bream (a recurring character), Silicon Valley was very much a boy’s club.
And while that isn’t entirely inaccurate (the world of tech is still male-dominated), female coders exist! The show struggled to service its existing female characters, and seemed stymied by accusations of sexism.
But if the trailer is anything to go by, Mythic Quest‘s conflict will center on the relationship between McElhenney’s boss and Nicdao’s frustrated and underappreciated engineer. Nicdao’s Poppy says in the trailer to McElhenney, “I’ve built your vision. It’s like your this brilliant painter and I’m your favorite brush. I’m just a tool to create your masterpiece.” He later compares her to Ringo, aka “the one who keeps the beat”.
A love-hate relationship between a female engineer of color and a brash creative bro seems like a solid place to start. After all, how can you address sexism within an industry if you refuse to acknowledge an entire gender?
Overall, I’m excited to see where this series goes. The cast and concept is strong, and McElhenney have kept IASIP fresh and funny for 14 seasons. I’m excited to see what he does with the spoof-worthy world of gaming. Maybe this show will make that Apple TV+ subscription worthwhile.
Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet premieres on February 7 on Apple TV+.
(via AVClub, image: screengrab/Apple TV+)
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