Episode Guide
Episode 1 -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Episode 2 -| Review Score – 4/5 Episode 3 -| Review Score – 3/5 Episode 4 -| Review Score – 4/5 Episode 5 -| Review Score – 3.5/5 Episode 6 -| Review Score – 3/5 Episode 7 -| Review Score – 3/5 Episode 8 -| Review Score – 3/5 Episode 9 -| Review Score – 4/5 Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet is one of those love/hate sitcoms that has an equal amount of highs and lows. The first season took a while to hit the right balance between comedy and drama, subsequently propped up by a fantastic flashback episode. Seemingly taking this to heart, Mythic Quest returns for a very tonally different second season. While there are jokes here, Mythic Quest feels much closer to a comedic melodrama than an office sitcom. In fact, the video game material almost feels like an after-thought at times in favour of character-driven issues, and this has mixed results across the season. At the center of this is the conflict between Poppy and Ian. This becomes pretty toxic across the season, with less jokes and more mean-spirited jabs at each other. There’s some pretty shocking low blows from both, with Poppy even bringing Ian’s estranged son into the fold. However, Poppy and Ian’s conflicting ideas about Mythic Quest is simply one of many footnotes that this second season tackles. Jo and Brad continue to dance around who’s the tougher boss while Carl Longbottom gets a two-parter exploring his backstory. That’s to say nothing of Dana and Rach, who take up a large portion of this season with their will they/won’t they college woes. Without spoiling too much, most of these subplots are wrapped up by the end without much pizzazz or development. While the individual episodes are fun and include some good jokes, as a collective whole season 2 feels tonally lost. There’s no focal point to the show and the fact that three of these episodes completely disregard the video game angle and focus on straight character drama feels like it betrays the premise of the show. However, there are a few good jokes in this about crunch and the video game industry as a whole, so it’s not like the writers are oblivious to what’s going on. Personally, it would have been nice to see the show dive into this a lot more and bring back the comedic focal point that made the first season so fun. Instead, season 2 is much closer to a melodrama and this consequently causes its characters to suffer because of it. Many of the players here feel toxic and mean-spirited, with disputes resulting in shouting or a shocking low blow. And to make matters worse, these occur off the back of a contrived scenario concocted by the characters themselves to get them into this mess. Now don’t get me wrong, Mythic Quest is a fun show. There’s some brilliant jokes and genuine laugh out loud moments. Dramedy can work if the material is there but the season arc and individual characters feel directionless at times. Comedy is subjective but season 2 feels less comedy and more drama. Given the sheer number of other dramas out there, Mythic Quest doesn’t do enough to justify that decision. If this is renewed for a third season, let’s hope Mythic Quest returns to its comedic roots and settles into a more videogame centric story.
