Thesecond season ofMythic Questhas demonstrated that Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Megan Ganz know how to lead a great show.Mythic Questis consistently hilarious and presents characters who are almost painfully real in all their virtues and flaws. The balance between deep character exploration and impeccable humor makes the Apple TV+ show one of the best sitcoms currently on air.Last week’s episode, “Please Sign Here”, shied away from any drama in favor of character-based comedy. This week’s does exactly the opposite.
“Backstory!” will almost certainly garner comparisons tolast season’s “A Dark Quiet Death”. Both episodes occur about halfway through their respective seasons. Both jump back in time and introduce (mostly) new characters who have little direct connection with the main cast at theMythic Questoffices. That said, “Backstory!” inverts the formula proposed by “A Dark Quiet Death”.
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The season 1 breakaway episode tried to tell a story with all the elements ofMythic Questand none of the characters. This episode follows a character fromMythic Questwhile eschewing many of the show’s key ingredients. That’s not to say that “Backstory!” isn’t a quality-made episode of television. It is. But fans ofMythic Questwon’t necessarily find what they love about the show tucked away within this episode.
Blast To The Past
“Backstory!” takes place in the 1970s and follows a young Carl W. Longbottom (played by Josh Brener) in the early days of his career as a writer. He’s taken a job as a copy editor at the offices of a major science fiction magazine that occasionally hosts such big names asUrsula Le Guin and Isacc Asimov. Carl is joined by two other newbies, A.E. Goldsmith (Shelley Hennig) and Peter Cromwell (Michael Cassidy).
Carl, A.E., and Peter become fast friends. They agree to critique each other’s work to help them all develop as writers. Unfortunately, Carl doesn’t have the thick skin required to take much criticism, even when it comes from his friends. That conflict unfolds predictably. Carl grows apart from A.E. and Peter because of his refusal to engage with their critique of his story “Tears of Anaren” (pronounced like “tearing through paper” not “shedding tears”).
That predictability is the episode’s biggest problem. From the first scene of the trio agreeing to help each other develop as writers, it’s incredibly easy to see where the story is going (and not because we know that Carl ends upworking forMythic Questin the twenty-first century). A.E. successfully publishes a story in the magazine while she and Peter start developing a romantic interest in each other. Carl resents them both but can’t stop getting in the way of his own success.
Ultimately, Carl doesn’t amount to much as a writer. At one point, he has a prescient vision of the power of video game stories, but he’s too far ahead of his time. He realizes there isn’t really a place for him or his ideas in the literary world. Of course, Carl doesgo on to win a Nebula Award,at which point he starts calling himself C.W. The scene where he speaks with A.E. at the award ceremony offers the only truly interesting wrinkle in this otherwise paint-by-numbers story.
Far From Great, Better Than Good
The thwarted-love/ambition plot feels like a rehash of countless past stories and only faintly echoes larger themes withinMythic Quest. On the other hand, the scenes are beautifully shot, the characters are expertly written, and the acting is superb. There’s almost no humor to be found here, but in just over half an hour,Mythic Questcreates inherently interesting and lifelike characters.
In thevery first episode ofMythic Quest, C.W. told Carol that she needed to know his backstory in order to understand him. This entire episode seems to spawn from that throwaway comment. It proves C.W. right, but not in the way he may have thought. After watching “Backstory!” viewers certainly understand him, but they are likely far from able to forgive him for his flaws.
Despite that, at the end of the episode, there’s a brief moment where even the stone-hearted might feel a flash of empathy for C.W. A younger Ian Grim approaches the old man, who’s selling roasted chicken at a renaissance fair, and asks him if he’s ever considered writing for a video game. C.W. flashes back on the moment he had his vision ofa future with interactive storytelling, and he smiles. It may be impossible to sympathize with C.W., but it’s equally impossible to flatten the character out into his worst moments. That may be the point, after all.
Even far from its personal best,Mythic Queststill performs better than most shows in the streaming era. This could easily be someone’s favorite episode of a different TV show, but it feels out of place in a way “A Dark Quiet Death” did not. At the very least, it will be interesting to see what the show does with all this added backstory in its next episode.
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