{"id":426527,"date":"2022-04-03T17:00:52","date_gmt":"2022-04-03T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/revisiting-mythic-quests-great-standalone-episode\/"},"modified":"2022-04-03T17:00:52","modified_gmt":"2022-04-03T14:00:52","slug":"revisiting-mythic-quests-great-standalone-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/revisiting-mythic-quests-great-standalone-episode\/","title":{"rendered":"#Revisiting Mythic Quest&#8217;s Great Standalone Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2fe39738fe4\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2fe39738fe4\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/revisiting-mythic-quests-great-standalone-episode\/#%E2%80%9CRevisiting_Mythic_Quests_Great_Standalone_Episode%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Revisiting Mythic Quest&#8217;s Great Standalone Episode&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CRevisiting_Mythic_Quests_Great_Standalone_Episode%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Revisiting Mythic Quest&#8217;s Great Standalone Episode&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<pre><code>     &lt;span class=\"mx-1\"&gt;The tech comedy\u2019s best episode is a decades-spanning story about selling out, breaking up, and making art.&lt;\/span&gt;\n&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;div id=\"\"&gt;\n\n\n\n                &lt;figure class=\"sf-entry-featured-<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> \"&gt;\n            &lt;img width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/A-Dark-Quiet-Death.jpg\" class=\"articlethumb wp-post-image\" alt=\"A Dark Quiet Death\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/A-Dark-Quiet-Death.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/A-Dark-Quiet-Death-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/A-Dark-Quiet-Death-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\"\/&gt;                                    &lt;p&gt;\n                    &lt;span class=\"sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline\"&gt;<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>le TV+&lt;\/span&gt;\n\n                        &lt;\/figure&gt;\n\n    &lt;!-- START BYLINE --&gt;\n    &lt;div class=\"row align-items-center justify-content-center my-4 text-center medium dark-gray\"&gt;\n        By\u00a0Valerie Ettenhofer\u00a0\u00b7 Published on April 3rd, 2022 \n        &lt;\/div&gt;\n    &lt;!-- END BYLINE --&gt;\n\n    &lt;em&gt;This essay is part of\u00a0\u00a0Episodes, a monthly column in which senior contributor\u00a0Valerie Ettenhofer digs into the singular chapters of television that make the medium great. This entry revisits \u201cA Dark Quiet Death,\u201d the tremendous standalone episode of Mythic Quest\u2019s first season.&lt;\/em&gt;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<hr\/>\n<p>Most of us don\u2019t wake up every morning feeling sad about the death of pop culture as we once knew it. It\u2019s perfectly possible to wander semi-peacefully through our days without lamenting the existence of every sell-out or spin-off. In part, it\u2019s easy to ignore a change that happens slowly\u2013the steady erosion of something extraordinary that most days feels as ineffectual as waves lapping against a cliff wall. It\u2019s easy in the same way that ignoring the signs of a failing relationship is all too easy. Then something like <em>Mythic Quest\u2019s<\/em> \u201cA Dark, Quiet Death\u201d comes along, and its force suddenly washes away our once-solid ground completely.<\/p>\n<p>The fifth episode of <em>Mythic Quest,<\/em> directed by <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> co-creator Rob McElhenney and written by his sister Katie, is standalone in the truest sense. Aside from two small but meaningful details, its only ties to the overarching series are thematic. Up until this point, the Apple TV+ comedy about a dysfunctional video <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a> company and the flawed creatives who run it is funny but slight. Not \u201cA Dark Quiet Death,\u201d though. In one of the most sneakily emotional sitcom detours in recent memory, the episode takes viewers through the exhilarating and painful life cycle of both a video game and a relationship. After this, the show never feels slight again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA Dark Quiet Death\u201d starts in a video game store in 1993. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zuuObGsB0No\">Joy Division\u2019s \u201cLove Will Tear Us Apart\u201d<\/a> plays over the sound system as an inattentive store clerk blows the dust out of a game cartridge. In an empty aisle, two people meet for the first time. She (Cristin Milioti) is looking for a game bleak enough to match her choppy-haired goth girl aesthetic. He (Jake Johnson) is affably flirting, trying to sell her on a crappy game called Midnight Justice Five: Corpse Pile. They\u2019re cute because two overtly lovable actors play them and because his plaid-shirted shrugginess compliments her dark intensity well from the jump.<\/p>\n<p>The pair peruse the shop, looking for titles that aren\u2019t crappy and getting to know each other through bon mots and game recommendations. It\u2019s a meet-cute, alright. They joke about a real <em>Sonic The Hedgehog-<\/em>adjacent game called <em>Dr. Robotnik\u2019s Mean Bean Machine<\/em>, inspiring the nicknames\u2013Doc for him, Beans for her\u2013that they\u2019ll call each other for the next two decades. Just as they\u2019re warming up to one another, Doc admits he\u2019s a video game producer. \u201cMaybe the game you wanna play doesn\u2019t exist,\u201d he tells her. So they make it.<\/p>\n<p>The episode turns out to be a series of vignettes, each one documenting a milestone in the life of <em>A Dark Quiet Death<\/em>, the game the pair conceive together. In the next scene, we see them pitching the concept for what Beans calls the thousandth time to a company that\u2019s only ever made kids\u2019 games. Their idea is experimental and existential. A character wanders through a shadowy location, facing down monsters not by killing them but by shining a flashlight beam that forces them to recede into the dark. They\u2019re out of sight but never out of mind; they\u2019ll always come back since the game has no clear-cut ending. \u201cThere\u2019s no evil boss. There\u2019s no glorious ending. It\u2019s like actual life,\u201d Beans says. \u201cYou\u2019re just surviving as long as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sure, this sounds pretentious in 2022, but in the still-developing gaming industry of the mid-90s, it\u2019s a damn fine idea. The executive offers them funding to finish the project on the spot. In a throwaway line, we learn that the pair are now engaged. She tries to be cynical and precious about the game\u2019s future, but he\u2019s overjoyed. He stands atop a decorative platform in the middle of the corporate building\u2019s lobby and reaches out his hand for her to grab, and she does. They\u2019re partners, after all. They dance in the glow of a dream realized.<\/p>\n<p>Another changeover brings us further into the future. The couple is now checking out a dingy office location with a real estate agent. Their game has launched, and they\u2019re working on a sequel, Doc tells her. When Beans finds out the building is supposedly cursed, she revels in the macabre details of the \u201csweatshop inferno\u201d that took place a century ago, and the pair agrees to buy it on the spot. Beans takes a pocket knife and carves the pairs\u2019 names on the wall: \u201cDOC+BEANS DQD96.\u201d Eventually, we\u2019ll learn that this is the same office where <em>Mythic Quest\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0two main creative forces, Ian (Rob McElhenney) and Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao), will fight, flirt, create, and destroy together in 2020. For now, though, it\u2019s a place of promise.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of \u201cA Dark Quiet Death\u201d unfolds in a series of painful concessions and ironic twists of fate. It\u2019s a story about selling out that feels like death by a thousand cuts\u2013or in the preferred parlance of Beans, like the thing with the frog being boiled to death. The first signs of friction in the pair\u2019s relationship come soon after moving their new company, Oubliette Studios, into the cursed office building. He read some focus group data that says players want to be able to kill the monsters. She says the whole game is about trying to outrun the inevitable. \u201cIf the monsters die, the game dies,\u201d she declares.<\/p>\n<p>In one of several of the episode\u2019s comedic smash cuts, the next thing we see is a schlocky \u201990s commercial for the sequel, complete with a prospective buyer blowing off a monster\u2019s head with a shotgun. Each new time jump brings another crass capitalist concession until every conversation Doc and Beans have with brand managers, executives, and one another feels like a gentle ushering towards another form of corporate murder. In 2000, a live-action movie version of the game features a blonde, gun-toting bombshell wiping out monsters from her motorcycle. By 2006, a purple fuzzball named Roscoe has gone from a shoehorned-in sidekick to the main character of his own franchise\u2013and ubiquitous toy line.<\/p>\n<p>Each blow to the pair\u2019s original vision widens the crack between them. He\u2019s prone to humoring phone calls from Disney and suggestions from the marketing team. She\u2019d have been happy if their indie game never saw the light of day, so long as they kept their artistic principles. \u201cThey took the dark,\u201d she tells him somberly as the pair come together after a blow-up. \u201cThey took the quiet.\u201d His response is soft but sure: \u201cThey\u2019ll never take the death. We will always have the death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They won\u2019t, though, because \u201cA Dark, Quiet Death\u201d isn\u2019t just about the artistic visions we lose when we cave to a system that robs us of humanity. The episode could have just been a poignant allusion to the humanity-sapping Disney-Marvel-LucasFilms of the world, and it still would have been a tremendous half-hour of television. But it\u2019s also about the dark, quiet death of a marriage and a partnership. By 2000, Doc is dating the star of the game\u2019s movie adaptation. And by 2006, Beans has a family of her own. When the pair were together, their banter often tilted towards the morbid. The last line we hear before they break up is a pitch-black joke from Beans: \u201cI\u2019m counting the days until you turn to dust.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The episode ends in a video game store. It\u2019s 2006. Beans, the more morally driven of the two, left the company years ago. Doc finally left, too, after giving an ultimatum\u2013him or the purple CGI sidekick\u2013that backfired. The pair run into each other again, maybe for the first time in years. All the fire and fury have burned out of them and left only belated fondness in its place. It\u2019s hard to pinpoint, but \u201cA Dark Quiet Death\u201d starts to break your heart somewhere in these last few moments. Because Beans was right. There\u2019s no triumphant boss battle. \u201cIt\u2019s life. You\u2019re just surviving as long as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are a number of dark, quiet deaths in the episode\u2019s final moments. The groundbreaking, unique game itself is relegated to the dark, quiet death of the store\u2019s last-chance bargain bin. There\u2019s the dark, quiet death of the pair\u2019s relationship, complete with the final nail in the coffin that we see register in Doc\u2019s eyes when Beans casually mentions her kids. And there\u2019s the saddest dark and quiet of all\u2013the loneliness she leaves him with when she goes. \u201cWe just started talking,\u201d he says when she turns to leave. And the warmth in his eyes is tempered by the helplessness in his voice.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson and Miloti are both graduates of rom-com style sitcoms, and they convincingly make us believe in their hipster \u201990s love story with every fiber of our being across the course of just one episode. Then, their characters\u2019 ultimate breakup feels a little bit like a balloon in our hearts being popped by a sharp needle. It may be subtle on screen, but for tear-stricken viewers at home, it\u2019s a fast, loud death that hits all at once when we realize how much we\u2019ve grown to care about this seemingly random story.<\/p>\n<p>Although the episode stands alone, it\u2019s tied back to <em>Mythic Quest<\/em> with a mid-credits sequence that makes its bittersweet story more outright cynical. It\u2019s Ian, in 2010, pitching the game that would become world-famous to the same executive Doc and Beans pitched to fourteen years earlier. There\u2019s a tongue-in-cheek quality about the episode\u2019s epilogue that can be either hopeful or bleak, depending on how you look at it.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve witnessed the soul-crushing machinery of capitalism, played on fast-forward until we\u2019re left with nothing but the long-ignored kernel of a pure, original idea\u2013and a neglected love to match. Now, someone new steps onto the scene, bright-eyed and confident. He doesn\u2019t know that the building\u2019s built on curses. Nor that its walls are carved with broken promises. If he did, I don\u2019t think it would stop him. Nothing pure can last, sure, but that doesn\u2019t stop us from trying to create together.<\/p>\n<pre><code>    Related Topics: Episodes\n    &lt;!-- AUTHOR BOX --&gt;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<div class=\"gray-bg p-4 border small mb-5\">\n<div class=\"row align-items-center text-md-center\">\n<div class=\"col-md-2\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/val_2019.jpg\" class=\"circle img-fluid\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\"\/>\n        <\/div>\n<div class=\"col-md\">\n            Valerie Ettenhofer is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer, TV-lover, and mac and cheese enthusiast. As a Senior Contributor at Film School Rejects, she covers television through regular reviews and her recurring column, Episodes. She is also a voting member of the Critics Choice Association&#8217;s television and documentary branches. Twitter: <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/aandeandval\">@aandeandval<\/a> (She\/her)        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<pre><code>    &lt;!-- START RECOMMENDED READING 1 --&gt;\n                                &lt;section class=\"recommended py-5\"&gt;\n            &lt;h3&gt;Recommended Reading&lt;\/h3&gt;\n\n\n        &lt;\/section&gt;\n            &lt;!-- END RECOMMENDED READING --&gt;\n\n\n\n\n&lt;\/div&gt;&lt;script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"&gt;&lt;\/script&gt;\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/mythic-quest-a-dark-quiet-death\/#utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=mythic-quest-a-dark-quiet-death\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Revisiting Mythic Quest&#8217;s Great Standalone Episode&#8221; &lt;span class=&#8221;mx-1&#8243;&gt;The tech comedy\u2019s best episode is a decades-spanning story about selling out, breaking up, and making art.&lt;\/span&gt; &lt;\/p&gt;&lt;div id=&#8221;&#8221;&gt; &lt;figure class=&#8221;sf-entry-featured-media &#8220;&gt; &lt;img width=&#8221;800&#8243; height=&#8221;450&#8243; src=&#8221;https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/A-Dark-Quiet-Death.jpg&#8221; class=&#8221;articlethumb wp-post-image&#8221; alt=&#8221;A Dark Quiet Death&#8221; srcset=&#8221;https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/A-Dark-Quiet-Death.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/A-Dark-Quiet-Death-768&#215;432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/A-Dark-Quiet-Death-1536&#215;864.jpg 1536w&#8221; sizes=&#8221;(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px&#8221;\/&gt; &lt;p&gt; &lt;span class=&#8221;sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline&#8221;&gt;Apple TV+&lt;\/span&gt; &lt;\/figure&gt;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":426528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/A-Dark-Quiet-Death.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}