The American workplace satire has come on in leaps and bounds since the first season of the US Office delivered its dull tribute to the epoch-defining Ricky Gervais cringefest. The cult of the tech bro was prophetically deconstructed by Silicon Valley. Succession invited us to pity the super-rich and their tragic man-baby existence. Then, in a bravura example of selling digital coal to Newcastle (United), Apple TV + crossed the Atlantic to poke cheery fun at Premier League football with Ted Lasso.
Ted Lasso debuted in 2020 - the same year Apple unleashed another sitcom, Mythic Quest. The former has come and gone, but Mythic Quest - a remorseless skewering of the £150 billion video game industry - has proved more of a slow burn. Overlooked in its early years, it has steadily gained a cult following, and with the arrival of a moreishly misanthropic fourth series, there is a sense it's about to follow Ted Lasso and hit the back of the net in terms of its profile.
Mythic Quest is the brainchild of Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day, who have together brought the modern lowbrow comedy to fresh heights with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But the show to which Mythic Quest bears the closest resemblance is Gervais's The Office.
McElhenney receives star billing as Ian (pronounced "Eye-in") Grimm - a tech-bro David Brent and egotistical creator of the World of Warcraft-style online game from which the series takes its name. Ian's muse and collaborator is Mythic Quest lead engineer Poppy Li (Australian actress Charlotte Nicdao). As the new series begins, they are working on an ambitious new in-game expansion. But there is trouble in their virtual paradise, with Poppy's steamy relationship with airhead artist Storm (Chase Yi) driving a wedge between her and the needy Ian.
Gamer in-jokes abound, yet non-nerds need not fear - the video game setting, while sharply satirised, takes a back seat to a devastatingly funny portrait of workplace pettiness and the perils of putting too much technology at the disposal of the vain and dim-witted. Specific storylines involve industrial espionage and a disastrous murder mystery weekend, though plot largely takes a backseat to the steady supply of zingers. "I like you... just not as a friend," Ian tells the hapless ageing-hipster executive David (David Horbnsy) after they strike up an all-too-fleeting bond.
In short, it's long past time this bruisingly hilarious, completely addictive underground hit levelled up to something bigger.