When season two ended with Ian throwing in the towel at Mythic Quest and supporting Poppy on her new path, it felt partly like a meta-acknowledgment of the show’s shifting priorities. As creative director, Ian has always been the ostensible protagonist of the show; Rob McElhenney is the first listed and most recognizable of the cast, and he’s one of the show’s co-creators. But if there’s one character who makes Mythic Quest worth watching, it’s Poppy Li, played by breakout star Charlotte Nicdao. She’s always been the stealth protagonist, and season three seemed to promise even more of her specific weird genius.
“Playpen†adds a lot to Poppy’s character arc, picking up right where “The Two Joes†left off in exploring Poppy’s struggle to balance technical perfection with actual fun in her new game. But while the goings-on at GrimPop Studios remain the strongest material of season three so far, I find myself wishing, oddly, for more of Ian. If there’s a theme to his character arc so far, it’s aimlessness. While Poppy is working on her would-be magnum opus, Ian seems to be making shit up to keep himself busy, spending almost as much time in the metaverse as in the real world. He can’t stop fixating on his lack of involvement in the new Mythic Quest adaptation. He’s even hooking up with his ex.
The problem with all this is that so far, this element of Ian’s character arc doesn’t seem purposeful enough. It’s not that Ian’s aimlessness is a problem; it’s that his arc feels aimless compared to the previous two seasons. It’s not that decentering him from the narrative is a bad idea; it’s that he feels too much like a comic-relief side character. He may be the most likable he’s ever been, but I’m still waiting for his story line to really click into place, to feel like something other than killing time. It’s great to see Poppy working with Dana and learning from her, but I can’t help wishing we could’ve seen Ian genuinely engage with her as a partner instead of just ribbing her about her inability to have fun (even if he’s right that she’s too concerned with limiting player options).
Still, Dana has really come into her own this season, and “Playpen†makes very smart narrative use of the busywork Poppy gave her. It turns out Dana shared the Playpen tool kit with her friends, and they’ve been making their own games, like a fishing simulator. The basic idea is that while Hera is sophisticated but boring, Playpen is crude but entertaining. But while Poppy has a lot of fun gaming with Dana, she comes away from the experience more distraught than ever about her own ability. After all, it isn’t her first big-scale solo passion project that resonates with people; it’s a low-tech tool kit that lets other people make passion projects. It’s a poignant and in-character source of frustration for Poppy: Is she just a “glorified mechanic,†someone who can build systems but can’t create something fun herself?
But what Dana helps Poppy realize is that she doesn’t have to be an “ideas man†like Ian for her work to have tremendous value. Because of Poppy’s tool kit, Dana’s classmates are eager to create — and maybe that itself is as inspirational as any ambitious MMORPG Poppy could’ve created herself. She ends the episode by going all in on Playpen, and it feels like a big moment for her.
Outside of GrimPop, this is another episode about rearranging the configuration of the Mythic Quest cast, ending with Rachel’s likely hiring as the new Head of Monetization. As always, it comes as a result of Brad’s machinations; Montreal ends up loving the unapproved NFT project, promoting Carol and finally giving her a budget instead of firing her. As the new HODI-DUDI (“Director of Unexplored Development Initiativesâ€), she can hire whoever — and Brad has his eye on Rachel.
I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, I think the prospect of Rachel as Head of Monetization is pretty exciting. When Brad was in the role, he was a shark, pursuing profit by whatever means necessary. Rachel isn’t a shark at all; she genuinely cares about the players and their experience of the game but also has the savvy to potentially make the company a lot of money. Though this season has wisely stepped away, a bit, from Rachel’s at times shallow “annoying SJW†characterization, she’s still a pretty principled person, and it’s a great idea to put her in a role that could make her consider compromising her ethics.
On the other hand, this is all a bit rushed, and Brad’s scheming is starting to get a little old. His troubled rant about losing his evil touch is transparently a ploy; even if there’s some truth to it, it’s in service of manipulating Rachel into taking the HOMIE role and becoming his puppet. That tracks with his usual characterization, sure, but I’d like to see Carol and Rachel making their own moves; instead of this episode exploring Carol’s new role, her story mostly gets subsumed into Brad’s. Her failing upwards results in more money from the higher-ups, who are delighted with the optics of her recent moves, but in the episode, that change is mostly a contrivance to get Rachel a job and set Brad’s plan into motion.
Still, there are a lot of great ingredients here as we move into the second half of the season. Mythic Quest’s willingness to change up character groupings remains gratifying, especially with Poppy’s personal artistic journey so foregrounded. If some stories end up rushed and slightly contrived as a result, it’s worth it.
Level Rewards
• We get both a mention of Pootie Shoe and the return of Alanna Ubach as Ian’s ex Shannon, which makes me wonder if we’ll see Ian’s son again this season. His absence from season two made sense as Ian and Poppy’s conflict took the focus, but it seems odd he isn’t mentioned more often, especially if Ian and Shannon still casually hook up.
• Funny moment when David tentatively mutters “little bitch†after successfully avoiding capitulating to Ian’s demands. But when Jo brings Ian back to hear it himself, David backs down and immediately loses all the ground he gained, agreeing to let Ian consult on the movie and have a say in casting decisions.
• I now know that “spoont†and “sprog†are both Australian slang words for semen. Thanks, Poppy!