Mythic Quest: 5 Similarities With Always Sunny (& 5 Differences)
When Rob McElhenney became disillusioned with only having one hit TV comedy on the air, he co-created Mythic Quest for Apple. Mythic Quest has proven to be just as successful as McElhenney’s other sitcom, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but it’s a very different show.
Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy follow-up, American Dad!, was initially criticized for emulating its predecessor a little too closely. McElhenney’s own follow-up series has avoided this problem. With likable characters and an uplifting tone, Mythic Quest is essentially the anti-Always Sunny. But it also shares a few noticeable similarities with Sunny.
2 Similarities
Workplace Setting
Both It’s Always Sunny and Mythic Quest take place in a workplace setting and revolve around the trials and tribulations of a bickering workforce. In It’s Always Sunny, the Gang runs an Irish bar called Paddy’s Pub, and in Mythic Quest, Ian Grimm is the creative director of a popular MMORPG.
The main difference between the two is that in Mythic Quest, work actually gets done at the workplace. The Always Sunny episode “The Gang Tends Bar” mocked the fact that the characters never actually bother to serve drinks in their own bar.
Ensemble Cast
TV comedies can either singularly focus on one character and their comical misadventures, like Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David or Fleabag’s Fleabag, or they can cast a wide net over a big ensemble of characters to cut around. Both It’s Always Sunny and Mythic Quest follow the latter style.
In It’s Always Sunny, the Gang usually breaks into two groups for an A-plot and a B-plot. Mythic Quest’s episodes, on the other hand, cut between a whopping eight major characters.
Rob McElhenney & David Hornsby
The most obvious similarity between It’s Always Sunny and Mythic Quest is that they share a couple of cast members. Rob McElhenney plays Mac in Sunny and Ian in Mythic Quest, while David Hornsby plays Cricket in Sunny and David in Mythic Quest.
McElhenney co-created Mythic Quest with Sunny writer Megan Ganz and Sunny star Charlie Day, but Day has yet to appear on the show (although it’d be great to see him guest-star in season 3).
Biting Back-And-Forth Between The Characters
Unlike the Gang in It’s Always Sunny, the characters in Mythic Quest actually like each other. But, much like the Gang, the Mythic Quest team spends a lot of time roasting each other.
Nobody pulls their punches in the biting back-and-forth between the cast. There’s not as much shouting or ad-libbing in Mythic Quest, but the insults are just as savage.
Experimental One-Off Episodes
In both It’s Always Sunny and Mythic Quest, McElhenney has used experimental one-off episodes to shake up the formula. Sunny has experimented with a musical episode, a P.O.V. episode, a Christmas episode, a Cricket-centric episode, an episode in the style of a true-crime documentary – the list goes on.
Both the first and second seasons of Mythic Quest had one standalone episode with none of the familiar cast members. Season 1’s “A Dark Quiet Death” focuses on an entirely different game franchise and season 2’s “Backstory!” explores C.W.’s origins.
1 Differences
Sympathetic Protagonists
The Gang in It’s Always Sunny is wholly unsympathetic. Dennis is a cold-hearted sociopath, Dee is cruel and volatile, Mac has a violent temper, Charlie’s emotional state is wildly unpredictable, and Frank is a portrait of human depravity.
The protagonists of Mythic Quest are the complete opposite. They’re all somewhat flawed characters, but they’re ultimately good people who actually like each other and address the consequences of their mistakes.
One Lead Character
Like Friends or Seinfeld, It’s Always Sunny is a true ensemble show. It’s impossible to point to any one Sunny character as the lead of the series, because all five stars have equal footing. In Mythic Quest, there is one definitive lead character.
McElhenney is surrounded by supporting players in Mythic Quest, but he’s the undeniable star of the show in the role of creative director Ian Grimm.
Traditional Sitcom Tropes
The goal of It’s Always Sunny is to avoid the trappings of every other sitcom. The characters never learn any lessons, nobody really cares about each other, and the show has no clearly defined moral compass for the cast to follow. By contrast, Mythic Quest is more of a traditional sitcom.
Mythic Quest indulges in some of the sitcom tropes that Always Sunny satirized in “The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award,” like a “will they or won’t they?” couple. Mythic Quest adheres to many of the genre conventions that Sunny seeks to subvert.
No Topical Storylines
Whereas It’s Always Sunny follows the news with stories about hate crimes, climate change, and the coronavirus, the humor in Mythic Quest is driven by characters, not headlines.
There are some topical references in Mythic Quest, like a COVID quarantine episode and the occasional nod to sexism in the gaming industry. But hot-button issues like abortion and gun control don’t form the basis of entire episodes like the more overtly satirical storytelling in It’s Always Sunny.
Uplifting Tone
Audiences watch Mythic Quest for its “comfort food” quality. It’s often included in the same league as Ted Lasso and Schitt’s Creek for the feel-good sensibility that fills viewers with joy when they spend time with these characters.
Some fans enjoy It’s Always Sunny as a kind of televised comfort food, too, but in a very different way. Sunny has a decidedly cynical attitude, whereas Mythic Quest leans on the importance of positivity and optimism.