Apple TV+ comedy Mythic Quest rings within the vacation season with a really particular Christmas episode this week. The Mythic Quest workplaces are filled with distress as David makes everybody keep and work via Christmas Eve. His makes an attempt to cheer them up come to naught. And when Poppy and Ian attempt to salvage issues at their outdated firm, they go too far.

In the meantime, Poppy and Rachel should be taught what Jo’s definition of friendship is, and Rachel has her first brush with success. All in all, “The 12 Hours of Christmas” stands tall as a stellar episode of Apple TV+’s funniest present.

Mythic Quest recap: ‘The 12 Hours of Christmas’

Season 2, episode 6: It’s Christmas on the Mythic Quest workplaces. And regardless of David (performed by David Hornsby) and Jo (Jessie Ennis) making an attempt to carry the Christmas spirit to the workplace, each overworked drone needs badly to be house with their households as an alternative of holding the servers alive at MQ headquarters.

Ian (Rob McElhenney) reveals as much as see if he can pawn off Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao) on Mythic Quest for the season as a result of she has nobody to rejoice with. (Poppy tells Jo that she’s doing the identical factor for Ian.) And when he discovers that David’s blowing it, as regular, Ian tells him to not remind the workplace staff that they’re not at house with their households. It’ll simply make them even sadder.

David protests, however they instantly catch one of many staff watching porn on his pc. “Anthony! No porn!” snaps David, to which the unembarrassed fellow (Mort Burke) replies, “But it surely’s Christmas!”

Jo will get Poppy a present, however Poppy didn’t get Jo something, unaware that after their brunch date Jo considers them associates. “So … you did friendship improper,” says Jo aggressively, happy with herself for being the higher pal. Poppy’s horrified expression as Jo walks away is hysterically humorous. Nobody does automobile crash disgrace like Charlotte Nicdao.

Stepping into that vacation spirit

In the meantime, Mythic Quest’s lately promoted monetization chief Rachel (Ashly Burch), explains to her girlfriend, Dana (Imani Hakim), what her new job is all about. This can be a massive seasonal second for them, as Rachel will probably be assembly Dana’s dad and mom for the primary time.

Brad (Danny Pudi), again in an administrative place however nonetheless in a diminished function, can’t argue together with her calls for to provide extra privileges to gamers. She earns the corporate $500,000 {dollars} in an hour, however her pleasure is short-lived. Jo is available in and offers her a present and she or he has nothing to provide her in return, prompting Jo as soon as extra to say that another person is doing friendship improper.

Poppy and Ian lastly get on the identical web page about their Christmas items for one another. (Each should admit that their households don’t need to hang around with them, too.) Then they resolve to cheer up the disgruntled Mythic Quest staff. David’s plan to decorate up in Dickensian costume and sing carols clearly isn’t going to work.

They take everybody right down to their new Grim Pop workplaces for a fast rave and a Porsche raffle. (Poppy by no means drove the automobile when Ian gave it to her, “Which is astonishing!” Ian chimes in). David is livid. He cancels the celebration and calls for everybody return to work. And so they arrive simply in time to listen to Rachel brag to Brad about making the corporate cash, which makes the shortage of Christmas bonuses much more offensive to the employees.

Rachel, Brad, Ian and Poppy rapidly throw collectively a festive conventional Christmas celebration for the workplace. Poppy and Rachel make Jo a online game the place she kills ladies at brunch as an apology, they usually even handle to squeeze in some caroling simply earlier than they begin choking on the faux snow they’ve began pumping into the Mythic Quest workplaces.

Time for toys and time for cheer

This can be a very good episode of Mythic Quest all throughout the board. Jo’s apoplexy at realizing her associates don’t take friendship as significantly as she does is extraordinarily humorous. David turning right into a Scrooge unintentionally when his very quaint and old style concepts don’t sit properly with the overworked workers is a helpful metaphor for the whole lot he’s doing improper as the top of Mythic Quest. And Ashly Burch and Imani Hakim make nice use of their display time this week, with Burch determined for approval (as regular) and Hakim leaning into Ian’s zen method to company tradition.

However maybe the most effective reward of all is that the writers discovered humorous stuff as an example the Poppy-and-Ian dynamic once more. I used to be actually beginning to miss that this season.

The 2 characters coming to phrases with their households hating them is nice and, if it’s out of character for Ian to confess he’s unhealthy at one thing, it really works as a result of it is a vacation episode.

“I believe we’d have messed this up,”  says a rueful Poppy when David retreats to his workplace, his Christmas celebration in shambles. “No surprise our households hate us,” says Ian.

Lengthy, awkward pause, earlier than Poppy meekly chimes in: “Nicely … it was actually extra of a scheduling factor with my household.” “I do know, Pop … I do know…” Very humorous.

Anytime the writers can craft stable punch strains to bridge the hole between these two characters it’s a successful second on this present. Mythic Quest was constructed on the foundational variations between Nicdao and McElhenney’s characters and performances. It’s good to see them return to fundamentals for this very charming Christmas episode.

★★★★☆

Watch Mythic Quest on Apple TV+

New episodes of the third season of Mythic Quest arrive on Apple TV+ each Friday.

Rated: TV-MA

Watch on: Apple TV+

Scout Tafoya is a movie and TV critic, director and creator of the long-running video essay sequence The Unloved for RogerEbert.com. He has written for The Village Voice, Movie Remark, The Los Angeles Evaluate of Books and Nylon Journal. He’s the writer of Cinemaphagy: On the Psychedelic Classical Type of Tobe Hooper, the director of 25 function movies, and the director and editor of greater than 300 video essays, which will be discovered at Patreon.com/honorszombie.