‘The Quest’ is a brilliant idea for a show
You have to admire the genius of “The Quest,” now streaming on Disney+. You may not watch it or like it, but you’ve got to stand back and admire its ability to blend scripted elements and reality TV tropes in a world out of a fantasy novel inspired by computer games that appears certain to become a theme-park destination.
Produced by people behind “The Lord of the Rings” movies and “The Amazing Race” series, this reality competition takes place inside a giant castle, complete with characters right out of the “Everealm” novels, who speak in a rather exalted patois complete with vaguely British accents.
Into this fantasyland arrives a gaggle of young people in street clothes, talking and giggling as teenagers do. It’s like the gang from “Stranger Things” was transported to “Myst.”
From the moment the teens arrive, they must accentuate their individual strengths and talents to get to the finish line, or whatever they call triumph in this cosplay universe.
At first. the clash of accents and attitudes is amusing, but soon the players become embedded in their roles and their (gasp) “destiny.”
In an amusing and enlightening piece in the Seattle Times, Rob Owen profiled Serean Kim, an Olympia, Washington, teen who participated in “The Quest.” In a revealing aside, she said the show’s producers and handlers had to keep the kids from their natural habit of chatting about their favorite shows, games, songs and movies. Heaven forbid that somebody mention a show from the DC multiverse in Everealm! She said they even had to keep the players from humming, lest they infringe on somebody’s copyright.
You need a multitude of talents and powers to reign supreme in Everealm. But nobody overrules a corporate lawyer!
› May the Firth be with you! Colin Firth, now appearing in the scripted adaptation of “The Staircase” streaming on HBO Max, stars in the movie “Operation Mincemeat,” recently released in theaters and currently streaming on Netflix.
Set in 1943, it follows British spies as they set about an elaborate hoax to confuse the Germans about the landing site of a massive Allied invasion of Southern Europe. This epic ruse, involving a dead body planted with false evidence and dumped at sea, was previously explored in the 1956 drama “The Man Who Never Was,” starring Clifton Webb.
“Mincemeat” co-stars Matthew Macfadyen (“Succession”). He portrayed Mr. Darcy in the 2005 feature film adaptation of “Pride & Prejudice.” Firth played Darcy in a 1995 miniseries version that many consider the best.
› Also streaming on Netflix, the new thriller series “42 Days of Darkness” follows a woman’s desperate efforts to locate her missing sister amid an official police investigation and the chaos of a media firestorm. This marks the first original Netflix series to be imported from Chile.
› “NOVA” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) sifts through emerging fossil evidence from North Dakota that buttresses the theory that an asteroid strike caused the extinction of Earth’s dinosaurs.