Monsters at Work Season 1, Episodes 1 + 2 recap: Tylor settles into MIFT

Despite it being 20 years since the original Monsters, Inc. film premiered, the new Disney+ series Monsters at Work picks up right where the movie left off. The entire business model of Monsters, Inc. has fundamentally shifted since then. At the end of Monsters, Inc., the company decided to harvest children’s laughter to power their society instead of gathering screams.

The first two episodes of Monsters at Work pick up right after this change has taken place and Monsters, Inc. continues experiencing the growing pains and challenges that come with such a significant change in the workplace culture. Now monsters compete to become the top “Jokesters” instead of the best “Scarers.”

Mike Wazaowski (Billy Crystal) and James P. “Sulley” Sullivan (John Goodman) return in elevated roles within the company hierarchy. Sulley is promoted to CEO and Mike as his business partner. The second episode explores more of how Mike is adapting to being the top Jokester, he’s basically powering the entire city on his own as the monsters struggle to turn Scarers into Jokesters and find monsters who are up to the job.

Enter Tylor Tuskmon (Ben Feldman) a graduate of Monster University’s Scare program. Since he was young, Tylor has dreamed of making it to the Scare Floor and becoming one of the best scarers around. But he quickly discovers that Monsters, Inc. has changed its mission statement and finds himself reassigned to the Monsters, Inc. Facilities Team (MIFT), a group of passionate weirdos who do all the maintenance work. Tylor is unenthused by his new position and dedicates himself to learning the art of comedy so he can become a Jokester rather than Scarer, anything that isn’t MIFT.

Monsters at Work juggles some surprisingly heavy themes

At MIFT, Tylor meets the rest of the group, including his old college acquaintance Val Little (Mindy Kaling); his friendly, scatterbrained new boss Fritz (Henry Winkler); the mischievous, scheming Duncan (Lucas Neff); and a crab-like follower named Cutter (Alanna Ubach).

The MIFT gang genuinely loves their jobs and can’t fathom why Tylor would ever want to leave them. But as Polygon points out in their review, Monsters at Work has a surprisingly heavy, albeit poignant, theme running through its storyline. Tylor and his family spent years and tons of money trying to get him a top-notch education to follow in the footsteps of people like Sulley. Now his entire college education is virtually useless since Monsters, Inc. is no longer in the business of scaring. That means Tylor’s lifelong dream has fallen apart within just one day at his dream job.

So far, the show hasn’t really grappled with the magnitude of this decision and the way it might impact Tylor mentally and emotionally as the story unfolds. As for the laughs, you won’t find any deep belly laughs here, at least not yet, but I did get a couple of mild chuckles out of the gags.

It does deal with those heavier themes with humor, and some of the moments that made me laugh most were the jokes aimed at adults, perhaps fittingly. Val mentions that it’s ironic she dropped out of college and yet here she and Tylor are, at the exact same position.

Monsters at Work will also appeal to those who were genuine fans of the original movies as many characters return with their voice actors reprising their roles. Apart from Mike and Sulley, Celia, Smitty, Needleman, and Roz are back (and I love the introduction of Roz’s twin sister Roze), and the world itself is packed with fun easter eggs and background jokes you’ll want to keep your eyes open to catch.

Also, the animation is stunning and looks even better than the original film. I find Monsters at Work endearing enough to keep watching, especially as a fan of this universe (it’s one of my favorite Pixar franchises) but I look forward to seeing if the show can find its footing more as it goes along.

New episodes of Monsters at Work air Wednesdays on Disney+