Delicious in Dungeon

Episode 21

Episode 21 of Delicious in Dungeon slows the pace and delivers one of the best locales in the series thus far.

You probably already know this, but the Golden Country is a stellar microcosm within the dungeon. We've had hits sprinkled around about what it entails, who lives or lived there, and so on as the party has traversed the dungeon. This week though we finally get a real front-row seat to the Golden Country as the gang gets transported there and spends time with its people. It was fun before with Laios visiting via the painting and it's that much more engaging now that the whole party is visiting.

To my mind, the Golden Country works so well because it taps into the same essential strengths of the rest of the series yet focuses them in a unique way. Delicious in Dungeon shines when showing off some oddball new monster of the week and exploring its unique physiology, ecology, and preparation as a meal. It has the same rhythm as a procedural and plays to the series' strengths: lovable goofballs encountering and ingesting fantastical wildlife. Here, the mystery shifts from monster-specific weirdness to horror-adjacent mysteries, making the audience wonder how this town came to be this way and why the people there live as they do.

The mystery gets that extra oomph from its relatable horror too. I like the use of immortality as a prompt to reflect on the positive aspects of mortality and meaning. We have to ask ourselves tough questions as we consider the situation of the people in Golden Country. Food is central to our struggle as human beings, yet it's also central to our understanding of work, community, and self. Senshi comments that they continue to perform these rituals to keep their sanity, and when you think of how much time and energy food occupies even in our modern lives, it makes a lot of sense.

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Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Delicious in Dungeon is currently streaming on Netflix.