Welcome to this weekās Mullet edition of the Friday High 5.
Business in the front: The 5 things I enjoyed this week, free for all to enjoy.
Party in the back: A deeper exploration of something on my mind, for supporters.
Business in the front
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
Vibe: Stunts upon stunts, with no story between.
Note: I actually watched this two weekends ago, on Fatherās Day, but didnāt write about it previously because I was sick.
Last month I watched an hour-long BFI interview of Tom Cruise that delved into his long career and also surreptitiously served as a commercial for The Final Reckoning. During the talk, Cruise said of the franchise, and the new film, that they start with the stunts and then shoehorn in story around them (Iām paraphrasing, but thatās essentially what he said, unironically and with some pride). To the point that they sometimes have actors and everyone on set but donāt yet know what to do with them.
I doubt anyone whoās ever seen a Mission Impossible is surprised by this. The draw of these films is the stunts, and by extension, seeing what batshit crazy stuff Cruise got up to this time. But if the story underpinning the stunts is half-baked, the action loses its appeal.
The Final Reckoning has two incredible sequences that are worth the price of admission. I genuinely mean that. If itās still playing near you: Go see it. The stunts are incredible. But itās not a good movie. The story is muddled, nonsensical, and often just stupid. About an hour in, I shut off my brain and let the images flood my eyes. As Cruise intended.
Library Books
Vibe: Fun and free.
Since I was feeling approximately 200% better yesterdayāmore on that saga belowāwe decided to run some errands, which ended with a trip to the library. My favorite sort of trip. All the books I can carry, for free?
You wonāt find any rhyme or reason behind the books I checked out. This scattershot approach to librarying is my favorite way to do it. Just wander the stacks and look for stuff that looks interesting. Hereās what caught my attention this trip:
Death Need Not Be Fatal: Never heard of Malachy McCourt, but this book on death and aging looks hilarious, and ties into stuff Iāve been thinking about.
Klara and the Sun: the only novel I checked out. Dystopian fantasy story that was on Obamaās list of favorite books a few years ago.
The Sixth Extinction: Been on my radar forever, if for no other reason than I thought dinosaurs were our first and only extinction.
Bitcoin Billionaires: Written by the guy who wrote the book that became The Social Network.
Discipline Equals Freedom: Iāve heard of Jocko and have even scrolled past his face on YouTube, so I know heās a former Seal or something. The title appealed to me.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Vibe: Elves, dungeon crawling, and magic items: D&D without the nerdy connotations.
Last year I revisited the original The Legend of Zelda for the first time since the 90s. I loved it. Itās a timeless masterpiece of gaming. Replaying A Link to the Past was a bygone conclusion. Itās long been my favorite Zelda game, though I also havenāt played it since the 90s.
Iād guess Iām maybe 1/3 of the way through the game. Itās great fun, and in almost every way is a much better version of the original. Twice the graphics, clever gameplay innovations, tricky dungeons and foes. However, Iām coming to a surprising conclusion.
I like the original more.
Itās interesting because I was there throughout the entire NES and SNES generations. I played these games when they were new. And my conclusion at the timeāone Iāve held for 30+ yearsāis that A Link to the Past is the superior game. It undoubtedly is superior. But Iām finding I actually preferred the original.
Maybe Iām just gravitating toward simpler pleasures as I age. More on that below.
The Handmaidās Tale: S1
Vibe: Civilization is a thin veneer.
The Handmaidās Tale is a drama about an alternate America in which shit has gone really, really bad. Birth rates have plummeted and pollution has wrecked the world. The solution: A theocratic surveillance state in which fertile women are treated like cattle.
I probably picked the single worst time to start watching The Handmaidās Tale. Things can obviously get much worse in America, but the current trajectory makes this show less a cautionary tale and more like destiny. The really terrifying thing is I can absolutely see people treating it as instructive: āAh, so this is what we can do once we strip away everyoneās rights. Quasi-Amish sex slaves. Got it.ā
I can imagine this was a hard watch when it debuted in 2017. Itās a different kind of difficult in 2025, against a backdrop of Americans regularly getting disappeared.
Weāre only halfway through the season. I want to see what happens next while also dread seeing what happens next. Itās riveting drama. But I also want to prepare myself for all possible futures.
Platonic
Vibe: True friendship is strange and beautiful.
It was necessary to balance out the heaviness of The Handmaidās Tale with something else. Anything else.
Enter Platonic.
This show is about a pair of former BFFs (Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne) who reconnect after a decade. The premise is that these former besties are a man and a woman, seemingly from two different worlds, but united by a quirky, one might say dorky, sense of humor. Platonic reunites Rogan and Byrne, who played a married couple in Neighbors (2014). They donāt have chemistry in the traditional man-woman sense, but they operate on a similar comedic wavelength. Or, rather, Byrne can effortlessly descend to the level Rogan has made a career out of. Which is why you could buy them as a married couple despite everything your eyes told you.
They make way more sense as sex-agnostic friends.
Platonic is hilarious and also strangely sweet. In a different show, there would be an inkling that this friendship could lead to something more. One of the enduring rules of storytelling seemingly is that men and women canāt be friends. That someone always wants more, even just in a passing fancy sort of way. But Platonic resists that temptation. It doesnāt even wink at the audience. Itās refreshing.
Party in the back
After being laid out by a summer cold for a full week, I optimisticallyāsome might say foolishlyādeclared victory Tuesday. The cold was vanquished. Mission accomplished.
Wednesday it got its revenge.
