Weekend Watch: Companion, Mythic Quest Season 4

Technology run amok

Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, a relationship reset and the latest from the game crew. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite, Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite and Blue Sky: @jammerwhite.bsky.social

How much you enjoy Drew Hancock’s Companion shouldn’t be affected by whether or not you’ve seen the ridiculously spoilerific trailer or even the poster images, which also hint at one of the movie’s big plot points.

But, like last year’s Barbarian (whose writer/director Zach Cregger was integral in getting Companion made), it does help if you go in as fresh and unsullied as possible.

Because Hancock’s directorial debut is an audacious, smart and sometimes gory treat that has more on its mind than being a simple horror thriller.

The movie focuses on Josh (Jack Quaid) and Iris, a seemingly solid couple who show up for a weekend with friends at a lavish house in a picturesque, remote location. Iris is nervous –– one of the friends, the beautiful yet snobby Kat (Megan Suri) constantly looks down on her. She hopes for a better response from welcoming couple Eli (Harvey Guillén) and Patrick (Lukas Gage).

If you’ve ever seen a movie where people go to a remote location and there is tension from the off, you know things aren’t going to end well. And indeed, Companion telegraphs that conceit from the off, subverting the meet-cute between Iris and Josh, and hinting at the more toxic elements of their relationship.

Suffice to say, nothing is quite what it seems, but the various plot turns are best enjoyed on their own terms. Hancock shows an admirable control of both technique and style, and the resulting anarchy is leavened with a healthy dose of humour. It’s clever, chaotic and recommended if you’re looking for a very different sort of date night movie (though it might make you look askance at your partner).

Companion is in US and UK cinemas now.

Image Credit: Apple TV+

I reviewed the third season of Apple’s workplace comedy Mythic Quest back in 2022 and there has been a bit of a wait for this new batch of episodes.

And while there is still plenty of entertainment to be found in Season 4, there is also the creeping feeling that there are only so many variations of similar jokes that can be tried on these characters.

With Ian Grimm (Rob McElhenney) and Poppy Li (Charlotte Nicdao) back in the Mythic Quest fold after setting up their own games studio last season, the show falls into a more familiar groove. Ian is still a pompous weirdo and Poppy still tends towards the goofily obsessive (though she has seemingly found more of a work-life balance at last).

The rest of the Quest bunch are either exactly how you remember them (David Hornsby’s David Brittlesbee remains barely holding on in charge) or subtly evolving (Imani Hakim’s Dana has become a game developer herself, working via the company’s creative platform Playpen.)

There is still a lot to like about the show, but as I mentioned during my Season 3 review, it has never quite hit the heights of its first season classics Quarantine and Everlight. Even this year’s stand-alone episode feels like a lesser variant on previous seasons’ efforts.

While it continues to find the funny in its story of clashing egos and quirky characters, the feeling in this fourth season is that it might be time for the final boss. But worry not –– anthology spin-off series Side Quest launches the day that Season 4’s final episode lands, with the promise of new avenues to explore.

The first two episodes of Mythic Quest Season 4 are on Apple TV+ now. The remaining eight will follow weekly.