Kate’s Greats: June 2025

Kate’s Greats are awards given to movies, TV shows, and music that the author has viewed and/or listened to over the past month. These awards may celebrate underrated, overlooked, or obscure moments of pop culture that may not otherwise get the attention they deserve. Other times, they will celebrate the buzziest pop culture–but will always have a fresh take. Award categories may include, but are not limited to, ‘Goofiest Thriller’ and ‘Tiniest Moustache’ (the latter of which Timothée Chalamet wins by a landslide). May the best, worst, boldest, and weirdest win.

Best Reunion: Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt

^{Brad Pitt via Wikimedia Commons; Tom Cruise via Wikimedia Commons}

For the first time in 24 years, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt reunited. Two of the most famous A-list celebrities meeting after years apart is a HUGE deal (at least to me), and rightfully so, considering they have so much in common. So much in fact you could make a list:

They both have two syllable names
Their personal lives are constantly being speculated on by the tabloid media
They’ve both been referred to as “the last movie star” by many media outlets (Timothée Chalamet would like to have a chat)
They have many, many action movies–so many in fact you could make a list (a list within this list!)
- Brad Pitt has Bullet Train (a John Wick/Quentin Tarantino-esque movie that never quite hits the highs of the films it’s indebted to but nonetheless has very silly Thomas the Tank Engine references), The Lost City (his two minute cameo almost makes the movie worth watching!), and Mr. and Mrs. Smith (which not only began the Brangelina saga but also had a pre-Nobody Wants This Adam Brody)
- Tom Cruise has Mission Impossible (which I may know a thing or two about), Collateral (one of the rare flicks he plays a villain), and Top Gun (“Danger Zone” is still a banger all these years later)

Speaking of Top Gun, Brad Pitt’s new movie, F1, was directed by Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinksi, so it’s probably a good idea to drive on over to the theaters to see it. You can check out the trailer below:

^{Warner Brothers via YouTube}

Best countdown not on a show named Countdown: The Bear

Season four of The Bear started with a bang, giving us the news that the titular restaurant will be forced to close if it doesn’t turn around in two months–which is approximately 1400 hours. If that wasn’t scary enough, there is a literal clock counting down the 1400 hours until their doom, essentially turning the kitchen into the definition of a ticking time bomb.

Meanwhile, on the Amazon Prime show Countdown, which premiered the same day, there is a LITERAL bomb waiting to go off with the threat of an impending world-destroying nuclear disaster–yet no countdown clock in sight, giving us an ambiguous timeline and fate for all the characters involved. Maybe the “countdown” is referring to the fact that Jensen Ackles’ character Mark Meachum has mere months to live due to an inoperable brain tumor? Time will tell–if only the show dropped all their episodes at once like The Bear!

Best Cameo: Milo Ventimiglia, Countdown

Speaking of Countdown, the show gave us one of the best cameos this month in the form of the delightful Milo Ventimiglia. Ventimiligia has tragically not graced our screens since the short-lived 2023 TV show The Company You Keep–but his charm in those two years has clearly not waned. He gives us the best five minutes of screentime one can have before being killed off by a gunshot wound to the chest. Wait, you ask. Wasn’t he ALSO killed off in arguably his most famous show, This Is Us? Why yes. Yes he was. WHY ARE TV SHOWS DOING THIS TO HIM?? If anything, maybe Amazon can greenlight a Countdown prequel following his character before the tragedy. If they can do it for The Terminal List, they can do it for Countdown!

^{Yet ANOTHER Countdown in the form of the classic Beyoncé song “Countdown.” Notice she sings a countdown–the TV show doesn’t even bother with any form of time. Maybe it’s all a dream? Guess the only way to find out is to keep watching!} ^Source: ^Beyoncé ^{via YouTube}

Best Substitute for The Lincoln Lawyer: Ginny and Georgia

Are you craving edge-of-your-seat thrills? Are you hungry for juicy, dramatic monologues filled with shocking revelations? Are you in need of a show that ends every episode with a cliffhanger that requires you to hit play on the next episode? Well, a lot of that describes Netflix’s compelling legal drama The Lincoln Lawyer, which has tragically not yet dropped its much-anticipated fourth season. However, if you’re looking for a similar show, I’ve got just the one: Ginny and Georgia. How does a show about a teenager and her mother living in a picture-perfect town filled with secrets bubbling underneath the surface relate to a legal drama following a clever lawyer grappling with his own demons? You may ask. Well, many ways. The edge-of-your-seat thrills in each series often come from game-changing twists, the ever-evolving interpersonal relationships each character deals with, the stakes that seem to heighten with every episode–and of course, the many slow motion montages where you know something IMPORTANT is about to happen. The characters also seem to parallel each other: Georgia was arrested for murder at the end of season two, with her trial taking place during season three. Meanwhile, at the end of season three, the Lincoln Lawyer himself Mickey Haller was arrested for murder–meaning much of season four will undoubtedly center around that (even though he didn’t commit it!!!) In the meantime, while you wait for the many unanswered questions that surround the upcoming season (Who is framing him for murder? Why are they framing him? Is he going to represent himself?), you can watch season three of Ginny and Georgia–and also listen to my Lincoln Lawyer playlist.

Best Pop Album: Addison, Addison Rae

This past month, Addison Rae dropped her much-anticipated debut album, simply titled Addison–and it did not disappoint. There are a million reasons to love this album, from the incredible visuals (half the tracks have music videos), the y2k-era nostalgia (if this is Rae’s audition for the Britney Spears biopic, she should get it), and the all-female songwriting team (Rae co-wrote the album with Elvira Anderfjärd and Luka Closer). But beyond that, somehow, there’s even more to love–the subtle yet powerful key change at the end of “Diet Pepsi,” the “Speed Drive”-coded “Fame is a Gun” (Charli XCX is one of Rae’s inspirations and frequent collaborators), and the whispered, spoken intro of “Money is Everything.” Rae’s album is fun, delightful and pure pop escpaism–everyhing a summer release should be. And if you like Rae’s album, you can listen to Lorde’s equally compelling Virgin–Rae’s “In the Rain” and Lorde’s “Broken Glass” are worthy successors to Brat summer, after all.