Pop Culture Happy Hour
Get obsessed with us. Four days a week, Pop Culture Happy Hour serves you recommendations and commentary on the buzziest movies, TV, music, books, videogames and more. Join arts journalists Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, Stephen Thompson, and Aisha Harris - plus a rotating cast of guest pop culture aficionados. The Happy Hour team leaves room at the table for exploring a range of reactions and opinions on every bit of the pop universe. From lowbrow to highbrow to the stuff in between, they take it all with a shot of cheer.
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Tv & Film
Music Commentary
Film Reviews
Books
Arts
News
After Shows
Entertainment News
Tv Reviews
Music
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 20 minutes
- Episodes
- 348
- Years Active
- 2024 - 2025
Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question
Jim and Pam. Mulder and Scully. Janine and Gregory. Carmy and Sydney. Meredith and McDreamy. You know how it goes: two television characters with obvious chemistry who fight or look at each other lo…
00:23:08 |
Tue 25 Jun 2024
Is Star Wars' The Acolyte a force to be reckoned with?
The new Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte is a murder mystery. Someone is killing great Jedi masters, and while we learn the killer's identity early on, the real mystery driving the series is why …
00:23:18 |
Mon 24 Jun 2024
Thelma And What's Making Us Happy
Financial scams are an unfortunate phenomenon, but what happens when a fraudster messes with the wrong grandma? The very fun action-comedy Thelma imagines exactly this scenario. The movie stars June …
00:18:14 |
Fri 21 Jun 2024
HBO's Fantasmas is new and different and uniquely itself
The brilliant and idiosyncratic new HBO series Fantasmas has a simple plot. Creator and star Julio Torres searches New York City for an earring he lost at a club. In the execution, that quest gets tr…
00:17:58 |
Thu 20 Jun 2024
Bridgerton closes out a crowded third season
The second half of Bridgerton's latest season just dropped on Netflix, and naturally the course of true love continues to not run smoothly. Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (…
00:18:48 |
Tue 18 Jun 2024
It's getting hot. So what's sweatiest movie ever made?
Whether they're lightly perspiring, gently glowing, or soaked through from sweltering, people in the movies sweat a lot. But what movie has had people sweat the very most? With summer underway, we a…
00:22:10 |
Mon 17 Jun 2024
Inside Out 2 And What's Making Us Happy
Pixar's Inside Out introduced us to the core emotions inside an 11-year-old girl named Riley. We met Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), and Anger (Lewis Black). In Inside Out 2, Riley is exp…
00:21:21 |
Fri 14 Jun 2024
Jake Gyllenhaal's Presumed Innocent updates a legal thriller
Presumed Innocent was a blockbuster legal thriller as a novel, and then a hit movie starring Harrison Ford. Now, Apple TV+ brings back the story of the accuser turned defendant as a limited series. J…
00:23:03 |
Thu 13 Jun 2024
Our favorite graduation moments in pop culture
This is the time of year when so many students graduate. Whether it's graduation episodes of our favorite TV series, high school songs, or movies about the last wild night of high school, we're revis…
00:23:58 |
Tue 11 Jun 2024
Am I OK? is a coming-out movie for adults
Am I OK? is a about what happens when you finally come to accept your sexuality much later in life than many do. It stars Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno as two women in their 30s who have been best…
00:14:36 |
Mon 10 Jun 2024
Hit Man And What's Making Us Happy
Netflix's entertaining dark comedy Hit Man is not about a hired killer. It's about a guy who pretends to be a hired killer. Director Richard Linklater co-wrote this film with movie star of the moment…
00:25:39 |
Fri 07 Jun 2024
Doctor Who is enlivened by its new Black, openly queer star
The venerable British science fiction series Doctor Who is back with a new season. Ncuti Gatwa — who is Black and openly queer — brings a vibrant energy to the story of an alien who travels through s…
00:26:36 |
Thu 06 Jun 2024
Clipped recreates an embarrassing NBA scandal
The new FX limited series Clipped tells the story of Donald Sterling, the then-owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, who was outed as a racist. Sterling's girlfriend – who was Black and Mexican – secret…
00:21:20 |
Wed 05 Jun 2024
Looking back at The Sopranos, the godfather of prestige TV
The Sopranos changed television. The HBO series was centered on mobster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a deeply flawed male antihero. That then- innovative approach cast a long shadow on television…
00:25:10 |
Tue 04 Jun 2024
Welcome to Pop Culture Happy Hour
Get obsessed with us. Four days a week, Pop Culture Happy Hour serves you recommendations and commentary on the buzziest movies, TV, music, books, videogames and more. Join arts journalists Linda Hol…
00:01:31 |
Fri 31 May 2024
Best Fictional Bands And What's Making Us Happy
Sometimes, our favorite musical artists are too good to be true because they're sprung from the imaginations of Hollywood screenwriters. But what makes a fake band great? Today, we are debating the b…
00:27:13 |
Fri 31 May 2024
We Are Lady Parts rocks with bracing honesty and nuance
The Peacock series We Are Lady Parts is a bold and very funny comedy about an up-and-coming London punk band called Lady Parts. The members of Lady Parts, and its manager, are all young Muslim women,…
00:12:27 |
Wed 29 May 2024
Terrible but bingeable TV shows
What is it about a show that turns you into a bitter-ender, that keeps you dutifully watching every last episode, long after the train has jumped the tracks? Even when you know it's not good, but, fo…
00:23:08 |
Tue 28 May 2024
Why Chris Pine gave up on being perfect
Today, we are bringing you an episode of a new NPR podcast hosted by our pal Rachel Martin. It's called Wild Card, and it's a new interview show where the game controls the conversation. Each week, t…
00:25:52 |
Mon 27 May 2024
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga And What's Making Us Happy
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is packed with bone-crunching practical stunts and lots of gnarly, diesel-powered chase scenes. It also shows a commitment to worldbuilding that grapples with themes of femini…
00:25:42 |
Fri 24 May 2024
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