0:04

It's just about summer and we hope that

0:06

means you're in for a future filled with sunshine,

0:09

vacations, downtime with friends, and of course,

0:12

summer entertainment. I'm Stephen Thompson

0:14

and today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy

0:16

Hour, we offer up a guide to some of the most

0:18

exciting TV, movies, and music you

0:20

can check out this summer. Joining

0:23

me are all of my fellow

0:25

Pop Culture Happy Hour hosts, Aisha

0:27

Harris. Hey

0:27

Aisha. Phew, we are here.

0:30

Glenn Weldon. Hey pal. It's

0:33

good to have you. Linda Holmes. Hello,

0:35

my friends. Now right

0:37

off the bat, we have a major milestone to celebrate.

0:40

The four of us are sitting

0:43

in historic Studio 44 at

0:45

NPR headquarters in DC together

0:48

in person for the very first time.

0:51

Yeah.

0:51

Accurate, accurate. We're all

0:53

just breathing all over each other.

0:56

I'm just taking this opportunity to like, every

0:58

time Stephen breathes out, I breathe

1:00

in. Give me those droplets, baby.

1:02

I am happy. This

1:06

is unsettling for me. Could we just do this on Zoom

1:08

as well? Just so it's

1:11

a little more comfortable. I've

1:13

just enjoyed getting to hear Aisha Harris

1:16

test a microphone for the first time.

1:18

Wasn't that fun? That's right. How

1:20

are you feeling about this? Do you feel like now you see

1:22

what you've gotten yourself into now that you're in

1:25

a room with all of us? Oh, it feels

1:27

so good. It feels as though

1:29

I was always here and never

1:31

left. Well,

1:32

we are here to record our

1:35

summer guide. We've each brought

1:37

two things to highlight that are hopefully

1:40

coming up this summer. Obviously,

1:42

some release dates are bound to be in flux.

1:44

We made our picks based on the

1:47

ironclad hope that all of these works will

1:49

be available sometime between now and

1:51

the end of summer. Aisha Harris,

1:53

you are up first. Give us your first

1:56

pick. Ooh. So if you

1:58

know anything about me... And if you

2:00

have listened to this show long enough, you know how much

2:03

I am just not into IP. Too

2:06

much IP, too much intellectual property, I'm

2:08

over it. And Barbie, really?

2:11

Like, we're going to make a movie about Barbie, and

2:13

yet. And yet. And yet. Director

2:16

is Greta Gerwig. She co-wrote

2:18

it with her partner, Noah Baumbach.

2:21

And I feel as though I am

2:24

going to get an IP that

2:27

is actually

2:28

really freaking good. Greta

2:30

Gerwig has the bona fides that

2:33

I am looking for. She's directed one

2:35

of my absolute favorite movies of the last few years,

2:37

and then another movie that I really, really loved

2:39

and admired. And she put a great spin on

2:41

it. And that's Lady Bird, which is just

2:43

such a fantastic film, a coming of age story,

2:46

and Little Women, which we've

2:48

seen many, many times on screen

2:51

and in other adaptations. But she made it different.

2:53

She made it alive. And so this

2:55

is why I am so stoked for it.

2:58

The other

2:58

reason I'm stoked for it is the fact that this

3:00

cast is just kind of insane. Margot

3:03

Robbie as Barbie, Ryan Gosling

3:05

as Ken, and then there's many other Barbies

3:08

and many other Kens. You

3:10

have Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon,

3:12

Michael Cera pops up, Will Ferrell. I'm

3:15

optimistic. I am hugely

3:17

excited about Barbie is not necessarily a

3:22

phrase I expected to be uttering, but I

3:24

share your intense love of Lady

3:26

Bird and Little Women. And I love

3:28

the fact that every frame that has

3:31

been released of this movie so far is

3:33

already a meme. Yes. So

3:35

I think that kind of care

3:37

is being put into it. And I'm very excited about that.

3:40

Yeah, and when the trailer came out, there were people saying, I can't understand

3:42

what's going on in this movie. And clearly what's going

3:44

on in this movie is there's kids playing

3:46

with Barbies, and we're seeing what they're creating

3:48

out of that. That's my prediction. And I think that makes

3:50

a lot of sense. Yeah, I love the

3:53

aesthetic of it. I love the look of

3:55

it from the trailer. I think that

3:57

Greta Gerwig is somebody who certainly knows how to kind

3:59

of pay.

3:59

attention to every detail. I

4:02

am a little bit worried about that question

4:04

of like, what is it about? Well,

4:08

no, apparently, at least per variety,

4:11

this fantasy comedy follows

4:13

the world's most famous doll who sets off

4:15

for the human world to find true happiness after

4:17

being expelled from Barbie land for being less

4:19

than perfect.

4:20

OK, well, that's a plot. All right,

4:22

well, that's definitely a plot. Absolutely,

4:24

I'm excited about this, too. I just

4:27

want to stare at the clothes all day.

4:30

I think Ryan Gosling has a wonderful sense

4:32

of humor about himself as Margot Robbie

4:34

does about herself. He has Kennerjee as

4:36

well. Oh, Lord. OK, for the record, he's the

4:38

one who said this. I think it's

4:40

Greta Gerwig. She's not going to make it not about anything.

4:43

And in the same way that we were worried that the Lego

4:45

movie was going to just be a Lego ad,

4:47

but then it was awesome, I am confident

4:50

that in the hands of Greta

4:51

Gerwig, this will be, too. Yeah, I think the Lego

4:53

movie is a great comparison. That's exactly what I was thinking

4:56

of. And I hope that's what it turns out to be. So

4:58

that is Barbie. It's out in theaters on

5:00

July 21, 2023.

5:02

Cannot wait. Linda

5:04

Holmes, give us your first pick. Well, I

5:06

am very excited to be recommending

5:09

American Born Chinese, which is coming

5:12

out on Disney Plus on May 24. This

5:15

is an eight-episode adaptation

5:17

of a graphic novel by Jean-Louin

5:19

Yang. And it's about a

5:22

kid whose life is turned

5:24

upside down because he becomes friends

5:27

with a kid who is the son of

5:29

a god. And

5:32

they have adventures, and there's kung fu, and

5:34

it's all

5:35

from everything that I have read. It is full

5:37

of many wonderful, wonderful things. I am excited

5:40

to see it. And I mean, I think the first

5:42

big attention that this adaptation got

5:45

was this very impressive fact that

5:47

it reunites not only Michelle Yeoh and

5:50

Ki Hui Kuan from everything everywhere all

5:52

at once, but also in what

5:54

I understand to be a guest appearance, Stephanie

5:56

Hsu. So that's

5:58

a lot of people.

5:59

from a very recent, very beloved

6:02

movie to bring together in

6:04

a new series. I am not

6:06

always a graphic novel adaptation person

6:08

just because I'm not necessarily a fantasy

6:11

kind of world building kind of person. But

6:13

I'm very excited to see what this is.

6:16

Are you excited about it, Ashley?

6:18

Tremendously. I love this book and I love this

6:20

author a great deal. And this

6:22

is remarkably grounded with a lot of fantasy

6:24

elements in it. I think you're gonna dig it. Awesome. That's

6:27

American Born Chinese out May

6:30

24th on Disney Plus. Yep. Excellent.

6:33

Glenn Weldon, give us your first pick. I'm gonna keep the IP

6:35

train rolling. Blue

6:37

Beetle is in theaters August 18th.

6:40

This is a DC superhero movie starring a

6:42

character with not a lot of name recognition, so

6:44

we go

6:45

on. Yeah, I think I drove a Blue Beetle. I

6:48

once found a Blue Beetle in my blueberry, which is

6:50

terrifying. I hope you're having fun. Look,

6:55

this could be like the first Shazam movie or it could be like

6:57

Adam or like the second Shazam movie. It's

6:59

a crapshoot by my count. Believe it or not, there

7:01

have been three superheroes named Blue

7:03

Beetle in comics over the years, which is odd

7:05

because it's not a name that strikes terror into the hearts of criminals

7:09

unless they're squeamish about bugs. But

7:12

this is the latest. It was introduced in 2006. It's

7:14

about a Mexican-American kid named Jaime Reyes.

7:17

He finds this scarab, which is actually a piece of

7:19

extraterrestrial military tech

7:22

that fuses to his spine and whenever his

7:24

life is in danger, it gives him this big tactical

7:26

exoskeleton with all kinds of weapons and powers that

7:28

he has to learn to control and look. It's

7:30

not the premise that is getting me excited here because

7:32

the premise is basically venom, right?

7:35

It's basically also the spider suit that Peter Parker

7:37

had in the Tom Holland movies and

7:40

also some body horror thrown into the mix with the whole fusing

7:42

to his spine.

7:43

Sure. So like the fly. Exactly.

7:46

But the trailer captures a lot of what made

7:48

this character so good, which is how much he cares

7:51

about his family. And the family is very central

7:53

to the trailer. The film is directed by Angel

7:55

Manuel Soto, who did Charm

7:57

City Kings, which is a film that came out in 2020.

7:59

It stars Sholo Marihuena

8:02

as Jaime, and that kid's been around

8:04

a lot, Cobra Kai and Parenthood. It

8:06

was originally intended to be an HBO Max exclusive.

8:10

Is that a good sign or a bad sign? The fact that

8:12

they're putting it out in theaters would seem like a good

8:14

sign. The fact that they're putting it out in theaters August

8:17

18th. Yeah, we'll see. Sometimes that's a dumping

8:19

ground. I mean, what happened was this whole

8:21

notion of will do HBO Max exclusive

8:24

DC movies kind of got scuttled. Right, right,

8:26

right. And so this is in that mix. Who

8:28

knows?

8:28

The question is this, based

8:31

on my prior experience with

8:33

Blue Beatles, has

8:35

have large parts of him been sprayed

8:37

with red rust oleum?

8:38

Okay. All

8:40

right. Have your fun. Was

8:44

John Lennon a Blue Beetle? He seemed blue a lot.

8:49

Coming from the makers of Blue Beetle, Punch Buggy. Now

8:53

that is a movie that I would

8:55

watch. Can you imagine? All right.

8:58

So that is Blue Beetle in theaters August

9:00

18th. Well, I am going to keep the IP

9:02

train rolling. Chuck a check. Chuck a check.

9:05

Chuck a check for one more pick. There

9:07

are several different ways to smash

9:10

a bunch of intellectual property together and call

9:12

it a movie. You can do it the

9:15

space jam legacy way, the Super

9:17

Mario Brothers movie way, where

9:19

you just kind of throw a bunch of references

9:22

on the screen and that's good enough to make

9:24

the Super Mario Brothers movie a billion dollars. Or

9:27

you can do it the Who Framed Roger

9:29

Rabbit way. You can do it the Lego movie way,

9:31

as we discussed in the earlier segment. We can do it the Dungeons

9:33

and Dragons Honor Among Thieves way. We can

9:36

do it the Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers way, and

9:38

we can do it the Into the Spider Verse

9:40

way. There we go. Yes. Into

9:44

the Spider Verse may be the best Spider-Man

9:46

movie. I'm not going to argue with that. Yeah,

9:48

I would agree. And three years

9:50

before Spider-Man No Way Home brought a whole

9:52

bunch of different Spider-Men together, Into

9:54

the Spider-Verse did more or less the same thing,

9:57

but including things like Peter Parker.

9:59

Exactly.

9:59

Spider-Man. And

10:02

did so in an enormously

10:04

inventive, funny, creatively

10:08

animated way. You could

10:10

watch that movie and squint

10:12

at some of the choices made in the way

10:15

they animated it. Things like

10:17

the noir Spider-Man is not

10:19

only black and white, but he's in stipple, I

10:21

think is so funny and clever

10:24

and thoughtful. Everything is putting more

10:26

thought into it than it probably needed, but

10:28

in the best possible way.

10:29

Well, on June 2nd,

10:32

Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse,

10:35

a sequel to Into the Spider-Verse,

10:37

is coming out and I am extraordinarily

10:40

excited about it. The plan apparently

10:42

is to visit these

10:44

different Spider-Man alternate

10:47

universes, which my history with

10:49

Marvel's multiverse stuff tends

10:51

to consist of me sitting there with my arms folded

10:54

trying to figure out

10:55

who's with what. But I

10:57

trust these people. I trust

11:00

Phil Lord, Chris Miller, David Callahan

11:02

to do this in a way that I will be able

11:04

to follow and that I will delight in

11:07

as much as I delighted in Into

11:09

the Spider-Verse, which is just so

11:11

fantastic. Yeah, and the trailer features a giant

11:14

kind of

11:14

multiverse of Spider beings.

11:17

And yet the first trailer that was released, I think, was

11:19

really focusing on him on a rooftop on

11:22

Miles Morales. Yeah, on Miles Morales on a rooftop

11:24

talking to his mom like you're growing up

11:26

and like that's the thing, right? That

11:28

heart is what separates Spider-Man from a lot of other

11:30

characters. And so I'm in fully

11:32

in.

11:33

Me too, and I don't even care about superhero

11:35

generally speaking, but you're right. Into the

11:37

Spider-Verse was so good and

11:39

I'm excited. So that is Spider-Man

11:42

across the Spider-Verse out in theaters

11:45

June 2nd. I am so excited. Aisha

11:47

Harris,

11:47

give us your second pick. Well, fairly well,

11:49

IP-land. You're leaving it

11:52

finally. So

11:55

yeah, my next pick is

11:57

I'm a Virgo. It was created

11:59

by...

11:59

Boots Riley and he's a co-show runner with

12:02

Zee Chun. And I have four words

12:04

for why I am so excited about this. Sorry

12:07

to bother you. That

12:09

was Boots Riley's debut feature. It came

12:11

out a few years ago, started with Lakeith Stanfield

12:14

and it actually made our black film

12:16

canon. It's to me one of the best films

12:18

of the last decade or so. And

12:20

I'm really excited for this because he is such a visual

12:23

and weird filmmaker

12:26

where you don't know where he is gonna be

12:28

going with whatever the story that he's telling

12:30

you. And this one seems

12:32

just as weird and just as interesting.

12:35

So this is a series and

12:37

it's coming on Prime Video. It stars Geraud

12:39

Jerome who plays Cudi, who is

12:41

a 13 foot tall black man who

12:44

goes and adventures because per the

12:46

trailer, he's a Virgo and Virgles

12:48

love adventure. So

12:51

Geraud Jerome is one of the

12:54

more interesting actors we've had over the last few years.

12:56

He won an Emmy for Ava DuVernay's When

12:58

They See Us, where he started as Corey Wise,

13:00

one of the exonerated five in the Central Park

13:02

Jogger case. And he was fantastic,

13:05

but most viewers probably recognize him

13:07

from one of his earlier roles,

13:09

which is playing Kevin in Moonlight, a

13:12

teenage Kevin in Moonlight. And so

13:14

to see him get a role like this, to be

13:16

working with Boots Riley, I'm just really

13:19

excited to see what happens.

13:20

There was like not a lot of plot that's been

13:23

revealed yet, although it has screened at

13:25

a couple of different festivals, but it sounds

13:27

like his family is attempting to shield him from

13:29

the world out of fear of how

13:31

it will treat him. But he like kind of breaks out and he

13:33

discovers, you know, classic sort of fairy tale,

13:36

coming of age kind of story. Actually kind of

13:39

reminds me of Frozen where they're like, hide your

13:41

weird quirk. And

13:44

it also features Mike Epps, Carmen Ejogo,

13:46

and Walton Goggins. So I'm

13:49

very excited for this. So that's

13:50

I'm a Virgo. It's streaming

13:52

on Amazon Prime video later this summer.

13:55

And we should also just note that Amazon supports

13:58

NPR and pays to distribute some of our.

13:59

content. All right, Glenn, hit us with your second

14:02

pick. We're back in IP, but it's public domain

14:04

IP. The last

14:07

voyage of the Demeter is a horror film

14:09

coming out in theaters August 11th. More

14:11

specifically, it is a Dracula film, but it is

14:13

a Dracula film that I know for a fact was

14:16

sold in the room because the pitch of this

14:18

thing is so good. It's such a smart

14:20

way to take a property that has been done to death,

14:23

undone to undeath, and find a new way

14:25

into it. You carve off just a sliver

14:28

of the story, right? So that's the same way that

14:29

biopics work best when it's like an event or

14:32

a day in the life. It's as opposed to doing the trying

14:34

to dramatize the Wikipedia page. So Dracula

14:36

by Bob Stoker is an epistolary

14:39

novel, which means it is composed of letters

14:41

and diary entries. One chapter

14:43

is called The Captain's Log, and it's exactly

14:45

that. The Demeter is this Russian shipping vessel

14:48

that Count Dracula hires to take a

14:50

bunch of boxes from Transylvania

14:52

to England. And it turns out,

14:54

unbeknownst to the captain and crew of the Demeter, that

14:56

those boxes contain the coffin of Dracula that he's

14:59

sleeping in and a bunch of earth from his

15:01

native country for vampire reasons. So

15:04

as this chapter unfolds, the captain keeps account of what's

15:06

happening and it's sailing across

15:08

the way and his crew is getting picked off one by one.

15:11

It is my favorite chapter of the book because

15:14

the problem with epistolary novels and with Dracula

15:16

is that it's somebody's writing a letter about

15:19

this horrible thing they experienced. You kind

15:21

of know they survived the horrible thing they experienced.

15:24

This is a captain's log

15:27

that just ends abruptly when the ship

15:29

washes ashore in England. To make

15:32

a movie out of that means we're going to get

15:34

shipboard claustrophobic mystery. It

15:37

is directed by the Norwegian director André Overdell,

15:39

who directed a film I liked back in 2010 called

15:42

Troll Hunter. It stars Corey Hawkins,

15:44

who's having a moment. He played

15:46

Dre in Straight Outta Compton. He's great.

15:48

It also stars Liam Cunningham, who is the Onion

15:51

Nitrant Game of Thrones. Haven't seen him in a while. It'll be

15:53

good to have him back. And from the trailer,

15:55

the design of Dracula is going to be more inhuman

15:58

Nosferatu as opposed

15:59

to the kind of high cheek boned, byronic

16:02

hero, Frank Langella kind.

16:04

I like a creepy drag more than a hot drag. I

16:06

also. I agree. I also like

16:08

that this is drag where he doesn't

16:11

have to pretend to be aristocracy to

16:13

impress the English people. He can just be himself.

16:15

He doesn't have to code switch. He can just be

16:18

a creepy drag. He just can be a monster.

16:21

I really like this approach. I'm looking forward to this a lot.

16:23

That is the last voyage of The Demeter in

16:25

theaters August 11. Wonderful. Thank

16:27

you, Glenn Weldon. This next pick from

16:29

Linda is of tremendous

16:32

interest in my household. Take us away. All

16:34

right. Well, so I am picking the

16:36

film adaptation of

16:39

Casey McQuiston's Red, White, and Royal

16:41

Blue, a novel that came out in 2019 about

16:46

a romance between the

16:49

son of the American president,

16:52

who is a woman from Texas, and

16:55

a British prince. It's your basic like, your

16:58

romance people would call this enemies to lovers.

17:00

These guys meet at an

17:02

event, and they get into a thing, and they don't

17:04

like each other. And they're sort of told you

17:06

have to promote international diplomacy

17:09

by seeming like you like each other. And

17:11

gradually, they fall in love. And I think

17:13

Casey got a lot of attention

17:15

for this book, partly because it was such a beloved

17:18

queer romance at a time

17:20

when people were so interested

17:23

in all of the queer romance writing

17:26

that was coming out. But it's

17:28

also, in a lot of ways, a very classic

17:31

romance setup. I mean, writing

17:33

about princes,

17:34

writing about people who

17:36

hate each other, and then they're sort of forced to

17:39

essentially make nice with each other. And

17:42

there's also, because they are from different

17:45

parts of the world, there's a lot of longing,

17:48

and there's a lot of letter writing,

17:50

at least in the book. And it's just very like,

17:52

huh. It's somehow both

17:54

hot and innocent in a certain way. The

17:57

movie is being directed and with

17:59

a book.

17:59

written in part by Matthew Lopez, who

18:02

is a playwright, who did The

18:04

Inheritance. And I think

18:06

it's so interesting that they went in that

18:08

direction with the person to make this film.

18:11

And I'm really, really interested

18:13

to see how it turns out. This

18:16

is a book that is very precious to me. It's

18:18

just a book that's very closely held

18:20

by the people who love it. But I'm very

18:22

excited that they're doing it. It is coming to Prime

18:25

Video on August 11th. I'm

18:27

going to check it out. I think it's going to be beautiful

18:29

people

18:29

in a lovely romance. And I can't

18:32

wait. I can't wait. Tell me if it's hot and

18:34

then I will decide.

18:36

I mean, it's a very hot book. Yeah.

18:38

Awesome. Thank you, Linda Holmes. I'm

18:41

going to take us out with a music pick. Some

18:43

of my favorite summer music

18:46

over the last 10 or 15 years has been

18:48

by Kesha, who's brought the world

18:50

TikTok. She's brought the world Raising

18:52

Hell. She's brought the world. Woman.

18:55

So many just like fun, vibrant,

18:58

silly. She kind of specializes

19:01

in like fine line

19:03

between stupid and clever in

19:05

her approach, but is very, very smart

19:07

about the way she approaches

19:08

it. I'm interested in wherever she's

19:11

willing to take us. And she's got an album

19:13

coming out on May 19th called Gag Order.

19:16

And it promises to take a hard

19:18

left turn. As many people

19:21

know, Kesha for the last

19:23

eight or nine years has been locked

19:26

in legal battles with the producer,

19:28

Dr. Luke. She is accused him of sexual

19:30

assault and battery as well as other offenses. He

19:33

has countersued. That dispute

19:35

is still to this day playing out in

19:37

the courts. She has sought to be released

19:40

from her contract with his label

19:42

imprint, but she hasn't been able to do that. So

19:45

the title Gag Order

19:47

certainly suggests a

19:49

certain amount of subtext. And

19:51

what has me so intrigued about

19:54

this album, besides the fact that I've basically loved everything

19:56

Kesha's ever done, is these first

19:59

couple of singles.

19:59

that they've dropped, which suggest a really,

20:02

like a dark left turn. They're very haunting,

20:04

very spare, but with real anger

20:07

in them. And she's talked in interviews about

20:09

wanting this album to be a vehicle

20:11

for her to explore

20:14

the ugly underside of her emotions. So I'm

20:16

very curious about it. I don't know if it's gonna be a summer,

20:18

like beach record, but I loved

20:20

Praying, which was a

20:21

kind of a left turn for her. And I expect

20:23

to love this record too. Let's hear a little bit of

20:26

the song Eat the Acid.

20:27

♪ You said don't ever eat the acid ♪

20:30

♪ If you don't wanna be changed, I could change

20:32

me ♪ ♪ You said all the edges got so

20:35

jagged now ♪ ♪ Everything you saw then

20:37

can't be unseen ♪ ♪ You said

20:39

that the universe is mad ♪ ♪ To just open

20:41

up your eyes, the signs are waiting ♪

20:44

♪ You said don't ever eat the acid ♪ So Kesha produced

20:46

by Rick Rubin is

20:48

a very, very intriguing

20:50

development that I'm very excited about. I mean, it's still like dance

20:53

music. It's still party music. It's just angry party. I'm

20:55

here for an angry party.

20:56

Yep, me too. I like it. My life

20:59

has been an angry party, for they say so. I'm

21:01

just really happy she's, I mean, granted under

21:03

not great circumstances, but I'm glad she's still able

21:06

to make music because there have been

21:08

plenty of people in the industry who

21:10

have had their careers completely sidelined

21:13

because of alleged abuse.

21:15

So it's nice that she's at least able

21:18

to do this sort of subtweeting

21:21

album. Yeah, that's a good pick.

21:23

I'm excited to check it out.

21:24

I am really excited about this one too. That's

21:26

Gag Order from Kesha. That's out May 19th.

21:29

We wanna know what you are looking forward

21:32

to watching, reading, listening to this

21:34

summer. Find us at facebook.com slash

21:36

PCHH. Up next, what is

21:38

making us happy this week?

21:41

Now it's time for our favorite segment of this week

21:44

and every week. What is making us happy

21:46

this week? Aisha Harris, what's making you happy

21:48

this week, buddy?

21:49

What is one thing we all really

21:51

want to avoid ever having to do,

21:54

but we still have to do it anyway? Jury

21:56

duty. Oh, yes. But

21:58

one thing. that we should not avoid.

22:01

Also, jury duty, but it is jury duty,

22:03

the TV series on Amazon

22:05

Freebie. Now- Freebie.

22:07

Freebie. Explain Freebie

22:09

to me. I think it's kind

22:11

of like 2B, but on Amazon. So

22:14

shows and movies, but there are

22:16

ads involved, basically. So jury duty

22:19

is a reality

22:21

TV series. We have a man

22:24

named Ronald Gladden, who is juror

22:26

number six, participating in

22:28

a trial that is just the most

22:30

bizarre trial. I won't even try to explain what is happening

22:33

here. But he is the only person

22:35

in this entire setup who

22:37

does not realize this is all fake. Everyone

22:40

around him are actors, improvisational

22:42

actors, comedic actors, character actors you might

22:44

be familiar with from various other shows. And

22:47

then there's also James Marsden, who is playing

22:49

himself. And what I love about

22:51

the show is that, A, even though he is not

22:54

in on the joke, the show never punches

22:56

down. It doesn't really make him the butt of

22:58

the joke. He's just reacting to all of the

23:00

bizarre things that are happening, including

23:03

in one episode, they go on a field trip

23:06

at Margaritaville. And

23:08

they have lots of drinks. And at the end of the night,

23:10

the bill is stupid high. And

23:13

while Marsden is in the bathroom, everyone

23:15

else agrees to ask him to pick up the tab,

23:18

because he is the

23:19

rich, famous person. All right, tell

23:21

you what. I'll

23:23

pick up this bill, which

23:25

someone beats me in arm wrestling. Think

23:28

about that.

23:29

For real? It

23:31

turns into just this weird, chaotic moment.

23:34

What I love about the show also is

23:36

just the way that all of the other actors

23:38

are able to really play off of him. And

23:42

the show ends on a happy note. He is

23:44

a very game person, even though

23:46

he has no idea what's happening. And he has

23:48

just an affable quality to him. So

23:51

that is jury duty. It is on Amazon

23:53

freebie. And it

23:55

is absolutely worth checking out. The whole series is

23:57

now available to stream.

23:58

Now I should state and p-

23:59

PR's official policy that jury duty

24:02

is a tremendous civic responsibility

24:05

and that no one should try to get out of it. Yeah,

24:08

sure. Thank

24:10

you, Aisha Harris, Glenn Weldon. What's making you

24:12

happy this week? The other two is back, baby.

24:15

Yes. Season three is streaming

24:17

on HBO Max and hasn't missed

24:20

a beat. This show is a PCHH

24:22

favorite. It stars Drew Tarver and Helena York as

24:24

two entertainment industry strivers

24:26

who keep getting overshadowed by the younger brother in

24:29

season three. They finally

24:29

achieved some success

24:32

and it is screwing them up in entirely

24:34

new ways, which is a lot of fun. The first two

24:36

seasons were about how desperately

24:38

seeking fame and fortune causes you to

24:41

do a lot of very humiliating things. This

24:43

season is about how trying to cling to

24:45

success and always seeking

24:48

more and more acclaim and

24:51

support can turn you into a monster.

24:53

It is by far the darkest season yet and

24:56

it leans hard into the surreal in a lot of

24:58

very fun ways, but it knows exactly what it's doing

25:00

from the jump and it's got such great jokes. And

25:04

in the seven episodes made available to the press,

25:06

it's still got that heart that makes all that darkness

25:08

kind of go down easy. The other two,

25:11

season three on HBO Max. Yeah. I

25:14

love this show so much. Thank

25:17

you, Glenn.

25:18

Linda Holmes, what's making you happy this week? Well,

25:20

I went back and forth about a number of things, but boy,

25:23

do I love a good bit

25:25

of nerd content that brings out the nerd

25:27

in me and in others. I

25:30

have been very much enjoying a well-known,

25:32

I am far, far from the discoverer

25:35

of this, very well-known and well thought

25:37

of YouTube series called Every Frame a Painting,

25:40

which is about filmmaking and

25:42

it's about form and it's sort of about

25:44

how things are shot. Each little

25:47

video essay has a particular

25:49

topic that it covers. These are mostly

25:52

several years old and I am

25:54

the kind of person where what I relate to the

25:56

most in movies and TV

25:58

tends to be the writing.

27:55

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28:00

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28:02

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over to plus.npr.org

28:13

slash happy hour, or visit the link

28:15

in our show notes. This episode was produced

28:17

by Mike Katziff and edited by Jessica Reidy. Hello,

28:20

Come In provides our theme music. Thanks

28:22

for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.

28:25

I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all next

28:27

week.

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