Current:Home > NewsWhat's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing and listening -NextFrontier Finance
What's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing and listening
View
Date:2025-04-23 12:05:25
This week, David Letterman paid a visit, Fargo returned, and another comedian returned to the same old material.
Here's what the NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.
"Farrah Fawcett Hair" by Capital Cities, ft. André 3000
"Farrah Fawcett Hair" by the electronic duo Capital Cities is almost a decade old and I'm just now discovering it. It's actually kind of timely because the song features André 3000 who just announced a new album of instrumental music. The song is just a list of random good stuff – like "how infants with baby breath yawn in your face" – with a killer saxophone break. It's kind of like if "We Didn't Start the Fire" was thematically coherent and actually a good song. This is a good song. You can dance to it. You can rock out to the saxophone break. It'll make your day. — Aisha Harris
Blue Eye Samurai, on Netflix
I really love Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix. It's an anime series made by a married couple, Michael Green and Amber Noizumi. It's set in the Edo period in Japan when the borders were closed to outsiders. It takes on these ideas about what it means to be mixed race, about immigration. All the voice actors are racially correct; all the little things that I've grown more and more passionate about in the last several years — this series honors them. Kenneth Branagh plays maybe the most evil character I have encountered in any medium for several years – he's so good as a voice actor. I just started watching the show and it's beautiful — I didn't expect to love it as much as I do. — Walter Chaw
Ghosts UK on CBS
Last week, as a companion to the delightful sitcom Ghosts, CBS started airing reruns of the U.K. sitcom Ghosts, which the U.S. version is based on. Ghosts is a very charming show in which a couple comes to own a big, spooky haunted mansion. After a near-death experience, the wife finds she can commune with the ghosts who occupy and haunt the property. Part of what is so delightful about these two shows is that while they share a basically identical premise, they are completely different characters. Each one has its own well-rounded set of foibles and powers and goofiness. I love the idea of networks and streaming services dipping into the waters of TV produced in other countries and sharing those shows with U.S. audiences. — Stephen Thompson
More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter
by Linda Holmes
Slate's Joel Anderson, who hosted an entire excellent season of the Slow Burn podcast about the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, wrote this week about the recent lawsuit against Sean Combs and why the allegations didn't surprise him. I strongly recommend the piece, which is thoughtful and, like the podcast season was, great at providing necessary context to a big story.
Mike Birbiglia has a new special on Netflix called The Old Man & The Pool. Like all his work, it's impeccably structured, very funny and very personal.
I've been watching a lot of old episodes of House, starring Hugh Laurie as the Sherlock Holmes-ish doctor who diagnoses different offbeat diseases every week. With the pretty major caveat that the show ran in the early aughts, and the misanthropic House's racism and sexism and other offensive comments would probably not make the cut today, it has certainly been a fascinating opportunity to see what a mystery/procedural show looks like when it's not about the police.
Beth Novey adapted the Pop Culture Happy Hour segment "What's Making Us Happy" for the Web. If you like these suggestions, consider signing up for our newsletter to get recommendations every week. And listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
veryGood! (7876)
Related
- New Zealand official reverses visa refusal for US conservative influencer Candace Owens
- Reggie Jackson recalls racism he faced in Alabama: 'Wouldn't wish it on anybody'
- Travis Kelce Shares Sweet Moment with Taylor Swift’s Dad Scott at Eras Tour
- Family of Black man shot while holding cellphone want murder trial for SWAT officer
- Scoot flight from Singapore to Wuhan turns back after 'technical issue' detected
- Judge rules that New York state prisons violate solitary confinement rules
- Tainted liquor kills more than 30 people in India in the country's latest bootleg alcohol tragedy
- Cue the duck boats: Boston set for parade to salute Celtics’ record 18th NBA championship
- A Mississippi company is sentenced for mislabeling cheap seafood as premium local fish
- DNC plans to hit Trump in Philadelphia on his relationship with Black community
Ranking
- FACT FOCUS: Inspector general’s Jan. 6 report misrepresented as proof of FBI setup
- TikToker Has Internet Divided After Saying She Charged Fellow Mom Expenses for Daughter's Playdate
- California county that tried to hand-count ballots picks novice to replace retiring elections chief
- New York prosecutors ask judge to keep Trump gag order in hush money case in place
- Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
- Ice blocks, misters and dips in the pool: How zoo animals are coping with record heat
- TikTokers Alexandra Madison and Jon Bouffard Share Miscarriage of Baby Boy
- New York prosecutors ask judge to keep Trump gag order in hush money case in place
Recommendation
Working Well: When holidays present rude customers, taking breaks and the high road preserve peace
2024 Paris Olympics: U.S. Track & Field Trials live results, schedule
The Daily Money: Which candidate is better for the economy?
Travis Kelce Brings Jason Kelce and Kylie Kelce to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in London
Sonya Massey's father decries possible release of former deputy charged with her death
Ten Commandments law is Louisiana governor’s latest effort to move the state farther to the right
Man arrested in 2001 murder of Maryland woman; daughter says he’s her ex-boyfriend
Prosecutors drop most charges against student protesters who occupied Columbia University building