Current:Home > StocksWhat's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing and listening -ValueMetric
What's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing and listening
View
Date:2025-04-13 17:31:10
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! (2)
Related
- The Daily Money: Disney+ wants your dollars
- U.S. citizen Michael Travis Leake detained in Moscow on drug charges
- 12 Books to Add To Your Reading List in April
- Several British guardsmen faint as Prince William reviews military parade
- Buckingham Palace staff under investigation for 'bar brawl'
- Greece migrant boat capsize leaves hundreds missing, with fear 100 kids trapped in hold
- Joran van der Sloot, prime suspect in Natalee Holloway case, arrives in U.S. to face charges
- 4 children who survived 40 days in Colombia jungle reunited with families
- New Orleans mayor’s former bodyguard making first court appearance after July indictment
- Parts Of The Amazon Rainforest Are Now Releasing More Carbon Than They Absorb
Ranking
- Scoot flight from Singapore to Wuhan turns back after 'technical issue' detected
- How 165 Words Could Make Mass Environmental Destruction An International Crime
- U.S. citizen Michael Travis Leake detained in Moscow on drug charges
- Jamie Lee Curtis' Tribute to Daughter Ruby Is Everything on Transgender Day of Visibility
- Olympic men's basketball bracket: Results of the 5x5 tournament
- Kim Kardashian Apologizes for Saying Kourtney and Khloe Looked Like Clowns During 2018 Tokyo Trip
- Emily Ratajkowski Hinted at New Romance Weeks Before Harry Styles Makeout Session
- 26 Ludicrously Capacious Bags to Carry Your Ego and Everything Else You Need
Recommendation
Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
Peter Thomas Roth Flash Deal: Get $109 Worth of Hydrating Products for Just $58
Woman in disguise tried to kill ex's wife with knife hidden in bouquet of flowers, U.K. police say
Elle Fanning Confirms Breakup With Max Minghella
USA men's volleyball mourns chance at gold after losing 5-set thriller, will go for bronze
Meghan Markle Scores Legal Victory in Sister Samantha's Defamation Case
North Korea test fires two ballistic missiles into Sea of Japan, South Korea says
A virgin crocodile made herself pregnant in a first for her species, researchers say