Current:Home > ScamsWhat's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing and listening -MarketStream
What's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing and listening
View
Date:2025-04-14 19:31:13
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! (9)
Related
- Buckingham Palace staff under investigation for 'bar brawl'
- Barbie is nearly in the top 10 highest-grossing films in U.S. after surpassing The Avengers at no. 11
- ‘It’s Just Too Close’: Pennsylvanians Who Live Near Fracking Suffer as Governments Fail to Buffer Homes
- Olivia Rodrigo's Ex Zack Bia Weighs In On Whether Her Song Vampire Is About Him
- A New York Appellate Court Rejects a Broad Application of the State’s Green Amendment
- Michigan attorney general blames Gov. Whitmer kidnap trial acquittals on ‘right-leaning’ jurors
- Hermoso criticizes Spanish soccer federation and accuses it of threatening World Cup-winning players
- Chris Evans Makes Marvelously Rare Comments About His Relationship With Alba Baptista
- House passes bill to add 66 new federal judgeships, but prospects murky after Biden veto threat
- Marilyn Manson sentenced to 20 hours community service, fined for blowing nose on videographer
Ranking
- Tom Holland's New Venture Revealed
- MATCHDAY: Man City begins Champions League title defense. Barcelona looks for winning start
- Those worried about poor air quality will soon be able to map out the cleanest route
- Tim McGraw, Chris Stapleton, more celebrated at 2023 ACM Honors: The biggest moments
- NCAA President Charlie Baker would be 'shocked' if women's tournament revenue units isn't passed
- Book excerpt: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
- Amazon driver in serious condition after being bitten by rattlesnake in Florida
- 'Odinism', ritual sacrifice raised in defense of Delphi, Indiana double-murder suspect
Recommendation
Messi injury update: Ankle 'better every day' but Inter Miami star yet to play Leagues Cup
Michigan State to fire football coach Mel Tucker amid sexual harassment investigation
Maine’s top elected Republican, a lobsterman, survives boat capsize from giant wave ahead of Lee
Amazon driver in serious condition after being bitten by rattlesnake in Florida
Family of explorer who died in the Titan sub implosion seeks $50M-plus in wrongful death lawsuit
London police force says it will take years to root out bad cops
A bus plunges into a ravine in Montenegro, killing at least 2 and injuring several
Another alligator sighting reported on Kiski River near Pittsburgh