Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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The Devil Wears Prada, while beloved and rewatched, might not seem like a movie that needed a sequel. And for 20 years, it went without one. But now Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci all return to their roles in The Devil Wears Prada 2. The film finds Andy right where she never thought she would be again, working for Miranda Priestley, the worst boss she ever had.
I'm Linda Holmes. Joining me today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is Ronald Young Jr. He's the host of the film and television review podcast Leaving the Theater. Hello, Ronald.
Hello, Linda.
Hello. Also with us is NPR music reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento. Hello, Isabella. Hello. Thank you for having me. Oh, of course.
The Devil Wears Prada was based somewhat loosely on a novel by Lauren Weisberger, and it starred Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs, a young woman who wants to be a serious magazine writer but lands a job as the second assistant to the imperious, nasty, impossible-to-please Miranda Priestley, played by Meryl Streep. Miranda is the editor of Runway, a high-end fashion magazine.
Stanley Tucci played Nigel, Miranda's unappreciated second-in-command, and Emily Blunt played Emily, Miranda's miserable first assistant. In the original movie, Andy ended up leaving Runway, but The Devil Wears Prada 2 finds her as a mid-career, laid-off reporter who gets an unexpected opportunity to lead the features department at Runway.
This puts her back in Miranda's orbit and Nigel's, and as it turns out, Emily's as well.
It's really remarkable. A senior editor at Runway. You.
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Chapter 2: What is the premise of The Devil Wears Prada 2?
Yep. We're all so thrilled. You know what's funny is you've changed. You have. You're much more confident. Kept those eyebrows, though, didn't you?
Runway is in trouble for a few reasons, not the least of which is that it seems to be at the mercy of a publishing industry nepo baby played by B.J. Novak. This puts Andy in the perhaps unexpected position of being on the same side as Miranda, sort of, and on the side of the magazine and journalism and maybe beauty.
Like the original film, the sequel is directed by David Frankel and has a screenplay from Aline Brosh McKenna. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is in theaters now. Ronald, I'm going to start with you. How'd you like it?
I loved it. Oh, great. You have the same director, you have the same writer, and you have four powerhouse actors, four people who are really good at acting and seem attached to these characters. And they put them in a scenario that is relevant and makes sense, and then just continued their stories forward from there. So for me, that's all I really needed. I did have some issues.
I have like two main issues of which I'm sure we'll get into. But other than that, in terms of me watching it and leaving, there were probably halfway through, I was just like, do I like this movie better than the original? No, that's wild. I would never like this more than the original, but I definitely liked it a lot.
So I think it was a good sequel and a good template for what sequels should be.
That's great. I am so glad to hear how much you liked it, Isabella. How about you? How did you like it?
Yeah, I totally agree with Ronald. I was raised during the hot girls, art journalists, rom-coms of the early 2000s. And of all of those, you know, 13 Going on 30, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Devil Wears Prada was my favorite. And I think by far the best because it's less focused on the romance than it is on the actual career and the work. Yeah, it's not even really a rom-com, I would argue.
It's not.
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Chapter 3: How does Andy's career evolve in the sequel?
There's a little more doing funny things like you know they're funny. And I... Did not respond as well to that. So I really missed the Miranda of the first movie. But with that said, I enjoyed watching it. I like these actors. It doesn't really feel to me like a real movie, but I didn't have a terrible time.
I feel like in terms of Miranda, there's a lot to say between 2006 and 2026 in terms of our relationship with a character like Miranda. who at the time really didn't exist in front of media, especially not as a woman.
Whereas we've had 20 years of all of kind of our relationships, whether it be with women behaving like men or things that we would accept from men coming from the mouths of women that are somehow critiqued in this very specific way. We've had a long journey of that until now. So I feel like when you walk into a movie like this, we have the benefit of knowing that this exists.
Already, even though in a lot of ways, Miranda Priestly is the tip of the spear for this, especially in media, I felt like she was the same, especially when she's in meetings and they're having people that are kind of reeling her in, in accordance with like all of the ways in which you're not supposed to behave poorly.
They're kind of dinging her on every one of those lines that she's saying, which I really enjoyed. For me, it probably feels like it's more broadly comedic because we're expecting it in a way that we were not expecting it in 2006. Yeah. For me personally, because I really didn't see a difference between her character then and now.
Yes, Ashley, flag on the play. We don't need you this morning or ever. So pack up your things and HR will be in to see you shortly.
She's older and has been like, oh, now I got to hang up my own coat. What's the world coming to? I felt like that part was, it felt like an accurate evolution of that character in 2026.
I do think part of it is just how much our culture and the things you can do at work have changed and how they try to reflect that through the character of Miranda. But I do think, Linda, to your point, a lot of this movie was shenanigans. I felt like there were things that really hit home for me, and yet they were mostly glossed over in favor of like...
A 20 minute montage of them wearing beautiful outfits, which obviously is kind of the point of a movie like The Devil Wears Prada. That's what this movie is. But I do think it was a bit excessive because I think the bones for like a pretty good story were there and it felt a little too long.
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Chapter 4: What are the main themes explored in The Devil Wears Prada 2?
It's almost at a point where I'm like, if you're going to show it that little, just don't show it. Like, just go without it. Because imagine how revolutionary it would have been To just say, Andy doesn't have a boyfriend. That's not her focus right now. She's not really dating. She's worrying about the fact that she's been laid off and she has no job. And she's trying to save her career.
You've already got Miranda having her nice husband, Kenneth Branagh. I was disappointed in the treatment of that romance.
I wish so badly that this movie didn't have a romantic subplot for Andy, because I think a big lesson from the first one is sort of like, she's not focusing enough on the relationship. She's more focused on her job. That becomes a source of tension. And I think as time has passed, there's all this discourse about like,
Her boyfriend Nate in the first movie was the actual villain, like let her have ambition. This is a movie about a woman who just has a really deep drive for meaningful work and for wanting to hustle. The romantic subplot to me felt both underdeveloped and rushed. There was also an interesting tension there that I wish they would have explored a little bit more.
Like one of my favorite lines of this whole movie comes in a conversation between the two of them.
When Andy's just kind of expressing her frustration by capitalism and like conglomerates buying everything up and spitting it back out and sort of like touching the third rail a little bit, talking about how much our lives and the things that we love have changed as fewer and fewer companies buy up all of these different physical properties and cultural properties and make everything worse and make everything worse.
However, it's like that tension between them just kind of fizzled out. And I just wish that if we were going to get that, I wish we had dug deeper into that aspect of the relationship. Ronald, how did you feel about romance subplot guy?
I would have liked Andy to have been in a relationship that was just successful. I don't think that we needed the tension or don't have it at all. I agree with y'all because I feel like when you get to the story beat of the tension reaching its peak, it ends up being the exact same emotional beat from the first movie, which is I'm about to go on a trip overseas.
Why don't we put this on hold until I get back, which is exactly what happens in the first movie. you just swap out Paris for Italy. So I feel like what's the purpose of having this except to just add more tension when there's already enough bits of layered tension in the job that she has working at runway.
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Chapter 5: How do the characters develop from the original film?
And in some cases, it feels like it's not much, but that's fine. Like, I think Kenneth Branagh kind of drifting in and out as Miranda's husband. I think he has an impact when he needs to. But some of these people, it's like, why are we bringing in Helen J. Shen, who was in
maybe happy ending on Broadway and is really, really charming, but has a super small part as Andy's assistant who is supposed to be the uncool, doesn't fit in assistant just like Andy was. There's supposed to be a parallel, I think, between them.
I was an intern this morning, but when a desk opens up, the interns get a chance to interview. And guess what? Nobody wanted to work in your department because it's not actual fashion. So I just like Got it. Isn't that cool? She doesn't do very much.
And I understand, you know, populating your movie with lots of fun actors who I'm always happy to see is normally a positive thing. I was happy to see Tracy Toms, who plays Andy's best friend again and did in 2006. Loved to see that. Really like her.
But it felt at some point like they were trying to cram in so much stuff that they kind of lost track of making the movie about something between these characters. Because what I admire about the original film is Yes, it's funny. Yes, it's got a lot of great clothes. Yes, it's got these sort of extremely early 2000s montages and all that.
But like there is a real story there about making friends with people and finding your way through a bad situation. And what should you put up with and what should you not put up with? That has always had for me some emotional heft. And this to me did not have that.
I think that there is an extent in which you season your movie with these types of little performances from known folks that is expected to raise the gravitas. Because the one person that did that was Kenneth Branagh.
Because there's a couple of scenes in the movie in which Kenneth Branagh is obviously there to be someone who is strong and a supportive slash oppositional force to Miranda Priestly as her husband. Mm-hmm. which I really appreciated that. And I feel like when it's done well, then you get a very good accomplished person doing something like that.
And when it's done poorly, you get Pauline Chalamet saying one line and be like, hey, that's Pauline Chalamet and then disappearing. And I feel like it ends up being crowded out in that way. So I feel like there's a difference between saying like, hey, we're gonna season this with someone who does this well versus we've put nutmeg in this and it's all nutmeg now.
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Chapter 6: What criticisms do the hosts have about the sequel?
Now it's time for our favorite segment of this week and every week, what's making us happy this week. Ronald, I'm going to start with you. What is making you happy this week?
The NBA playoffs are in full swing, and I love it. And the storylines that are unfolding right now for the non-sports watching folks. They are exciting and fun. There is an eight seed in the Orlando Magic that is currently beating a one seed in the Detroit Pistons.
By the time you're hearing this, that series could be over already and an eight seed could possibly have beaten a one seed, depending on when you're listening, which it is a very exciting prospect and rarely happens in the NBA. LeBron James is playing basketball with his son. He threw an assist to his son in the playoffs. That has never happened before.
It is possible that we can see LeBron James playing more playoff basketball in the weeks to come. And I am so excited. I'm a kid in the candy store. It is making me giddy every night. I pull a blanket up to my chin by myself on my couch. And I just go from game to game and I'm having a great time. And I know everyone's not a sports person, but just NBA basketball is one of my favorite things.
It just reminds me of nostalgia of my childhood. And right now, the playoffs are very interesting. For folks who have checked out of basketball and you want to come back, now is a great time to come on back to watch the NBA playoffs, which are happening right now.
Love it. Absolutely love it. Thank you very much, Ronald. Isabella, what is making you happy this week?
Well, mine is not as current. We're coming out of a pretty tough winter in New York City, and my winter get-through-it remedy was a serious rewatch of Mad Men. I have just reached season six. I think about getting on my couch and putting on Mad Men regularly. all day long. It's just such an incredible show. I hadn't watched it since it went off air.
I just got to season six, which is when things really start to go off the rails for Don Draper. It's amazing to watch. It's better than I remembered it. And my fun fact is that in the original, The Devil Wears Prada, one of Andy's friends is played by Rich Sommer, who plays Harry Crane on Mad Men. So it's full circle for me. That is true. That is very true.
What would be an unserious rewatch of Mad Men? You said you're doing a serious rewatch.
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