Pop Culture Happy Hour
Episodes
Showgirls
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Showgirls stars Elizabeth Berkley as a Vegas dancer trying to move up from a seedy club to a glamorous hotel show. Paul Verhoeven’s NC-17 movie was ...
Task
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The new HBO series Task stars Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey in a grim, but stealthily hopeful drama. From the creator of Mare of Easttown, the show is...
Haunted Hotel
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From one of the minds behind Rick and Morty, Netflix’s new animated comedy Haunted Hotel is the perfect mix of fun and creepy to kick off spooky sea...
Him And What’s Making Us Happy
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the new horror film HIM, Tyriq Withers stars as a young football player who has a chance to be trained by his idol, played by Marlon Wayans. As the...
Fall Guide
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The fall of 2025 is shaping up to have something for everyone with a fresh Knives Out mystery, Guillermo del Toro’s take on Frankenstein, and a new ...
The Summer I Turned Pretty
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The TV series The Summer I Turned Pretty features a messy love triangle, plenty of drama, and a LOT of Taylor Swift songs. The show has become a word-...
2025 Emmys Recap
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This year’s Emmy Awards saw big wins for Adolescence, The Studio, and The Pitt. The telecast was also packed with a couple of surprise wins, a show ...
The Long Walk And What's Making Us Happy
12 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The new film The Long Walk is Stephen King meets The Hunger Games. It takes place in a dystopian America in which one young man from each state compet...
Great Movies With Silly Plots
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever found yourself completely caught up in a film only to find, after the lights come up, that the story didn’t make any sense, yet you lo...
Watch This: Twinless
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney star as unlikely friends in the new movie Twinless. They meet in a support group for people who have lost their twin...
The Paper
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Paper is a spinoff of The Office, and like its predecessor, it’s a mockumentary about a workplace that's facing financial and cultural headwinds...
The Conjuring: Last Rites And What's Making Us Happy
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Conjuring: Last Rites winds down the story of the demon-hunting couple loosely based on Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera ...
Sabrina Carpenter Man’s Best Friend
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sabrina Carpenter is following her breakout album Short n’ Sweet with a new collection of cheeky earworms called Man’s Best Friend, which includes...
The Thursday Murder Club
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Netflix’s The Thursday Murder Club is a cozy British mystery set at a posh retirement community. The movie stars Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, and B...
Caught Stealing
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz and Bad Bunny star in Caught Stealing, the new grungy, throwback film from Darren Aronofsky. Butler plays Hank, a sad sack...
The Roses And What's Making Us Happy
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
First a novel and a 1989 hit film, the story of The Roses has been told before. This time around, Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman play a couple...
Jaws
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Steven Spielberg's Jaws turns 50 this year. It’s been called the perfect movie, the first blockbuster, and the film that changed why we go to the mo...
Songs For When Your Flight Is Delayed
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you travel by plane with any regularity, you've been there: stuck in an airport because your flight is delayed. So we thought it best to give your ...
Watch This: Long Story Short
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Long Story Short is a very funny and surprisingly moving new Netflix animated comedy series from the folks behind BoJack Horseman and Tuca & Bertie. T...
Lurker And What's Making Us Happy
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fame does strange things to people. In the new film Lurker, Théodore Pellerin plays a young retail clerk making his way into the inner circle of a po...
Best John Grisham Adaptations, Ranked
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a new TV version of The Rainmaker out, so today, we’re ranking the five best John Grisham adaptations – including The Firm, The Pelican ...
Our 15th Anniversary Time Capsule
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We launched Pop Culture Happy Hour 15 years ago this summer, and we had a lot of pent-up hot takes. To celebrate this milestone, today we’re breakin...
Highest 2 Lowest
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Spike Lee's new crime thriller Highest 2 Lowest reunites him with his favorite leading man, Denzel Washington. The film is based on Akira Kurosawa’s...
Alien: Earth And What's Making Us Happy
15 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alien: Earth is a new TV spinoff of the Alien movie franchise, and as one might expect, it has plenty of Facehuggers, chestbursters, and dark metal co...
Bring It On
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The cheerleading film Bring It On spawned direct-to-video sequels and a Broadway musical. And with an all-star cast of Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, an...
Platonic
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the breezy comedy series Platonic, Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne play former best friends who reconnect years after a falling out. The Apple TV+ show f...
Weapons
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The intriguing and seriously creepy new film Weapons follows what happens after 17 third-graders get out of their beds on the same night, at the same ...
Freakier Friday And What's Making Us Happy
08 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis first switched bodies over 20 years ago in the beloved Disney body swap movie, Freaky Friday. They return in the lo...
Y2K Pop Culture
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We are 25 years into the 2000s, so we wanted to debate: what’s the most definitive piece of Y2K pop culture? We try to pinpoint the essence of that ...
Together
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Every couple goes through certain rites of passage. You date, maybe you move in together, maybe you get married. And maybe a visit to a mysterious cav...
Wednesday
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wednesday is one of the most popular Netflix shows of all time, and it helped make Jenna Ortega a star. It takes the breakout Addams Family character ...
The Naked Gun And What's Making Us Happy
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Naked Gun franchise has always been a rapid-fire delivery system for gags, delivered straight-faced by a cop who doesn't know that anything is fun...
The Hunting Wives
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Netflix series The Hunting Wives is a soapy murder mystery full of nudity and intrigue, about a group of Texas women who are up to no good. It sta...
Happy Gilmore 2
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's been almost 30 years since Happy Gilmore gave Adam Sandler one of his best-loved movie roles. The rowdy golf comedy gets a belated sequel on Netf...
Song Of The Summer
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last year was Brat summer and saw the rise of Chappell Roan, Shaboozey, and Sabrina Carpenter. But is there a song of the summer for 2025? Today we're...
The Fantastic Four: First Steps And What's Making Us Happy
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Fantastic Four are back again in a new movie--and it's an eye-popping good time. The Fantastic Four: First Steps stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby...
Our Favorite YouTube Channels
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're recommending a few of our favorite YouTube channels. These are the ones we find ourselves returning to again and again on subjects includi...
I Know What You Did Last Summer
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the original I Know What You Did Last Summer, some very '90s teenagers are targeted by a killer clad in fisherman's garb and armed with a hook. Nea...
Watch This: Sorry, Baby
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sorry, Baby is a refreshingly disarming movie. The film was written and directed by Eva Victor, who also stars a newly minted professor at the liberal...
Congress has voted to eliminate government funding for public media
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Act now to ensure public media remains free and accessible to all. Your donation will help this essential American service survive and thrive. Visit d...
Eddington And What's Making Us Happy
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Eddington plunges us back into that familiarly distressing time of the early days of the pandemic. Directed by Ari Aster (Hereditary and Midsommar) Jo...
KPop Demon Hunters
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Netflix animated movie KPop Demon Hunters is a phenomenon, with a soundtrack that's climbing the Billboard charts, and a fandom rivaling that of j...
2025 Emmy Nominations
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This year's Emmy nominations are out, and it was a good year for familiar favorites like Hacks, The Bear, Abbott Elementary, The Last of Us and The Wh...
Too Much
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When your long-term boyfriend leaves you for an Instagram influencer, what can you do? In the new Netflix romantic comedy series Too Much, the answer ...
Superman And What's Making Us Happy
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After much anticipation, there is a pretty great new Superman movie. And he's bringing exactly what we look to him for: hope. Writer and director Jame...
We Rewatch The Movies We Loved As Teens
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This summer marks Pop Culture Happy Hour's 15th birthday. We decided to re-watch the movies we loved at 15 with fresh eyes, and of course, some of the...
Love Island
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Love Island USA is pure chaos, and admittedly: we love it. It's one of many spinoffs of the long-running British hit series, Love Island — and it mi...
Great Songs For Your Next Road Trip
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you're thinking about taking a road trip, you're going to need some road trip music. You might need a pick-me-up, a distraction, or something for w...
Jurassic World Rebirth And What's Making Us Happy
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jurassic World Rebirth is the latest reboot of the beloved franchise. This time around Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey head to...
Squid Game
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Netflix's Korean drama Squid Game became a worldwide phenomenon, winning six Emmys and inspiring countless Halloween costumes. The series has now reac...
The Bear
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Bear is back for a new season. The FX on Hulu series sees Carmy and Sydney (Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri) trying to get the restaurant they ...
M3GAN 2.0
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The horror comedy M3GAN spawned memes, made a fortune, and even taught us a lesson about the dangers of outsourcing our humanity to AI. The sequel, M...
F1 And What's Making Us Happy
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you like cars that go fast, you'll be glad to know they go very fast in F1 The Movie. The film stars Brad Pitt as a veteran Formula 1 driver and Da...
Ironheart
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ironheart is a fun new Marvel series following Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a brilliant young woman we first met in Black Panther: Wakanda Foreve...
Best Pixar Movies, Ranked
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's been nearly 30 years since Toy Story kicked off a historic run of animated films. So now seemed like a good time to discuss the best of the best ...
Elio
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the new Pixar film Elio, a lonely kid dreams of being abducted by aliens. And then one day, it happens. Eager to find a place to belong, Elio (voic...
28 Years Later And What's Making Us Happy
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The new apocalyptic horror film 28 Years Later takes place in the same world as 28 Days Later, where a deadly virus transformed the citizens of the U....
Watch This: Pee-Wee As Himself
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The new HBO documentary Pee-Wee As Himself isn't the boilerplate Hollywood profile you think it is. You get the biographical details you expect – ho...
The Life of Chuck
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen King's work has often contemplated the inevitability of death. But his latest adaptation, The Life of Chuck is a life-affirming film that chal...
Materialists
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Should you date for love or financial security? That's the central premise of the new movie Materialists. It stars Dakota Johnson at the center of a l...
How to Train Your Dragon And What's Making Us Happy
13 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Disney has been remaking its animated classics for years to great financial success – Lilo & Stitch has been dominating the box office for weeks now...
Almost Famous
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Almost Famous, writer and director Cameron Crowe looks at the ecosystem surrounding a rising rock band in the early '70s. Starring Patrick Fugit, K...
Summer Blockbusters
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fifty years ago Steven Spielberg's Jaws was released in theaters, kicking off the summer blockbuster phenomenon. And you know a summer blockbuster whe...
The Phoenician Scheme
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wes Anderson's new film The Phoenician Scheme is classic Wes Anderson, complete with a great cast delivering heightened dialogue and stylized cinemato...
Ballerina And What's Making Us Happy
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
John Wick's back in a spinoff new film, Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas. She plays a ballerina-turned-assassin making her way through the internation...
Adults
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Every generation gets its versions of a "20-somethings hang out and make mistakes" sitcom, such as Living Single, Friends, New Girl and Broad City. No...
Watch This: Mountainhead
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Succession creator Jesse Armstrong is back with Mountainhead, a new movie with characters who are just as wealthy, powerful, and insecure as the Roy f...
Bring Her Back
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The hit Australian horror movie Talk To Me was both very good and deeply unsettling. Now its directors (Danny and Michael Philippou) have returned wit...
Karate Kid: Legends And What's Making Us Happy
30 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Karate Kid has been sequelized, serialized, spun off and rebooted, and now it's back, as Karate Kid: Legends. The new film stars Ben Wang as a kid...
Are We In A Media Literacy Crisis?
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Online discourse has become a fun part of enjoying and dissecting big pop culture events. But after seeing all the commentary around Ryan Coogler's Si...
Lilo & Stitch
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The new Lilo & Stitch is mostly live-action and retells the original Disney animated film's story of two orphaned Hawaiian sisters and the chaotic ali...
The Last Of Us
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Season two of The Last of Us just ended, and to say the story has gone in some new directions is an understatement. The HBO series starring Bella Rams...
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning And What's Making Us Happy
23 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise has to save the world (again). But this time, as the movie stresses repeatedly, the stakes ...
Post-Credits Scenes
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The movie ends, and the credits roll. That used to be your cue to start heading to the parking lot to debrief with your friends. That was before the e...
Watch This: Murderbot
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Murderbot is a very smart, very funny new sci-fi comedy series on Apple TV+. The show stars Alexander Skarsgård as a cyborg who works security for a ...
Friendship
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the cringe comedy Friendship, a deeply strange and intense guy forges a troubled friendship with his new neighbor, a TV weatherman, played by Paul ...
Final Destination Bloodlines
16 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You can't beat death. That's the message of the Final Destination film franchise. Almost 15 years after the last new installment, we're back with Fina...
The Star Wars Prequels
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When the Star Wars prequels came out, they were polarizing for fans of George Lucas' beloved space opera. The three films - The Phantom Menace, Attack...
Forever
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's not easy being a teenager in love. The hormones are raging, the parents are parenting, and the pressure is on to figure out life after senior yea...
The Jennifer Hudson Show Spirit Tunnel
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you're a celeb visiting The Jennifer Hudson Show, it's almost guaranteed you're going to make your way down the Spirit Tunnel – and possibly go v...
Fight Or Flight
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The new action movie Fight or Flight finds Josh Hartnett playing a onetime Secret Service agent who is pressured into one more job: fighting off a ser...
Another Simple Favor
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Another Simple Favor reunites Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick in a new movie full of murder, deceit, and great hats. Set at a splashy wedding in Capri,...
The Met Gala
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Monday was fashion's biggest night: the Met Gala. And our pal Brittany Luse was paying attention to all the best and worst dressed. Today we've got an...
The Four Seasons
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tina Fey returns to TV on the charming Netflix comedy The Four Seasons. It's about a group of couples whose friendship dynamic is rocked by their midl...
Thunderbolts*
02 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Thunderbolts* is the latest Marvel movie and this one's a bit more fun than they've been lately. It stars Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour...
The TV Show I'd Like To Live In
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you wanted to escape reality and move to a fictional TV world, where would you live? Many are dystopian hellscapes and stressful workplaces. But ot...
Why We Love TV Weddings
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Weddings make great fodder for TV writers. It's wedding season, so today we're breaking down the different types of TV weddings featured on Friends, G...
Étoile
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Étoile is the latest series from Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator of Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It's about the wacky goings-on be...
Summer Guide
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There was Barbenheimer Summer, then Brat Summer, what will this year bring? Maybe it's the season of actually good superhero movies, like The Fantasti...
Conclave
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Pope Francis' death not only led to an outpouring of remembrances. It also unleashed a new wave of memes from the Oscar-nominated movie Conclave. It t...
The Wedding Banquet
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The lovely rom-com The Wedding Banquet has a stellar all-star cast, including Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, and Bowen Yang. It's a twisty comedy o...
New TV Comedies You Don't Want To Miss
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We cover a lot of TV on this show, but we don't get to everything. Today we're recommending some of our favorite recent TV comedies you don't want to ...
Sinners And What's Making Us Happy
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The very scary movie Sinners finds Michael B. Jordan playing twin brothers who open a 1930s juke joint. And opening night does not go as planned. Writ...
Your Friends And Neighbors
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the Apple TV+ series Your Friends and Neighbors, a very rich guy reacts to becoming a bit less rich by turning to a life of crime. Played by Jon Ha...
Doctor Who
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The last season of the venerable British science fiction series Doctor Who brought a lot of change. The Doctor is now played by Ncuti Gatwa, who is Bl...
Warfare
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The new film Warfare dispenses with a lot of things you've come to expect from Hollywood war movies. It's based on the memories of a platoon of Navy S...
Drop And What's Making Us Happy
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the bonkers thriller Drop, Meghann Fahy plays a woman whose first date goes off the rails when she starts getting increasingly alarming message dro...
Pop Culture That Changed Our Minds
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At a certain point, most of us settle into a groove with our pop culture consumption. We know what we love and what we're not into. But sometimes, all...
Dying For Sex
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The premise might be a tough sell: a young woman attempts to finally own her sexuality following a terminal diagnosis. In the new show Dying For Sex, ...
The White Lotus
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Season three of The White Lotus just wrapped up, but not before serving up a tropical buffet of sex, betrayal, violence, revenge, privilege, incest, d...