Pop Culture Happy Hour
Episodes
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...
A Minecraft Movie And What's Making Us Happy
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Based on the best-selling game, A Minecraft Movie stars Jack Black and Jason Momoa in a goofy and sprawling adventure full of blocky animals and magic...
Daredevil: Born Again
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Daredevil: Born Again, Charlie Cox returns as everyone's favorite blind-but-with-heightened-senses Marvel superhero. This time out, he hangs up his...
Survival Of The Thickest
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The delightful Netflix series Survival of the Thickest is about an up-and-coming stylist whose professional and personal ambitions go sideways when sh...
The Studio
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the very funny new satire The Studio, Seth Rogen plays a Hollywood studio head desperately trying to do a job he's afraid of failing at every singl...
Death Of A Unicorn And What's Making Us Happy
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Death of a Unicorn, Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega star as dad and daughter facing off against some angry-as-hell horned beasts. Like so many creature ...
The Residence
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the new Netflix series The Residence, a dead body shows up in an awkward location: the White House. A sprawling list of suspects try to outsmart a ...
Dope Thief
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Apple TV+ series Dope Thief is a great high-stakes crime thriller to stream now. It stars Brian Tyree Henry as a man running a risky con: Robbing ...
Severance
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In season two of Severance (streaming on Apple TV+), we got a blowout finale with answers to mysteries and even more layers of weirdness. The show sta...
Snow White And What's Making Us Happy
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disney's first fully animated feature film back in 1937. Now, it's getting a hi-tech "reimagining" complete with n...
Novocaine
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the gleefully grisly action movie Novocaine, Jack Quaid plays a sweet, nerdy guy who does not experience physical pain. He falls for a woman (Amber...
Oscar-Winner Anora Is Now Streaming
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Anora recently cleaned up at this year's Oscars, winning five awards, including best picture. Directed by Sean Baker, the movie follows an enterprisin...
Ayo Edebiri's New Movie Opus
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the new movie Opus, Ayo Edebiri plays a journalist who attends a press event at the compound of a reclusive pop star (John Malkovich) who'd been in...
Black Bag And What's Making Us Happy
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The cool, stylish new Steven Soderbergh film Black Bag is about a group of British spies who discover there's a traitor in their midst. It stars Micha...
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You should watch the surreal new movie On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. It opens with a Zambian woman finding her uncle's body on the road. His death brings...
Lady Gaga's Mayhem
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lady Gaga has kept busy as a singer and actor, but it's been five years since she's released a full-blown pop album. Now, she's back with Mayhem, whic...
Best Moments In Live TV
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Live television is all about high risk, high reward. Whether it's musical performances, awards ceremonies, sports events, or comedy shows, there's an ...
Mickey 17 And What's Making Us Happy
07 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mickey 17 is writer-director Bong Joon Ho's follow-up to the Oscar-winning film Parasite. In the sharply satirical sci-fi film, Robert Pattinson is a ...
Terrible But Bingeable TV shows
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What is it about a show that turns you into a bitter-ender, that keeps you dutifully watching every last episode, long after the train has jumped the ...
Favorite SNL Musical Moments
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Perhaps you've heard that Saturday Night Live is celebrating its 50th anniversary — they've mentioned it once or twice. From Lazy Sunday to Domingo ...
Our 2025 Oscars Recap
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This year's Oscars was a big night for Sean Baker's Anora, including wins for best picture and director. The film's star Mikey Madison scored one of t...
2025 Oscars Guide And What's Making Us Happy
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This year's Oscar nominees include Wicked, The Substance, Emilia Perez, and Conclave. And we watched all the nominated movies so you don't have to. We...
Paradise
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Hulu's twisty drama series Paradise, Sterling K. Brown plays a Secret Service agent caught up in a web of intrigue after the president of the Unite...
Zero Day
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Netflix series Zero Day begins with a terrifying moment in which everything in the United States goes briefly offline. Thousands of people die, an...
Actors Who've Never Been Nominated For An Oscar, But Should Win
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The standard line for awards season goes: "It's an honor just to be nominated." But when it comes to the Oscars, there's quite a long list of great pe...
The Monkey And What's Making Us Happy
21 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the new horror-comedy The Monkey, Theo James plays a pair of identical twin brothers who get saddled with a cursed wind-up toy monkey that causes p...
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For more than 20 years on screen, Bridget Jones has been making her way through dating, working, having a baby, and even ending up in jail. Now in the...
We Fantasy Cast The Traitors
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Peacock reality show The Traitors continues to be a delightful mix of treachery, foolishness, and Alan Cumming's outfits. In the United States, th...
Paddington In Peru
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the new movie Paddington In Peru, Paddington Bear and the Brown family fly across the globe, into the wilds of Peru, in search of Paddington's Aunt...
Captain America: Brave New World And What's Making Us Happy
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony Mackie is the new Captain America, and he's finally got his own movie. In Captain America: Brave New World, Cap finds himself battling Preside...
The Substance
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Substance is a bloody, campy, fiercely feminist body horror film. Demi Moore plays a TV aerobics instructor who learns of a mysterious drug that c...
Guide To Great Shows On Network TV
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the age of streaming content and "Prestige TV" it's easy to forget that old school TV networks are still out here, pumping out television shows. AB...
2025 Super Bowl
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At this year's Super Bowl, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22. During the halftime show, Kendrick Lamar performed his Grammy-wi...
Love Hurts And What's Making Us Happy
07 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the new action movie Love Hurts, Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan stars as a real estate agent who has remade his life after leaving the employ of his terr...
You're Cordially Invited
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the raunchy movie You're Cordially Invited, Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon face a mortifying conundrum: Their families' destination weddings ha...
2025 Sundance Film Festival: Best Movies
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We watched many films at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Today, we're recommending some of the best things we saw, including a thrilling debut fro...
2025 Grammys Recap
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This year's Grammys was a huge night for Beyoncé, who finally won album of the year for Cowboy Carter. Kendrick Lamar picked up record and song of th...
Companion And What's Making Us Happy
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the smart, twisty thriller-comedy Companion, three young couples gather at a swanky lake house for the weekend. One of the couples is not like the ...
Mo
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The excellent Netflix series Mo is about a man who figures out how to get by: how to find work as someone who can't work legally, how to navigate the ...
Presence
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the new Steven Soderbergh film Presence, a family moves into an old house, and weird stuff starts happening. But what's different about this haunte...
The Pitt
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Max hospital drama The Pitt stars ER veteran Noah Wyle. It takes some elements that are common to the medical genre and mixes them with some very ...
The Night Agent
24 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An FBI agent working in a lonely, secret office in the White House basement gets a phone call. A woman needs help, right away. That's the beginning of...
2025 Oscar Nominations
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This year's Oscar nominations are out, and if you liked Emilia Pérez, Anora, Wicked, The Brutalist, and A Complete Unknown, then you're in luck. As a...
One Of Them Days
22 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Keke Palmer is one of Hollywood's most charismatic leads, and SZA is one of the world's biggest pop stars. Now, they've teamed up for the raunchy budd...
The Brutalist And What's Making Us Happy
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The new movie The Brutalist is earning a lot of Oscar buzz. Adrien Brody plays a fictional Hungarian architect who settles in America after his family...
Wolf Man And What's Making Us Happy
17 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Everything old is new again, it seems, and there's no reason that wouldn't apply to werewolves. We now have a chance to enjoy a new Wolf Man starring ...
XO, Kitty
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Netflix series XO, Kitty is a spinoff of the hit YA book and movie franchise, To All the Boys I've Loved Before. The show follows the messy advent...
American Primeval
15 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Netflix's gritty, brutal Western series American Primeval, Betty Gilpin plays a woman determined to get herself and her son across the frontier. Bu...
The Best One-Hit Wonders
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some bands are The Beatles and some singers are Beyoncé: Smash after smash, their legend grows. And some artists aren't. For any one of a bunch of re...
The Last Showgirl And What's Making Us Happy
10 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the new movie The Last Showgirl, a woman finds herself with few options as she approaches the end of her long career as a dancer in Las Vegas. The ...
Hot Moms In Film
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the past year, there have been a lot of movies that feature older women falling in love with much younger men. There's The Idea Of You, A Family Af...
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is the latest film in the beloved stop-motion animation series. This time, clueless inventor Wallace and his lon...
Great Movies We Missed
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We covered dozens of new movies in 2024, some we loved, some we didn't, and everything in between. And there are always a few favorites that we don't ...
Nickel Boys
03 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Adapted from the Pulitzer prize-winner novel from Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys tells the story of two Black boys who form an unshakeable bond at a se...