Current:Home > FinanceWhat's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing and listening -Ascend Finance Compass
What's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend viewing and listening
SignalHub Quantitative Think Tank Center View
Date:2025-04-10 16:13:19
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! (9574)
Related
- FACT FOCUS: Inspector general’s Jan. 6 report misrepresented as proof of FBI setup
- Virginia tech company admonished for Whites only job posting
- Prosecutors in Harvey Weinstein’s New York case cry foul over defense lawyer’s comments
- Coast Guard suspends search for two French sailors after cargo schooner sinks
- Intel's stock did something it hasn't done since 2022
- Beauty Queen Killer Christopher Wilder's Survivor Tina Marie Risico Speaks Out 40 Years Later
- The 180 Best Memorial Day 2024 Deals: Old Navy, Anthropologie, J.Crew, Kate Spade, Wayfair, Coach & More
- Ravens, still bitter over AFC title-game loss vs. Chiefs, will let it fuel 2024 season
- Meta donates $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund
- Gov. Ron DeSantis bravely saves Floridians from exposure to nonpatriotic bridges
Ranking
- Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett
- Judge in hush money trial rejects Trump request to sanction prosecutors
- The Boucle Furniture Trend Is Taking Over the Internet: Here's How to Style It in Your Home
- Kevin Costner remembers meeting young Ben Affleck, Matt Damon on 'Field of Dreams' set
- 'Malcolm in the Middle’ to return with new episodes featuring Frankie Muniz
- You'll Be Stuck On New Parents Sofia Richie and Elliot Grainge's Love Story
- Legendary U.S. World War II submarine located 3,000 feet underwater off the Philippines
- Here's why summer travel vacations will cost more this year
Recommendation
Alex Murdaugh’s murder appeal cites biased clerk and prejudicial evidence
Despite surging demand for long-term care, providers struggle to find workers
What is Memorial Day? The true meaning of why we celebrate the federal holiday
Flags outside of Alito's houses spark political backlash as Supreme Court nears end of term
New data highlights 'achievement gap' for students in the US
Morgan Spurlock, 'Super Size Me' director and documentarian, dead at 53: Reports
NCAA women's lacrosse semifinals preview: Northwestern goes for another title
Victoria Justice Teases What Goes Down in Victorious and Zoey 101 Group Chats