Pop Culture Happy Hour Guests and Hosts Share What Brings Them Joy: NPR

This week, things got complicated for Elmo, people were still being weird about Taylor Swift, and we said goodbye to the great, great, great Chita Rivera.

This is what NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour The crew was paying attention and what you should see this weekend..

One Direction – A fan story

One Direction – A fan story is a BBC podcast presented by Maddie Grace Jepson, written and produced by Gráinne Morrison. It’s a beautiful telling of the rise of One Direction from the perspective of a now-adult Directioner. It has eight episodes, each no more than 20 minutes. It’s very well produced: it has a rich sound, full of energy and full of archival tapes. I love that the BBC made a great production to document what was something visceral and emotional in the life of a teenager. And it’s really interesting to hear it from a British perspective. -Candice Lim

The clever trickster

The clever trickster on Hulu is a spin-off of the 19th century Dickens novel, Oliver Twist. For those unfamiliar, Oliver’s friend Jack Dawkins (aka “the Artful Dodger”) is a pickpocket. In the novel, he introduces Oliver to the book’s antagonist, Fagin. This show takes place about a decade after the novel: Dawkins has left his life of crime behind and is in Australia using his nimble fingers for good as a surgeon. Fagin appears and lures him back into crime. It’s a Victorian period drama set in Australia and a romance of sorts: it includes intrigue, plots, mischief and a reminder that there was a time when minor surgeries were life-threatening. It stars Thomas Brodie-Sangster, David Thewlis and Maia Mitchell, and it’s very good.-J.C. Howard

Leo Reich: Literally, who cares?

Leo Reich stand-up special It came out in December. His stand-up persona is that of a self-obsessed, preening queer youth, convinced of his own pioneering importance. He’s kind of exaggerating this whole youthful discontent thing: he wears it like a coat. It’s a scathing critique of exactly that kind of influencer cultural vibe. He’s playing dumb very cleverly, like people like John Early, Kate Berlant, and Joel Kim Booster used to do: that whole hot idiot vibe. There’s music too, so there’s enough Bo Burnham there peeking around the corner. I’m trying to sum up his vibe by comparing him to other people, because I don’t want to spoil a single one of his jokes. They are solid, very well written and well presented. So I expect a lot more from this guy. —Glen Weldon

Jet lag: the game

I usually find YouTuber energy to be too much, but I got caught up in a wonderful series on YouTube and Nebula called Jet Lag: the game. They basically take a territory of the world and turn it into a board game. think like The amazing race with two teams competing against each other to get from one place to another, but with other variations: there is a version where they play Connect 4 by traveling to real US states. They play a 72-hour tag game across Europe. It’s sort of a travelogue combined with a strategy game combined with YouTubers prancing around doing silly challenges. I am completely absorbed and really enjoying this. —Stephen Thompson

More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour Newsletter

by Linda Holmes

I enjoyed the novel very much. Interesting facts about space by Emily Austin, which came out this week. It’s a story about a NASA (or NASA-like) engineer and true crime obsessive with an entertaining and unusual interior monologue. (If you want more about everything I’ve been reading, including a bunch of stuff coming out this week, check it out. rounded it all on my own site.)

The Netflix documentary The biggest night of pop, reminiscent of the late-night recording of “We Are The World” in 1985, is a lot of fun. Bruce Springsteen is generous and thoughtful, Huey Lewis explains how he was asked to take Prince’s place, and you discover that at least one singer may have had too much to drink.

Carole V. Bell wrote an article for NPR analyzing a set of new Hallmark adaptations inspired by Jane Austenincluding an interpretation Sense and Sensibility with a mostly black cast. There are some fascinating notes on the film’s history and production.

PCHH friend and NPR TV critic Eric Deggans wrote a guide to finding out. what streaming services subscribe to: a public service!

NPR’s Elizabeth Blair wrote about a White House Arts Summit It’s worth keeping an eye on that.

Take note that the Grammy awards It’s Sunday night and Stephen will be up late to help bring you an episode of PCHH as well as some written reflections. As they would say in Succession“We listen for you.”

Beth Novey adapted the pop culture Happy Hour segment “What Makes Us Happy” for the Web. If you like these suggestions, consider Subscribe to our newsletter to receive recommendations every week. And listen to the pop culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.