Pop Culture Happy Hour guests and hosts share what’s bringing them joy : NPR

Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Jack Dawkins in The Clever Dodger.

John Platt/ Hulu

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John Platt/ Hulu

Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Jack Dawkins in The Clever Dodger.

John Platt/ Hulu

This week, issues obtained dicey for Elmo, folks simply stored on being bizarre about Taylor Swift, and we we mentioned goodbye to the nice, nice, nice Chita Rivera.

Here is what NPR’s Pop Tradition Glad Hour crew was listening to — and what you need to take a look at this weekend.

One Route – A Fan Story

The members of One Route — Liam Payne, left, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Types, Zane Malik and Niall Horan — in London in December 2010.

Ian Gavan/Getty Photographs

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Ian Gavan/Getty Photographs

The members of One Route — Liam Payne, left, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Types, Zane Malik and Niall Horan — in London in December 2010.

Ian Gavan/Getty Photographs

One Direction – A Fan Story is a BBC podcast hosted by Maddie Grace Jepson, written and produced by Gráinne Morrison. It’s a stunning retelling of the rise of One Route from the view of a now grown-up Directioner. It has eight episodes, every not than 20 minutes. It is so well-produced – it is sound-rich, high-energy, and filled with archival tape. I really like that the BBC put actually nice manufacturing into documenting what was a visceral, emotional factor in a teen’s life And it is actually attention-grabbing to listen to it from a British perspective. — Candice Lim

The Clever Dodger

The Artful Dodger on Hulu is a by-product of the Nineteenth-century Dickens novel, Oliver Twist. For individuals who are unfamiliar, Oliver’s good friend Jack Dawkins (aka “the Clever Dodger”) is a pickpocket. Within the novel, he introduces Oliver to the e book’s antagonist, Fagin. This present takes place a few decade after the novel — Dawkins has left behind his lifetime of crime, and he is in Australia utilizing his nimble fingers for good as a surgeon. Fagin exhibits up and lures him again into crime. It’s a Victorian-era interval drama set in Australia, and form of a romance – it contains scheming, plotting, capers, and a reminder that there was a time when minor surgical procedure was life-threatening. It stars Thomas Brodie-Sangster, David Thewlis and Maia Mitchell – and it is excellent.— J.C. Howard

Leo Reich: Actually Who Cares

Leo Reich’s standup special got here out in December. His standup persona is he is form of a preening, self-obsessed, younger queer man who’s satisfied of his personal trailblazing significance. He is form of taking part in up this complete youthful disaffection factor — he is sporting it like a coat. It is a pointed critique of precisely that form of influencer tradition vibe. He is taking part in dumb very neatly in the way in which that individuals like John Early and Kate Berlant and Joel Kim Booster used to — that complete scorching fool vibe. There’s additionally music, so there’s simply sufficient Bo Burnham in there form of peeking across the nook. I am making an attempt to sum up his vibe by evaluating him to different folks, as a result of I very a lot don’t need to spoil a single certainly one of his jokes. They’re stable, they’re extraordinarily well-written, they’re effectively delivered. So I am trying ahead to much more from this man. — Glen Weldon

Jet Lag: The Recreation

Ordinarily I discover YouTuber vitality to be Too A lot, however I’ve gotten sucked in to an exquisite sequence on YouTube and Nebula known as Jet Lag: The Game. They principally take a territory of the world and switch it right into a board sport. Suppose, like The Superb Race, with two groups competing towards one another to go from one place to a different, however with different variations: There’s a model the place they play Join 4 by touring to precise states within the U.S. They play a 72-hour sport of tag throughout Europe. It’s kind of a travelogue mixed with a technique sport mixed with YouTubers capering round doing foolish challenges. I am utterly sucked in and actually having fun with this. — Stephen Thompson

Extra suggestions from the Pop Tradition Glad Hour publication

by Linda Holmes

I drastically loved the novel Attention-grabbing Info About Area by Emily Austin, which got here out this week. It is a story a few NASA (or NASA-like) engineer and true-crime obsessive with an entertaining and weird inside monologue. (If you would like extra about every thing I have been studying, together with a bunch of stuff that is popping out this week, I rounded it all up over at my very own website.)

The Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, which appears to be like again on the late-night recording of “We Are The World” in 1985, is a complete lot of enjoyable. Bruce Springsteen is beneficiant and reflective, Huey Lewis explains how he was requested to fill the footwear of Prince, and you discover out about a minimum of one singer who could have had a little bit an excessive amount of to drink.

Carole V. Bell wrote a chunk for NPR a set of latest Jane Austen-inspired Hallmark diversifications, together with a tackle Sense and Sensibility with a principally Black forged. There are some fascinating notes on the historical past and manufacturing of the movie.

Pal of PCHH and NPR’s TV critic Eric Deggans wrote up a information to determining which streaming providers to subscribe to — a public service!

NPR’s Elizabeth Blair wrote a few White Home arts summit that is value keeping track of.

Take be aware that the Grammy Awards are on Sunday night time, and Stephen will likely be up late to assist carry you a PCHH episode in addition to some written reflections. As they’d say on Succession, “We Hear For You.”

Beth Novey tailored the Pop Tradition Glad Hour section “What’s Making Us Glad” for the Internet. In the event you like these solutions, take into account signing up for our publication to get suggestions each week. And hearken to Pop Tradition Glad Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.