This week, Superman like all wise people, trusted his dog, the National Film Registry got a little bigger and a Supreme Court justice made her Broadway debut.
Here's what NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.
'Young Lion' by Sade
The artist Sade released "Young Lion" as an apology to her trans son, apologizing for not being the most affirming that she could have been as his parent. It's part of this compilation of songs called Transa organized by Red Hot, an AIDS organization that wanted to bring attention to trans awareness. It's available to stream everywhere and folks should check it out. — Tre'vell Anderson
JamesEarl333 on TikTok
@jamesearl333 It’s Game of Thrones up in here 😭. part 2 of this after the parties next saturday, stay tuned. 👀 @💫NOSY💫 #storytime #familydrama #auntiesoftiktok #storytok ♬ original sound - Jamesearl333
There's this great account by this young screenwriter based out of Compton, JamesEarl333. He has been slowly building out this universe of explaining the nuances that come with having a complicated, big Black family. So it started with a viral story of two twin aunts that were throwing a birthday party, broke up, then threw two competing birthday parties on the same day — one on a boat and one in the backyard of their family house. It has since expanded to this rich text of family lore. Sometimes when we talk about Black families, it's this really binary examination of working class Black families or upper class Black families with a very firm distinction. His storytelling really shows that a lot of the average Black families are all of that at once. — Shamira Ibrahim
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Dick Van Dyke has been all over the place lately. He recently turned 99. He appeared in a Coldplay video for a song called "All My Love." That has led me to start a rewatch of The Dick Van Dyke Show. I love this show. It's one of those shows that I grew up watching and have revisited several times. He plays Rob Petrie, a TV show writer. His wife is Laura, played by Mary Tyler Moore. It's just fun. It reminds me that Dick Van Dyke was the most limber entertainer. The show is streaming in a lot of places, including Peacock and Prime Video. — Aisha Harris
'Kid On Christmas' by Madi Diaz
One of my favorite new Christmas songs in ages just dropped a few weeks ago by one of my favorite singers, Madi Diaz, and it's called Kid On Christmas. I will say this every year for the rest of my life: If your holiday song is telling me to be happy, I will be sad. Your holiday song leaves space for me to feel a little bummed out. I will feel better. I will wholeheartedly embrace the spirit of the season. This song, to me, does that perfectly. — Glen Weldon
More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter
by Linda Holmes
It hasn't gotten much fanfare, but the entire 20-season run of the original Law & Order has landed on Hulu after only a handful of seasons have been on streaming for years and years and years. There are lots of reasons to look askance at the way the show presented politics and police, but it does make an interesting time capsule, as well as an example of a show that went through a lot of eras and a lot of actors and just kept on going. (As to the current version they started a few seasons ago? The less said about that, the better.)
The absolute goofiest thing I have seen on television in quite some time is Human vs. Hamster on Max. This is a show in which teams of people face off against hamsters – literal, actual hamsters – to run the same mazes (obviously built to a scale to suit the species involved), and whoever is faster wins. At some level, I prefer the pure absurdity of something like this to anything that tries to fashion itself into anything cool. This show is not cool; it exists so you can text people you know and say, "You're not going to believe what I'm watching."
This is the time of year for a variety of yule log content and fireplace content and other things intended to run in the background. I was highly amused to see that Netflix has offered up Bridgerton: Fireplace, which is exactly what you would think. It's a fireplace, plus some music. I must say that for me, it makes less sense to show the entire room (as they do here) rather than making the entire screen into a simulated fireplace, but I suppose if you have a big enough TV, seeing nothing but fireplace might be unsettling. Either way: Enjoy.
Dhanika Pineda 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.
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