Where Are We Going, And How Many Episodes Will It Take?

Plus: 'The White Lotus' finale, new Lorde, and What is Making Us Happy!

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when the concert tour cancellations continued to roll in. (Please get vaccinated if you haven't already.) It was the week when we said farewell to Sonny Chiba. And it was the week when we learned a little more about the next Captain America ... maybe? Let's get to it. Opening Argument: Where Are We Going, And How Many Episodes Will It Take? The Hulu series Nine Perfect Strangers, which is based on the Liane Moriarty novel, has Nicole Kidman among its stars and David E. Kelley as one of its producers. That makes it a fairly direct follow-up to HBO's Big Little Lies, the last Moriarty adaptation to make a big splash. It's about a wellness retreat (Kidman plays the sort of guru) and the nine well-off people who wind up there. The cast includes not only Kidman but also Melissa McCarthy, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Shannon, and Manny "BORTLES!" Jacinto. It's a formidable arrangement of folks.  Hulu sent critics some, but not all, of the episodes. There are ten, and they sent critics six. Those six episodes give all these good actors a lot of time to show off, for sure. McCarthy gets a chance to play a significantly more grounded character than she usually does; she's a novelist who's fallen on hard times and is heading to the retreat to get some rest. (She will learn the retreat is not really very restful.) I watched the first couple of hours of it with interest, just because of the cast, even though the Kidman performance seemed a little over the top, but then I just ... ran out of interest. And without the opportunity to binge it through to the end, I didn't have the patience to figure out where, if anywhere, they were going with this.  There's an upcoming series (embargoed until Monday, unfortunately) that did roughly the same thing to me: the premise had me, and then it just became clear that it was going to take too many episodes to get there. Sometimes this leaves the impression that the thing should have been a movie, but sometimes it just means it should have been, say, four episodes rather than the more common six, eight, or ten. You've heard the Great British Baking Show judges talk about a tart with a soggy bottom, right? (Maybe you haven't; just take my word for it.) This is the problem of the series with the soggy middle: two good first episodes and maybe one good closing episode (of course, I don't know if that applies to Nine Perfect Strangers, since I haven't seen the end), and then some number of water-treading middle chapters. It's made me reflect on the way that watching episodes that go in a particular order can really, really affect how you see a show. Some limited series with ten episodes will focus on the most boring person in the story for, say, four episodes, and then switch gears to something much better in the fifth. What happens if only the first five episodes are released for review? (I have watched shows where this, or something close to this, has happened. I watched one ... yesterday.) Do you review it as "four boring ones and a much better one, and presumably maybe four more that are less boring"?  It unravels the idea, among other things, that a show is one thing: either a mess or masterfully done from beginning to end, every episode well thought out or poorly thought out. A ten-episode show can follow any number of tracks: start great and get dull; start dull and get great; start and end great and be dull in the middle; start and end dull and be great in the middle. And when you're only seeing a piece of it, but it's the piece the network has chosen to show you, figuring out where you are in that range is awfully difficult.  I don't know how the series Nine Perfect Strangers ends. I know how the book ends. I don't know whether, as with Big Little Lies, they will try to find a path forward for another season. I passed a couple of pleasurable hours watching actors I think are great bounce around in an interesting location. But is it good? Is it really, genuinely good? I don't know. It got soggy in the middle, but maybe it ends up as a perfect bite. Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend: I can't say enough about Claire McNear's reporting at The Ringer about the unfolding Jeopardy! situation. That's not to say there haven't been other people who have worked on it, but she's really taken this story on as a project, and it's benefited a lot of other journalists. Just -- just -- as this newsletter was going to "print," news broke that Mike Richards had decided to step down as host, although he'll apparently still be the executive producer for the time being.  But seriously, for recommendation hunters: Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers is, for the reasons stated above, a bit of a gamble at this point. It isn’t always as compelling as I wish it were, but great performances from that cast that includes Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon and Bobby Cannavale mean that even if you don't stick with it, you'll get a few scenes that you'll probably remember.   We’ll be covering the FX on Hulu series Reservation Dogs on the podcast soon, and it’s well worth catching up on in the meantime. You probably know by now whether you like the Wondery podcast Dr. Death or not. It has its own style, its own flavor. If you use it for company while cleaning, as I do, be aware that they’ve started a new season, and you’ll never guess: It’s about a bad doctor. (Also, while it surrenders to the regrettable impulse to put a hot actor in a fat suit, the recent Peacock TV adaptation of the first season, starring Joshua Jackson, Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin, isn't bad if you're looking for a true crime binge.) What We Did This Week! Ophelia Mikkelson/Courtesy of the artist On Monday, LaTesha Harris and Carlos Aguilar talked with me and Stephen about the Sundance hit CODA, now streaming on Apple TV+. On Tuesday, we shared an encore episode about cover songs, featuring Stephen, Glen and me, along with our pal Barrie Hardymon. On Wednesday, I had great fun talking to critic Walter Chaw about the totally average, rather forgettable, but -- for me -- ultimately entertaining Netflix thriller Beckett. You can also read a review from me at that link.  On Thursday, Glen talked to Bedatri D. Choudhury about the series Brand New Cherry Flavor.  And on Friday, you can hear a conversation Stephen had with Ann Powers, LaTesha Harris and Cyrena Touros about the new Lorde album Solar Power. I wrote up some thoughts about The White Lotus, now that we've seen how it plays out.  I also wrote about the Mike Richards issue at Jeopardy! (a piece based on last week's newsletter essay) -- but remember, that was a whole host-job resignation and cycle of reporting ago.  As I do every week, I wrote about this week's Ted Lasso, which is a salute to one of my favorite things: the romantic comedy.  And find Stephen over at New Music Friday, spinning some tunes for NPR Music. What's Making Us Happy: Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: What's making LaTesha Harris happy: The book Normal People by Sally Rooney (and the Hulu series) What's making Cyrena Touros happy:“Amaneki” by Sweet William and Ichiko Aoba What's making Ann Powers happy: Reservation Dogs on FX on Hulu What's making Stephen Thompson happy: “Hypnodancer” by Little Big Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: pchh@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Pop Culture Happy Hour emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy