Plus, the Tiny Desk, Black Mirror, and -- yes -- Vanderpump Rules.

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when we remembered Cormac McCarthy and Treat Williams. It was the week when AI came for one of our greatest bands. And it was the week when the writers strike got new allies. Let's get to it. Let's let go of 3D already I saw the Pixar film Elemental this week (we'll be talking about it on the show soon). It's a story about Element City, where fire people, water people, cloud/air people and earth people all live alongside each other, sometimes uncomfortably. Some things about it work better than others, but it's impossible, I think, not to admire the inventive way it creates its world of flames and bubbles and flowers and puffy clouds, and the way all those things make up the characters it's about. On top of that, those characters live in a world of smoke, rivers, and all kinds of other -- shall we say -- earthly delights. The screening I attended was in 3D. I tend to have mixed feelings about 3D, which can certainly have its impressive "ooh, neat" moments, but which I tend to find more a gimmick than a genuine advantage -- despite the fact that these days, it works pretty well. Even as a person who wears glasses and is therefore not perfectly suited to putting 3D glasses over them, I had no trouble with the 3D presentation itself as far as appreciating and enjoying the different layers of visuals. 3-D glasses for Avatar: The Way of Water / Getty Images The problem is that, as you know if you've ever picked up a pair of the RealD glasses that you use for a film like this, it considerably darkens the picture simply because of the 3D technology. You can see it -- they are literally dark glasses, and as sunglasses would do, they make the picture look, you know, darker. Particularly with something like a Pixar movie for kids, and extra-particularly for one that's so dependent on a lively presentation of nature, it's impossible for me to believe I even saw the best version of Elemental. I feel certain that my appreciation of its colorful take on the world would have been, what, 30% greater?, if I had just watched it in a regular 2D presentation. I've always been a bit of a 3D skeptic -- the glasses are fiddly and just become more plastic junk, the gimmicks wear off, it gets distracting, and it introduces more opportunities for technical problems (there were some at my screening). And for a while, I felt like my side was winning the argument -- you don't see as many random "but this time it's 3D!" sequels as you did for a while, what with Saw 3D and Piranha 3D and Step Up 3D and so forth. But one of the places 3D seems to persist is in animated kids' movies, which is the last place it belongs. Why would you want to watch an explosively colorful world unfold while wearing sunglasses? The people who create Pixar films are perfectly able to make those worlds immersive and unforgettable without exploiting a technology that degrades the experience on one level in order to supposedly improve it on another. Honestly, maybe this is tech that belongs in cheapie horror sequels, where it can be used for jump scares and tricks in a genre that relies on them, rather than in films that are designed to be visually joyful. Besides, who wants to try to make a squirming kid wear plastic glasses for two hours? Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend We'll be talking about the new season of Black Mirror on the podcast soon. As is usually the case with anthologies, these five episodes are uneven, but it's always interesting to see what's kicking around in these folks' heads as they try to compete with the bleakness of the actual tech world. Sarah Wendell at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books had a lovely tribute this week to romance writer Julie Garwood, who died at 78. I, too, was a Garwood reader as a young person, and I remember her work fondly. I cannot say enough about the impact NPR Music, and especially the great and good Bobby Carter, have already had with their Tiny Desk offerings during their celebration of Black Music Month. And it's only half over. Wander over there and treat yourself. What We Did This Week Ezra Miller in The Flash / Warner Bros. Pictures Stephen talked to Reanna Cruz about Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. All the greatest dreams of our beloved former producer (and new ICYMI host at Slate) Candice Lim came true -- and she returned! -- when she talked with Stephen, Amil Niazi, and Shamira Ibrahim about Vanderpump Rules and the Scandoval that has swirled across the internet. Aisha is off enjoying the release of her book Wannabe, but before she left, she wrote a review of The Blackening, and she talked about it with Ayesha Rascoe and jarrett hill. We talked a lot about how to best cover The Flash, given the history of allegations against its star as well as its complicated place in the history of DC movies. Glen and I wound up talking about those things, and about the movie, too. And he also sat down and wrote a terrific review. (Many thanks to our producers and our editors for their help with this episode.) 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: Glen Weldon: The very unusual Tony Awards Linda Holmes: Megan Abbott's Beware the Woman Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. 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