Plus: American Girl, 'Quiz Lady' and 'The Marvels'

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when Tracy Chapman was still the best. It was the week when Jared Leto wanted attention. And it was the week when apparently Patrick Dempsey is sexier than anyone else on the planet? (Lots more at the news quiz.) Let's get to it. The SAG-AFTRA strike (we hope!) is over. Now what? Final votes still need to be taken, but SAG-AFTRA has reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP to end the strike that's been going on for nearly four months. Since the WGA (the writers) ended that strike in late September, for the time being, this allows television and film production to resume after being at least partially disrupted since the beginning of May. (We should note that many NPR News staffers, myself included, are represented by SAG-AFTRA, but we are in a different bargaining unit and weren't involved in this strike.) SAG-AFTRA picket signs pictured earlier this summer. Mandalit del Barco/NPR It sounds odd, but one of the most immediate effects of the end of the strike (actors were cleared to go back to work on a provisional basis this week when the tentative agreement happened) is actors going back to promotional work, particularly as the end-of-year movie season ramps up. Brie Larson is on Jimmy Fallon's show tonight (Friday) promoting The Marvels; the early part of next week's lineup includes Colman Domingo (Rustin), Taika Waititi (Next Goal Wins), and Rachel Zegler (the new Hunger Games movie). This holiday movie season is going to be pretty jam-packed, despite the fact that work stoppages have roiled the industry for much of the year. I've been seeing a good run of released and soon-to-be-released movies I have liked. I liked The Holdovers, from Alexander Payne; I liked Quiz Lady on Hulu; I liked The Marvels; I liked Next Goal Wins; and I really liked Emerald Fennell's wild Saltburn. There is much to be happy about this season, and there's much more to come, depending on what you're into: Bradley Cooper in Maestro; Joaquin Phoenix in Napoleon; Disney's Wish; Beyoncé's Renaissance; musical The Color Purple; Emma Stone in Poor Things; Cord Jefferson's buzzy American Fiction; and lots more. You'll likely see the slowdown more in 2024 than you did this year, simply because of the long lead time for production. Obviously, fall television that runs on a regular yearly schedule didn't return on time -- your Law & Orders and Young Sheldons and NCISs and so forth. They'll be back eventually, but it will take some time. It's easier to put aside the delays in streaming shows that have had production stopped, like The Bear and Stranger Things, simply because they've always had irregular release schedules, and people got used to long delays after production shut down in the early part of COVID. (Although Stranger Things continues to risk that with every postponement, it's more likely that the "kids" will look like full-grown adults by the time the story concludes.) Vulture has done a tremendous service rounding up a list of reported delays, including Deadpool 3 moving from early May 2024 to late July to Disney's Snow White sliding from March 2024 all the way to March 2025. So it's still going to be a little bit rocky. There are also a lot of issues in TV and film that will persist despite the strike ending. The diversity of voices on and off screen still needs serious work. The unsettling practice of shelving projects that are already completed and simply never releasing them continues at Warner Bros., which will doubtless frustrate cast and crew who wasted months of work on something that will never see the light of day. So "back to work" is good news -- for actors and writers, for the rest of the crew, and for the rest of the economy that is supported by TV and film production. But as with any invocation of "back to work," this one recognizes that there is plenty of work yet to do. Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend I can't decide how I feel about 007: Race to a Million, a Prime Video reality show that just debuted. The idea is that it jumps off of the James Bond franchise to send people on a trip around the world doing various ... tasks? I'm not even sure I understand how it works, having seen a couple of episodes, and I'm definitely not sure what it has to do with James Bond. What it does have is Succession's Brian Cox, sitting at a bank of terminals in a dark room, talking in a grave voiceover about what the contestants are doing, crossing their names off on a pad when they're eliminated, and giving them creepy instructions by phone. I'm torn: It might be bad, it might be so bad it's good, and it might simply be so cheesy it's ready to be melted onto some nachos. While I'm not an American Girl doll person, I enjoyed reading about the people who are, and the history of this really remarkable phenomenon. (I worked briefly near Rockefeller Center, and the most common request for directions I got was "Do you know which way to the American Girl store?") It seems important to point out that Barbra Streisand was on Fresh Air this week. Listen to the Podcast Sponsor-Free Support your favorite pop culture junkies AND listen without sponsor interruptions with a subscription to Pop Culture Happy Hour+! Learn more and sign up at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn More What We Did This Week Awkwafina and Sandra Oh in Quiz Lady. 20th Century Studios We revisited a conversation Aisha had with Sidney Madden on the occasion of the second season of Rap Sh!t. Aisha, Margaret H. Willison, Kristen Meinzer and Tobin Low all enjoyed (to varying degrees) Quiz Lady, starring Sandra Oh and Awkwafina. Glen talked to our friend Roxana Hadadi about the Nicolas Cage film Dream Scenario. The Marvels has gotten a very mixed response, but the four of us on our Friday panel -- that's Glen, Daisy Rosario, Ronald Young, Jr. and me -- all liked it. 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: Ronald Young, Jr.: Long Shot, on Netflix Daisy Rosario: True True, by Don P. Hooper Glen Weldon: Fingernails, on Apple TV+ Linda Holmes: Start Here, by Sohla El-Waylly 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. 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