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Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'Godzilla' And Things That Got Better

NPR
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First of all: LIVE SHOW TICKETS! (On sale June 2 — that's a week from this coming Monday — at noon Eastern.)

Just wanted to put that up there; we'll get back to it.

This week takes me, Stephen, Glen and our friend Matt Thompson to Godzilla, which gets the same mixed review from us that it's gotten in general: better at monsters than at humans, better at looks than plot, but very appealing to a certain piece of (particularly) Glen's soul. (I reference a piece at The Dissolve that's well worth your time; find it here.)

We then have a chat about some of the things we've watched as they've actually gotten better, as well as what makes it hard to improve over the course of a career and perhaps hard to get credit for it when you do. This one casts a wide net: Whedon! Zombies! The Good Wife! Bands! Comedies!

And as always, we close with what's making us happy this week. Stephen, as is often the case, is happy about a band with a new record, and particularly a one minute and 40 second song that makes him think, "I'm in a car." (Yes, you should imagine him saying this like Old Spice Man. Or at least I do.) Glen is happy about a video series he acknowledges will either be your thing or not your thing, but if it is: oh, boy. Matt is happy about the work coming from the latest team he's working with (Matt has so many teams!) He's also happy about a web series that was recommended by our pal Dana Stevens at Slate Culture Gabfest. And I am happy about a whole passel of books I'm reading, including this one, which I forgot to rattle off the name of, but you should read it.

But hey! We have news! On Tuesday, June 24th, at 7:30, we will once again be having a live show here at NPR HQ, to commemorate our (believe it or not) 200th episode! Now last time we did this, we put the tickets on sale and, because it's not a huge space, they were sort of gone by the time some of you had time to see whether you could go. (You caught us slightly off-guard, we admit.) So this time, we wanted to give you a chance to look into it ahead of time. Therefore, tickets are not on sale yet; they will be on sale June 2, which is a week from this coming Monday, at noon Eastern.

Until then, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: me, Stephen, Glen, Matt, producer Jessica, producers Nick and Lauren, and our dear pal Mike.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.

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