Pop Culture Happy Hour

Kelsey Grammer is back as Frasier Crane. After nine seasons on Cheers and 11 more on the spin-off Frasier, the snobby psychiatrist joins the long list of characters rebooted for the streaming age. In the new Frasier series on Paramount+, Dr. Crane returns to Boston with a new supporting cast and a new set of challenges. But what made the original series so watchable, and how does the new show stack up?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour

The compelling new film Killers of the Flower Moon is a sweeping three-and-half-hour-long crime saga, romance and Western. Directed by Martin Scorsese, it's told through the lens of a marriage in 1920s Oklahoma. It stars Lily Gladstone as an Osage woman and Leonardo DiCaprio as the low-level white thug who professes to love her. But he continues to do the bidding of his uncle (Robert De Niro), who's stealing from and murdering her people.

Bad Bunny is one of the biggest stars in music. His previous album Un Verano Sin Tí topped the Billboard charts, won a Grammy, and helped him become most streamed artist on Spotify for a third straight year. Now he's back with a supersized new album, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana. The record finds him wrangling with the trappings of fame amid the sounds of trap and electronic music, and the reggaeton sounds that helped make him an icon.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour

In the complex and compelling French film Anatomy of a Fall, a husband is dead and his wife is the chief suspect. The investigation and trial expose the many rifts in their marriage, as the couple's young son yearns to understand what happened and why. Directed by Justine Triet and starring Sandra Hüller, the film won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Sometimes there's a time and place for a long movie — whether it's because you've got an afternoon off, or you just aren't in the mood to flip from one entertainment to another. Martin Scorsese's latest movie Killers of the Flower Moon clocks in at over three hours, so today we're recommending other great movies over three hours long.

The Netflix movie Fair Play stars Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich as a couple that's young, in love, and hot for one another. At least until one gets a promotion over the other at the hedge fund where they both work, and things get tense at home and in the office. Can their relationship withstand the pull of cutthroat ambition and male ego, or is their stock doomed for a free fall?

The new Netflix horror miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher makes for a terrifically spooky October binge. It cleverly reimagines and remixes several works by Edgar Allan Poe in a modern setting. Created by Mike Flanagan, the series follows doomed siblings Roderick (Bruce Greenwood) and Madeline Usher (Mary McDonnell), and the dark secrets that even their unimaginable wealth and privilege can't manage to keep buried.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour

The frantic, absurdist new movie Dicks: The Musical is about a pair of misogynistic narcissists (played by Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson) who discover they're long-lost twins. Also starring Megan Mullally, Nathan Lane, and Megan Thee Stallion, the movie's got cheeky song and dance numbers — plus crude humor and a distinctly queer sensibility.

Do you like scary movies? It's spooky season, after all, so what better way to get into the Halloween spirit than plopping down in front of a film engineered to scare your pants off. Today we're talking about the scariest movie we've ever seen. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour

The Exorcist came out 50 years ago, and it's still widely considered one of the greatest horror movies of all time. Now, The Exorcist: Believer serves as both a reboot and a sequel. Directed by David Gordon Green, the film stars a mostly new cast, including Leslie Odom, Jr., Lidya Jewett and Olivia O'Neill, but also brings back Ellen Burstyn, who reprises her iconic role from the original film.

The Changeling is an ambitious new series spanning generations and continents to tell an epic tale of a family torn apart by spirits and fairies. The Apple TV+ series stars LaKeith Stanfield as Apollo, a new dad whose dreams of fatherhood morph into nightmares following the birth of his son. Apollo's rude awakening sets him on a horrifying journey to confront his demons, past and present.

The hilarious comedy series Our Flag Means Death follows the misadventures of Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby), a posh aristocrat who decides to give up his pampered life and become a swashbuckling pirate on the high seas. But when he meets the fearsome Blackbeard (Taika Waititi), the two men find they have much to teach one another about pirating – and about accepting who they are. The second season is about to return to Max, so today we're revisiting our conversation about the series.

Ahsoka is the latest Star Wars TV series on Disney+. This one's about a character who's beloved by fans of the franchise's animated series – but if you only know the Star Wars movies, you're likely meeting her for the very first time. Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) was once a Jedi who rejected the Order's stuffy, bureaucratic ways and is harboring a great sense of guilt over her mentor becoming Darth Vader. She's back with a new Jedi mentee of her own (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) as they try to stop a new threat to the galaxy. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour

In the new movie The Creator, humanity is at war with artificial intelligence. It stars John David Washington as a former soldier who's been recruited to find and kill the creator of a powerful AI weapon. Directed by Gareth Edwards, the film's big themes involve the role of AI, the brutality of war, and the building blocks of life and society.

Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense has been called the greatest concert film of all time. Directed by Jonathan Demme, the iconic 1984 film takes the audience onstage with the band and captures them at the height of their power. Now, a restored version of the film is back in theaters, featuring propulsive performances of early hits like "Psycho Killer," along with deeper and funkier cuts, too.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour

In the new film Cassandro, Gael García Bernal plays the real-life Mexican-American wrestler who came to international stardom by adopting the persona of the flamboyant Cassandro, the Liberace of Lucha Libre. It's the story of a queer man who challenges a macho and homophobic system through sheer showmanship – and earns the respect of his fellow wrestlers and audiences.

The snappy "eat the rich" comedy Dumb Money is about a sly bunch of Reddit users who made some Wall Street billionaires sweat, in an infamous stock market incident known as the Game Stop short squeeze. With a star-studded ensemble including Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Pete Davidson, the movie has got class warfare and needle drops galore. But will it inspire you to fight the power or just go out and buy some stocks?Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour

Netflix's hit series Sex Education is a refreshing and frank coming-of-age story about modern teens learning about their bodies and themselves in awkward, relatable ways. In the final season, amateur sex therapist Otis (Asa Butterfield), his best friend Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), and their friends juggle academic life and young adulthood.

Starfield is one of the biggest and most anticipated video game releases of the year. It's a massive open world game set in humanity's future, when we've settled on star systems throughout the galaxy. There's over 1000 planets to explore, multiple factions to join, spaceships to pilot and quests to go on. But does Starfield live up to the hype? Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour

When you're talking about the movies of the 1990s, you have to mention the decade's huge assortment of thrillers. From courtroom standoffs and frantic chases to wild twists and A-list stars, today, we are recommending three of our favorite 90s thrillers.