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Pop Culture Happy Hour: A Fall Films Preview And Betting On New Television

Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour

We've had a lively summer on PCHH, full of live events and quizzes and special guests and even Stephen hosting episodes(!) (kidding!), but this week, we've got our pal Bob Mondello in the studio for some good old-fashioned movie and TV chatter.

Bob and I recently returned from the Toronto International Film Festival, a huge event where we can see only a fraction of what's on offer. We talk about new films from Jason Reitman and Mike Leigh and Gina Prince-Bythewood (who made the divine Love & Basketball, as I mentioned recently), and about ones starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Steve Carell and Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. But we also tell you about an offbeat story of a man driven from an Aboriginal community by the police, and a heartfelt film about labor relations, and lots more. (You can read all my coverage on the blog.)

The last seven Best Picture winners, by the way, screened at Toronto. So if you care about that kind of thing, buckle in.

And then it's time for one of our favorite times of year: the fall television pool, where we make wild guesses about which shows might survive to see another season. After Stephen tries to pry away from me my hard-fought victory of last year (not happening!), we move on to this year, and he plants his flag in a legal drama with a very famous producer attached. Glen goes in exactly one of the directions you might expect, Bob introduces streaming into the mix, and I try for a second consecutive victory by once again going with my gut.

As always, we wrap up the show with what's making us happy this week. Stephen is happy about his kids' discovery of music they hadn't heard through skills they probably don't need, and also about a tweet that thrilled him to the bone (that contains a swear!). Glen is happy about an old show with new life. Bob is happy about a new set of books he calls "catnip for [him]." And I am happy about a couple of things: if you still aren't done with Copmom Momcop, the theme song, I did eventually release the whole thing, including the lines I got from our esteemed producer emeritus, Mike Katzif. (You should be done with it, though. I promise I am.) I was also made happy by a really cool article about art, as well as the adventures of my traffic-managing app.

As always, we'd love to hear from you, so find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: me, Stephen, Glen, Bob, producer Jessica, producer Lauren, and our producer emeritus and music director, Mike Katzif.

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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