April Binges: Dying for Sex & Dope Thief

If you're looking to settle in on the couch for a spell, I have two very different shows you could watch. A comedy about sex and death or a drama about drugs and corruption. Pick your poison.

Dying for Sex: Created by Kim Rosenstock and Elizabeth Merriwether, this show is loosely based on the podcast of the same name by Molly Kochan and Nikki Boyer, who here are played by Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate. The show kicks off when Molly receives her terminal diagnosis of Stage 4 breast cancer that has metastasized to her bones. Faced with this knowledge and the realization that she has never had an orgasm, she decides to leave her husband, Steve (Jay Duplass), and finally explore her sexuality. Which is complicated, for many reasons, as you can imagine.

While this is a show about a woman who is trying to live out some sexual fantasies, that plot is entirely secondary to the true story here, which is that of the depth of her friendship with Nikki. Molly is dying, and rather than relying on a husband or romantic partner, the person who she is depending on in her final days is her best friend. I was entirely ambivalent about the sexcapades on this show (though the introduction of Rob Delaney as Molly's neighbor and potentially something more thrilled me to no end), but what will truly make you weep is the relationship between these two women and the deep familial bond they share.

This is just a miniseries, because, spoiler alert, Molly will in fact die at the end of the eight episodes. But you will go on a stunningly moving journey that is equally funny as it is sad and embraces a very positive and wholesome view of death that more Americans need to consider. The final episode involves a character played by the magnificent Paula Pell, who is absolutely the person I want at my deathbed, explaining why death is a normal, natural bodily process, all with a big, excited smile on her face. I'm sure most people will avoid this show like the plague because of their own neuroses about the subject matter, but for those of you brave enough to wade into these waters, I promise you will be amply rewarded.

Dope Thief: Created by Peter Craig, based on the novel by Dennis Tafoya, this show stars Bryan Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura as Ray and Manny, two small-time crooks in Philadelphia who have hit upon the brilliant scheme of dressing up as DEA agents and breaking into the houses of drug dealers, pretending it's a raid. Once there, they "confiscate" all the drugs and money, which of course makes for a nice haul for them. But things quickly go south when they decide to raid a meth house that undercover DEA agents were already working in. People are killed, a lot of money goes missing, and now Ray and Manny must go on the run.

That premise sounds exciting, and the cast is excellent, but I could NOT get into this show at all. I begrudgingly binged my way through all eight episodes, sort of hoping that maybe something would happen that would hook me, but that moment of revelation never came. This is a dark, gritty, serious affair, occasionally lightened up with the Henry's deadpan comic timing or Moura's frantic confusion, but this felt like the kind of involved plot about drugs, prisons, and vengeance that makes for a fantastic read, but a thoroughly dull TV show. If each episode was a tight half hour, maybe I would have resented it less, but I got really tired of sitting down for 45 minutes to an hour each week. Perhaps others who love crime shows would enjoy it, but this show was emphatically not made for me. It easily slots into the category of Apple TV+ shows that have great actors, high budgets, and are thoroughly forgettable. You are welcome to convince me otherwise, but for now, I am not planning on tuning into Season 2; I have suffered enough.

Dark Comedy Binges: Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Bodkin

Yes, I watched even more TV last month, so if you're already done with my last slew of recommendations, I'm back with two more twisty and funny shows for you to binge. Ready, set, find your remote!

Mr. & Mrs. Smith: What an absolute delight. This show is inspired by the fairly insipid action spy comedy from 2005, so I figured it would be a diverting bit of fluff. But given that it stars Donald Glover, who co-created the show with Francesca Sloane (a former writer on the weird and wonderful Atlanta, who serves as the showrunner here), I should have known better. 

Glover and Maya Erskine star as the titular couple. They both separately interviewed with a shadowy organization to be secret agents, and were then told they would be living undercover with each other as a married couple, with the aliases of John and Jane Smith. They move into an insanely impressive brownstone in New York City (they even have a plunge pool - what largesse!) and start getting instructions from their mysterious overlords. Each of the eight episodes feature different missions that could be as simple as intercepting a package, or going to Italy to protect an asset from violent gunmen hellbent on killing them all. The action sequences are always thrilling and inspired, and the locales get increasingly more elaborate and beautiful. But what is more exciting than each mission of the week, is the overarching story of this couple as they navigate their intense relationship.

At the beginning, John and Jane want to keep it strictly professional. Well, that doesn't last very long - in their line of work, it's a bit hard to maintain boundaries. What follows is a deliriously funny but also very astutely observed relationship as the two get to know each other and develop a delicious rapport. Erskine and Glover are such incredible actors, and this show takes full advantage of their acting range and prowess. The scripts also feel so true to life, with the two of them having meandering conversations, making each other laugh, and falling in love over such seemingly simple nonsense. Of course, they also have major problems, and one of the show's highlights is Episode 6, when John and Jane go to couples counselling and have very convoluted conversations with a therapist where they can't reveal what they do for a living.

This show is effortlessly engaging and I desperately hope there will be a second season. But if there isn't, it's an absolutely perfect single season that you must devour immediately. It contains a multitude of genres and human emotions and will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. It also features a brilliant supporting cast, with famous names popping in to just do one episode before they are either helped or killed by the Smiths. So are you not intrigued? Start bingeing!

Bodkin: Created by Jez Scharf, this is a dark and funny mystery about a cold case in a beautiful Irish town named Bodkin that turns out to maybe not be so cold. Will Forte stars as Gilbert Power, an American podcaster who desperately needs a new hit and has decided that this trip to Bodkin and investigating the mysterious disappearance of three people during the Samhain festival. As far as he is concerned, he is less interested in solving this case than delving into the local characters and collecting some kitschy ambiance for his listeners. 

Gilbert is assisted by Emma Sizergh (Robyn Cara), a young British journalist who is eager to learn more and further her own career. Unfortunately, he is also accompanied by Dubheasa "Dove" Maloney (Siobhan Cullen), an Irish investigative journalist who is not thrilled about helping this clueless man but has reasons she needs to leave London for a bit. She is supremely uninterested in making a fluffy podcast, and instead, starts to dig up dirt on the inhabitants of Bodkin. This means things quickly start to take a dark and murderous turn.

If you're a fan of true crime podcasts and British comedy, this show offers up a neat little satire with an actual mystery to boot. I will confess, the plot was entirely too convoluted for me, featuring a whole mess of characters and tangled motives and alibis that I'm not sure I fully reconciled by the end. There are also a lot of nuns, which may or may not be a selling point. But this show is only a seven-episode commitment and features stunning Irish scenery with many fun accents. Sometimes, all you want is to lie back with a show where a bunch of sweary and grumpy townspeople are ganging up on the American, and this show delivers that in spades. And for some reason, the Obamas are executive producers on this show, so you might as well give it a shot!

Old Adult Binges: Queen Charlotte, Platonic, Based on a True Story

I haven't just been bingeing shows about high schoolers. There have also been a slew of great shows about very adult things and now it's your turn to watch them!

Queen Charlotte: I put this off for a while, but I mean, there was no way I wasn't going to check out a Bridgerton spin-off right? This limited series serves as a prequel of sorts, giving us the story of the young Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) who arrives in England to marry the mysterious King George III (Corey Mylchreest). She is a fiery and independent woman, but George is a good match, willing to take her on as she is. But of course, there are so many other obstacles along the way. Which include the fact that she is Black and he is...mad.

Bridgerton only glancingly acknowledged the fact that the cast of the show was not as white as one would expect from a typical period drama about rich British people in the 1800s. This show is an attempt to explain the "social experiment" that Queen Charlotte brought about with her dark skin, where the Crown saw fit to elevate Black families so the Queen wouldn't feel quite so alienated. The show also has to deal with George's fits and the fact that he is eventually overtaken by a "madness" that history has yet to fully diagnose. The show's take is that they had a very happy marriage, and Charlotte protected her husband as best as she could from the outside world. But it's definitely a lot of drama to deal with.

Queen Charlotte is trying to thread a very delicate needle. It half succeeds, but with only six episodes in the season, it can only make a cursory attempt at dealing with questions of race and mental health. Where it is more successful, of course, is in the aesthetics - the costumes and hairstyles and production design are wild and flamboyant and outrageous. And there are definitely plenty of sex scenes to keep you entertained if that's all you want from your Bridgerton binge. But if you don't want your smut served with a side of social commentary, this may not be the right show for you.

Based on a True Story: Chris Messina and Kaley Cuoco star as Nathan and Ava, a couple living in Los Angeles who accidentally discover the identity of a serial killer. And instead of turning him in to the cops, they decide it would be a good idea to partner up with the killer to make a podcast about his exploits. What could go wrong?!

Over the course of eight episodes, things naturally go completely off the rails. This is one of those shows that veers from cliffhanger to cliffhanger, so I'm not going to get into much more plot. But suffice to say, Messina and Cuoco are incredible actors and they are hilarious and compelling in this show that is just as much about the struggles of marriage as it is about keeping tabs on a serial killer. Also, not for nothing, but Cuoco's character is massively pregnant, and I've never seen a show treat a pregnant woman with quite so much agency as this one - this lady is getting up to more shenanigans whilst pregnant than I've ever gotten up to with a completely barren uterus. 

Tom Bateman, who plays the killer, is also excellent, managing to be charming and exceedingly creepy, which is exactly what you want from your serial killer character. The increasingly farcical nature of the relationship between these three people keeps spiraling out of control; it's a well-contained first season, with plenty of jokes and thrills, and I hope they can continue to pull it off in Season 2. 

Platonic: I love this show. It is so clever and smart and has so much to say about gender dynamics and approaching middle age and friendship. Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen star as Sylvia and Will, two people who were best friends in college (Will even served as Sylvia's maid of honor at her wedding) but then had a falling out because Will married a woman that Sylvia couldn't stand. Fast forward to several years later, where Sylvia and her husband now have three kids, and she discovers Will has gotten divorced. She tentatively reaches out to see how he is doing, and after a few meetings, they rekindle their friendship.

Yes, this is a show that seems like it is going be tongue-in-cheek about the title and actually this is some sort of slow-burn romcom where the man and woman can't just be platonic best friends but will have to hook up at the end. But no, Sylvia's husband, Charlie (the gorgeous Luke Macfarlane), is a supportive and loving husband, and she's not about to blow that up. Instead, this show truly is focused on what happens to men and women when they get older, and the gendered ruts they can fall into. What's lovely is how their re-established friendship forces both these people to view their lives with fresh perspectives and institute some changes that will make them happier and get back on track with the hopes and dreams they had for themselves when they were younger.

Of course there's still jealousy and misunderstandings, because most of society is not prepared for the idea that straight people of opposite genders can just be friends. But after watching ten episodes of this show, all I can say is that it is a delicious and warm comedy about friendship, and how sometimes that is a relationship that is much more important than romance. 

Weekend Watch: Only Murders in the Building & The Guilty

What do you feel like watching this weekend? A funny ten-episode New York mystery series? Or a gritty and claustrophobic cop thriller that will be over in 90 minutes? Either way, I’ve got you covered.

Only Murders in the Building: This show stars Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez as three residents of a swanky apartment building on the Upper West Side. When a resident named Tim Kono is found shot in his apartment, our three leads band together as an unlikely trio to investigate. And they also start making a true crime podcast to broadcast their investigation to the world in real-time, which means that as the series progresses, they start accumulating a fan base, and further complications ensue.

This show is my jam for three reasons: I love mysteries, I love satire, and I love New York. And this show hits all those elements and knocks them out of the park. Created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman, the show is well-written and hilarious, mining every possible situation for comedy gold as well as satirizing all the tropes of true-crime podcasts. The mystery of “who killed Tim Kono?” is truly engaging and over the course of ten episodes, you will encounter numerous red herrings (I won’t spoil, but a famous musician makes a cameo at the end of Episode 3 and it made me LOL), and many twists and turns. And the show is filled with New York banter (the opening credits look like they were pulled straight off a New Yorker cover) and a lot of jokes about how terrible Long Island is.

This is exactly the kind of light and breezy yet still compelling show that makes for a perfect weekend binge. It was great for weekly viewing, with my friends and I trading theories about what we thought would happen next, but now you can treat yourself to all of it in one fell swoop. The actors are wonderful, and while we all know that Short and Martin have great rapport after years of working with each other, it was fun to see how well Gomez fit in as the young millennial who still got along well with these two weird older men. So settle in on the couch and get started. I promise you won't regret it.

The Guilty: First off, if you are mad at the police and the status of policing in America in general, this may not be the movie for you. But if you want to watch Jake Gyllenhaal on the phone for 90 minutes acting his heart out, this might be your jam. Directed by Antoine Fuqua and adapted from the original Danish screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto (both men who are associated with movies and TV shows about problematic cops), the movie follows one day in the life of LAPD officer, Joe Baylor (Gyllenhaal). He is a cop who has been relegated to working as a 911 operator, for reasons that will slowly be revealed over the course of the movie. We see him deal with various 911 calls at the beginning, some of which are benign, others a bit more serious, and he either handles them quickly and flippantly, or gets annoyed and judgy. There’s a lot of “you put yourself in this dangerous situation by taking drugs, how dumb are you” energy, and overall, he does not seem like the kind of guy I would want to be relying on in a crisis.

However, he then gets a call from a frightened woman, and after initially thinking it’s a wrong number, he realizes this woman has dialed 911 because she has been kidnapped and needs him to save her. What follows is a tense thriller where Joe calls in every favor he can from his colleagues, engages in some questionable policing, and tries to coach this woman to safety. There’s a third act twist that is particularly amazing, though I kind of anticipated it from the jump, so I’m curious if other people did too. Let me know in the comments if you end up watching it!

This is a good movie if you want to watch a good actor put on an acting showcase. It was filmed during the pandemic, so there’s a particularly claustrophobic feel to the film as it is mostly centered on Gyllenhaal sitting in a room yelling on the phone. The character is complex and mostly impossible to root for, but the story is propulsive and compelling and has a satisfying resolution (I would argue almost too satisfying, as though it’s trying to make up for just how dark it is all the way through). Also, the voice cast is a who’s who of talent, but I was so swept up in the story that I didn’t even try to puzzle out who was doing all the talking until I got to the closing credits. So give it a try. It might be a lot to take in, but it might also surprise you. 

Bonus recommendation: The Guilty reminded me a great deal of the movie Locke, starring Tom Hardy, so if you are turned off by the idea of watching a cop movie, might I suggest you watch that instead? Hardy is great, and there's a lot of drama but with a soothing Welsh accent, so you may enjoy it a lot more!

Weekend Watch: First Cow and An American Pickle

Let's be clear: the combination of First Cow and An American Pickle might be the most unlikely double feature ever devised. But in pandemic times, you watch whatever you can find, and that's what I did last Friday. These are two insanely different movies but at least one of them has to satisfy your itch for cinematic satisfaction. So are you looking for a spare and meditative western about two men in Oregon in the 1800s, or a bizarre comedy about a turn of the century Jewish immigrant who gets pickled in brine and re-emerges in present-day Williamsburg? Either way, I’ve got you covered!

First Cow: Written (with Jonathan Raymond, who wrote the novel the movie is based on), edited, and directed by Kelly Reichardt, this movie sneaks up on you. My main sentiment on finishing it was how I wished I had seen it in theaters, because this is the kind of slow, lush movie that is meant to be an immersive and absorbing experience, and not something that you distractedly watch while playing Candy Crush on your phone.

Set in 1820, it’s the story of Cookie (John Magaro), a cook who meets a Chinese man, King-Lu (Orion Lee) in the Oregon Territory. The two men team up and hatch a scheme based on Cookie’s excellent cooking skills and King-Lu's business acumen. They sell delicious biscuits for significant sums of money to the traders and trappers and other grimy men who are seeking their fortunes in Oregon but are also seeking a warm and delicious treat that reminds them of home. However, the magic ingredient in these biscuits is the creamy milk that Cookie gets by secretly milking the cow that belongs to the wealthy Englishman who recently moved to the settlement. This is the first and only cow in the area, and it’s a dangerous scheme to be stealing its milk like this, but the rewards seem to outweigh the risks.

First Cow is a mood piece. It is very quiet, with many long and languid scenes where not a lot happens. There is much excitement around the cow and the ensuing shenanigans, and the film does turn into a bit of a heist film, but at its core, it’s a deep movie about friendship, hardship, and the ingenuity that characterizes the American entrepreneurial spirit. Also, special shout-out to Eve, the cow that is the real star of the film (this was her first ever film role!). I have never wanted to drink a glass of milk more in my life than when watching this movie. And the line of folk waiting to get a biscuit reminded me of the line outside Dominique Ansel’s bakery to get a Cronut. While the setting of this film might be in the past and unfamiliar, the emotions and general capers feel just as relevant to the modern day, and it is a transporting and tranquil weekend watch.

An American Pickle: The one word I would use to describe this movie is, “cute.” Which you don’t imagine going into it, because the premise seems so utterly bizarre and ridiculous that you think it has to be a raucous, weird comedy. But instead, it turns out to have a rather heartfelt premise that sneaks up on you and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Seth Rogen plays Herschel, a Jewish immigrant who flees the Russian Cossacks and arrives in NYC in 1919 in search of a better life. He works at a pickle factory, and one day, in a freak accident, he falls into a vat of pickle brine. No one notices, and that happens to be the day the factory is shut down, so for the next century he is just slowly pickled in that vat, until in 2019, he is discovered, perfectly preserved and alive, a scientific miracle! He is released into the custody of his only surviving relative, his great grandson Ben (also played by Seth Rogen), who is a freelance app developer in Williamsburg. As you can imagine, it’s a challenge to explain to your pickled great grandpa what it means to be a freelance app developer. 

There’s a typical clash of the generations, and as things escalate, Herschel moves out and decides he is going to create his own pickle business. The jokes keep on coming, mocking Williamsburg and its hipsters, Jewish identity (for more Jewish humor, you should check out Seth Rogen's recent interview on WTF with Marc Maron, where the two men proceed to offend the entire nation of Israel), and the political and technological landscape of modern America. The movie is written by Simon Rich, based on a wonderful four-part story he wrote for the New Yorker in 2013 (even if you don't watch the film, I highly recommend reading the story), and the film wisely keeps its focus sharp and doesn’t wander off on too many tangents. In a breezy 89 minutes, we get a funny movie that mocks the sillier elements of how we live now, but also delivers a nourishing story about the importance of family, dealing with grief, and moving on with your life. Instead of broad shtick, Rogen delivers a splendidly nuanced performance, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets nominated for a Golden Globe. An American Pickle is a fun distraction, so figure out if you have HBO Max and give it a shot!

Reply All #158: The Best Podcast Episode Ever

This post is to tell you to listen to one episode of a podcast. Just one hour-long episode, that’s it. I had heard about this episode yesterday on Twitter via NPR's Linda Holmes (who subsequently recommended it on today's Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter) and then it showed up in today's New York Times Morning Briefing email. So I downloaded it at 8 am. I started listening to it while walking to work, and by the time I was halfway through, I had texted several friends to tell them to start listening immediately. I got to work and couldn’t finish since I had a bunch of meetings, but the second I was free, I gobbled up the rest, giggling like a loon at my desk. And when I finished, I stood up and told my colleague sitting in front of me to seek this episode out. I was utterly besotted.

The episode is called The Case of the Missing Hit and it is the 158th episode of the popular Reply All podcast from Gimlet Media. I have never listened to Reply All before and I don’t know if I will again, because this episode has set such an impossibly high bar for the world of podcasting that I feel like I might just have to call it quits after this. OK fine, that's a lie, and I will probably now listen to Reply All's entire back catalog. But it is really not hyperbolic to say this podcast episode completely turned my day/week/month/life around.

So what is The Case of the Missing Hit about? It is the tale of a man in Los Angeles who suddenly remembers this pop song he heard a lot on the radio in the 90s when he was living in Flagstaff, Arizona. He remembers the flute solo at the beginning, he remembers numerous lyrics that bear a resemblance to One Week by the Barenaked Ladies, but accompanied by a rousing chorus more reminiscent of U2. But try as he might, he simply cannot find this song on the Internet. He keeps Googling lyrics as he remembers them but Google stubbornly refuses to return a single sensible hit. This song doesn’t seem to exist and so this man turns to PJ Vogt from the Reply All podcast to help him solve the mystery.

Listen to this episode. Follow the journey as these two men go down an ever-deepening rabbit hole and consult an increasingly ridiculous roster of people to see if anyone has heard of this song. There are so many incredible twists and turns and it genuinely turns into the most compelling mystery you’ve ever encountered. Sherlock Holmes couldn’t have done it better. It is a wonderfully silly but miraculous story with an astonishing payoff. And it is a feat of remarkable storytelling that should be stored in posterity for future generations.

Technology is responsible for a lot of strife in our world but in The Case of the Missing Hit, we have the clearest distillation of what the Internet can help us achieve. Did you think the oral tradition died with Homer? Well, it's back baby. And I will be saving this episode on my phone and listening to it every time I need to restore my faith in humanity. My God, it was so good. 

My Dad Wrote a Porno: Do Not Listen While Operating Heavy Machinery

Need to improve your Monday morning commute? Listen to a podcast called My Dad Wrote a Porno. You can guess that this is a NSFW (though I think I've recommended it to everyone I work with regardless), very adult podcast that you don't want your kids listening to. But if you're acquainted with the birds and the bees, grab your headphones (and your cervix) and get ready.

The show is hosted by three Brits: Jamie Morton, Alice Levine, and James Cooper. Jamie is the unfortunate soul whose father has written a pornographic e-book entitled, Belinda Blinked. His father writes under the choice pseudonym of Rocky Flintstone and this whole endeavor began as a retirement lark after he tired of writing tamer fare, like travel guides, with his wife. He gave the finished manuscript to his son, and the horror-struck Jamie decided there was only way to get through this piece of erotic fiction - reading it chapter-by-chapter on a podcast with his friends, Alice and James.

I first heard about this podcast on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour (the source of all of my favorite recommendations) and I was hooked after the first five minutes. And the people I have recommended it to have been similarly ensnared. I devoured the first season over a weekend, and thankfully, because Rocky Flintstone did not just stop with one book, the gang are now in the midst of reading Belinda Blinked 2, releasing a new chapter every Monday morning to start my week off right. I have frightened my fellow commuters by cackling on the shuttle or giggling on the street. But who cares, because this podcast is so brilliant. In addition, there are little "Footnotes" released on Thursdays that feature Q&As, deep-dives into themes that arose from a particular chapter, like a very informative Dutch lesson that gives you everything you need to know before a trip to Amsterdammmm, and interviews with celebrities who love the podcast (my favorite so far is the one with QI Elf Dan Schreiber from No Such Thing as the News - talk about everything I love mashed up into a glorious half hour).

I realize none of the above adequately explains what is so wonderful about MDWAP. It's an odd combination of bewildering plot (or lack thereof), un-sexy sex scenes (my fellow female listeners will back me up when I say there is nothing more cringe-inducing than the anatomically impossible references to cervixes sprinkled throughout the first book), stilted dialogue, and oddball characters ranging from our heroine, the bizarre Belinda Blumenthal who seems to think nothing of taking her kit off in every conceivable situation, to the Youngish Man, whose name we got as a complete afterthought once he was done shagging Belinda. And of course, this is all delivered in Jamie's fantastically soothing voice. He tries to be as professional as possible but simply can't hold it together when a particularly egregious event unfolds (i.e. every five to ten seconds) and requires as much moral support as Alice and James can muster. Even more hilariously, the trio will occasionally try to highlight moments when Rocky has genuinely written something well or displayed some kind of literary brilliance, only to quickly cast their praise aside as they get to the next horrifying sentence.

My Dad Wrote a Porno is the most gleeful, inane experience you can hope to introduce into your life. It is so funny, so unrelentingly preposterous, and such a product of the modern age where we can take the literary foibles of a retired Irishman and turn him into a worldwide sensation with a global audience of three million people. We can complain all we like about how fractured and chaotic the world is. But as it turns out, all we need to unite the masses is to listen to a hapless man narrate his father's erotic fiction. 

WTF With Marc Maron: The Art of Comedy

Podcasts can be a difficult medium to get into. Unlike turning on a radio or a TV and instantly being entertained, subscribing to a podcast requires a bit of legwork. Sure you can go to the show's website and listen instantly on your computer. But most people don't have an hour or more to spare at one sitting, which is why they have to subscribe to the show on iTunes, load up episodes on their iPods, and then listen off an on during the day whenever they snatch a free moment. And if you're like me, you end up with about 30 episodes on your computer before you even look at the Podcasts tab on iTunes and realize there are all these shows awaiting your attention. As a result, you have to be certain about a podcast before you make a significant commitment to this hassle. And WTF with Marc Maron is well worth the hassle.

WTF is an hour-long podcast hosted by stand-up comedian Marc Maron. Each episode consists of Maron interviewing a celebrity guest, usually a comedian, and getting into the nitty-gritty details of their lives to date. If there's something dark and twisty to be found, Maron will find it. Episodes are released twice a week and the 300th episode was released a few weeks ago. So it's doing pretty well for a podcast. And after one listen, you'll understand why. My introduction to the show was Episode 163 in April of last year, which featured an hour-long interview with Conan O'Brien. As a longtime Conan fan, I couldn't help being intrigued, and the interview did not disappoint. It was smart, informative, and funny as hell. And if Conan never writes an autobiography, this podcast would serve as an adequate replacement for any memoir.

I honestly don't know how Marc Maron does it and I don't think he does himself. There's just something about two comedians talking to each other about the craft of comedy that seems to open up possibilities for both serious and humorous introspection. Being a stand-up comedian means exposing yourself to ridicule and judgement every time you go on stage and sharing humiliating life stories for the sake of a laugh. As a result, most of Maron's guests are willing to discuss any and all aspects of their lives. A lot of comedians have surprisingly dark pasts and being funny is their outlet, so this allows for many engaging and deep discussions both about the nature of comedy and the nature of life itself.

I'll admit that I mainly listen to the episodes that feature celebrities I like, e.g. anyone from the cast of Parks & Recreation or Craig Ferguson. I've read Ferguson's autobiography, yet it was amazing how Maron managed to get him to talk about his entire life in one hour so that you could probably just skip reading his book (if you are so inclined). This past January, comedian Todd Glass chose WTF as the forum on which to come out publicly, which made for a very moving episode. The Mindy Kaling episode wasn't dark at all, but was still a great way to learn about her comic sensibilities and journey to The Office. And as I make my way through the backlog of episodes on my computer, I still have interviews with Bill Maher, Diablo Cody, Jon Hamm, and Stephen Merchant to look forward to.

Somewhere in the archive of 300-plus episodes, you are certain to find an interview with a comedian or actor that you love and you'll learn something intriguing and entertaining about their lives and their work. So head to the WTF website and start browsing. There's a whole world of comedy for you to explore.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: A Podcast For Anyone

There are many reason to be thankful when Friday rolls around, but one of my chief reasons is that it is the day a new episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour is released. Hosted by Linda Holmes, who writes the fantastic pop culture blog Monkey See over at NPR, the show is a merry forty minutes of pop culture analysis, debates, and regrettable television pop quizzes.

Aside from Holmes, the show features Stephen Thompson from NPR Music, arts editor Trey Graham, and Glen Weldon who "writes about books and comic books." If one of these regular participants is missing, the show will deploy producer Mike Katzif or pull in some other delightful NPR person to liven up the proceedings. Apparently NPR is just filled to the brim with people who love movies, television, books, or music and can't wait to offer up witty insights into the ever-expanding world of pop culture.

The show has a relentlessly cheery vibe and if you've had a bad day, all you need is to listen in on an episode and laugh. It is an incredibly informative show, with each member bringing their particular area of expertise to the table and providing an in-depth look at a variety of topics ranging from comic book heroes to Shakespeare to music featured in television and the wonders of German art song (OK, that last one may not have been taken so seriously). But this isn't some reverential podcast that aims to provide an elevated pop culture dissertation every week. Each episode is extremely funny, lively, and devolves into silliness quite rapidly. Truly excellent television is discussed alongside the truly terrible, and sometimes they might not all agree as to which category a show belongs to. Stephen Thompson might have to sit out a discussion of some book as he famously does not read, and occasionally everyone might mock Trey Graham for his high-brow tastes (see: German art song). But at the heart of this show is a group of friends who are just having a lovely chat about stuff that they enjoy and they have graciously allowed the rest of the world to listen in.

One of the nice things about PCHH is that every episode ends with "What's Making You Happy This Week," where they go around the table and offer up some pop culture tidbit or life event that brought them joy that week. It might be a YouTube video, a great episode of television, making some pottery, or a win for the Green Bay Packers, but this segment serves as a reminder to savor simple pleasures. So this Friday, head on over to the NPR Monkey See blog and listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour. It will probably become the thing that's making you happy this week.