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Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'The Young Pope' And 'Hell Or High Water'

Pope Pius XIII (Jude Law) in the new HBO series <em>The Young Pope</em>.
HBO
Pope Pius XIII (Jude Law) in the new HBO series The Young Pope.

Gene Demby of NPR's Code Switch team is in our fourth chair this week as we start by trying to make sense of all our reactions to HBO's new drama The Young Pope. The cardinals! The intrigue! The smoking! The ... unexpected animal cameos! It's a really interesting show that has us a little perplexed in places, so please join us as we try to figure out whether we like it or not.

We do like Hell Or High Water, the 2016 modern western starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges. Even if you're not a fan of westerns or movies about bank robbers, it's grounded by great performances both large and small, and it intersects with current financial policy issues in a very interesting way.

As always, we close the show with what's making us happy this week. Stephen is happy about another entry in his March To The Oscars, Glen is happy about a comic and a Netflix show, Gene is happy about a comedy series he also found on Netflix, and I am happy about a stand-up special — which is also on Netflix. (These are the coincidences that arise when you don't talk in advance about who's happy about what, by the way. It wasn't, like, Be Happy About Netflix Week.)

Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: the show, me, Stephen, Glen, Gene, producer Jessica, and producer emeritus and pal for life 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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