Plus: Norman Lear, 'Poor Things' and the best games of the year

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when Taylor Swift was Person of the Year, and a lot of people cared deeply about who was Person of the Year for the very first time. It was the week when a coffee dispute roiled a TV empire. And it was the week when a gossipy story got even more gossipy (if you like that kind of thing). (Lots more at the news quiz.) Let's get to it. The rise of the documentary miniseries and the promise of a good one Monday night, HBO aired the first of three installments in its documentary series Murder in Boston: Roots, Rage & Reckoning. Directed by Jason Hehir (who made The Last Dance), it's about the October 1989 murder of Carol Stuart. The murder was originally reported by her husband, Charles, as a carjacking by a Black assailant in which they had both been shot. She died, as did the baby she was carrying. By January, Charles' brother confessed that he had assisted Charles in murdering his wife and that Charles' own injury was essentially a misdirect; the carjacker never existed. In the intervening months, a manhunt had resulted in the police stopping, searching and harassing large numbers of Black men in Boston, one of whom they even arrested. Charles Stuart identified him as the -- as it turns out -- fictional murderer, then took his own life shortly after his brother gave him up to the police. There is an obvious way this series could have gone: exacting detail on the Stuarts, their families, how beautiful Carol was, how it all went wrong -- on other words, on Charles' decision to kill her and his brother's decision to turn him in. Instead, it wisely focuses not on the murder itself, but on the police investigation, both its origins and the deep scars it left. The bulk of the first installment is spent on the history of segregation and racism in Boston, with particular focus on the ugly protests against busing as a way to desegregate public schools. It's a bit of a salutary bait-and-switch, seeming like another true-crime story, but really taking this case and using it as only one example of much broader problems. The result is far more satisfying and substantial. Carol Stuart and Charles Stuart.  HBO The three-episode docuseries is a standard format by now, particularly on Netflix. That's how many episodes Netflix has of Bad Vegan and Escaping Twin Flames and Bad Surgeon. It's how many there are of Max's own Love Has Won. These often follow a three-act structure: the setup, the explosive events, the consequences and conclusions. Murder in Boston suggests what might be a better path for a series like this, which calls all the way back to Ezra Edelman's outstanding series O.J.: Made in America. That series, while it was longer, similarly used its long format to provide what is often missing from stories about true crime, or scandals, or headlines of the past: context. Yes, it's possible to spend three episodes synthesizing what we know about events of the past, primarily for the benefit of people who either want to look back on them as familiar or want to learn about them because they weren't around the first time. But why set aside the benefit time can often provide, which is a chance to gain new perspective on familiar stories? Journalists and civil rights leaders, and one retired police officer who was willing to talk -- and who seems to have zero regrets about his role in the manhunt -- speak to the ways the aftermath of this killing changed the city, how it echoes in conversations that still take place now, and how, in retrospect, biases and failures of imagination prevented a mostly white police apparatus from being suspicious about Stuart's story when plenty of Black residents never believed it for a minute. (For all this useful context, it also is undeniably an advantage to this series that the old COPS-like show Rescue 911 was filming with Boston emergency medical services on the night of the murder, which means there is much more footage than usual of the crime scene, of Charles Stuart being loaded into the ambulance and being treated in the hospital, and of him muttering about the supposed Black carjacker.) This is what a docuseries should look like. Events are covered efficiently; context is given room to breathe, to occupy the space it needs. A lot of such projects are disposable and sensational, offering less light than heat. But this is one that gets the balance right. Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend The death of legendary TV producer and writer Norman Lear this week at the age of 101 inspired several lovely remembrances. This one from Alan Sepinwall at Rolling Stone, this one from Daniel Fienberg at The Hollywood Reporter, and this one from Kathryn VanArendonk at Vulture are all well worth your time. This week, NPR published a great big guide to the best games of the year. It works a lot like Books We Love, and it will keep you busy for a long, long time. It's back for another year: The Great British Baking Show: Holidays is upon us. Listen to the Podcast Sponsor-Free Support your favorite pop culture junkies AND listen without sponsor interruptions with a subscription to Pop Culture Happy Hour+! Learn more and sign up at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn More What We Did This Week Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé is both concert film and documentary about the recent world tour. Parkwood Entertainment Glen and I had a chat with Margaret H. Willison about the charming Australian comedy series Colin From Accounts. Glen, Stephen, Andrew Limbong and I racked our brains to remember the best Christmas gifts we ever received. Come for the samba beat, stay for the elevator. Stephen, Sidney Madden and Bilal Qureshi talked about the Beyoncé concert film Renaissance. Neda Ulaby and Juana Summers joined me for a talk about the unsettling new Netflix film Leave The World Behind, which carries the star power of Mahershala Ali, Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke. And Walter Chaw and Roxana Hadadi brought their sharp thoughts to a talk with me and Glen about the fascinating, weird, imaginative Poor Things, starring Emma Stone. And I wrote about a new documentary called A Disturbance in the Force that looks back on The Star Wars Holiday Special and its baffling, tacky, wacky spectacle. What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: Walter Chaw: Solitary Roxana Hadadi: Razorblade Tears, and other works of S.A. Cosby Glen Weldon: Assassin's Creed Mirage and NPR's Best Games of 2023 Linda Holmes: Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage and Reckoning Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: pchh@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? 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