Plus: The Sympathizer, MTV, and the toughest game of capture the flag I've ever seen

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when we saw Captain America again. It was the week when the relationship of the Golden Bachelor went the way of so many others before it. And it was the week when reboot fever continued to burn so hot that you could not possibly avoid catching it. Let's get to it. In the mood for a streaming documentary? True crime docs, scammer docs, serious docs ... one of the most notable developments of the streaming era of television is that there are new documentary films and series coming out constantly. The difficulty for someone who might want to check some of them out is that they go by in a blur, and a lot of them have similar-looking titles and promotion. There are still big-ticket entries -- on April 21, HBO will premiere a follow-up series to its huge true-crime hit The Jinx -- but there are also a lot of lower-profile projects flying by, so let's take a moment to check in with a few current ones. What Jennifer Did, Netflix (available now) A feature-length film about a 2010 home invasion that killed a woman and left her husband in a coma, What Jennifer Did is mostly told from the point of view of the police who gradually zeroed in on the couple's daughter, who was home at the time. Police-side crime documentaries tend to be the least interesting to me, and in this case, it feels like there's a tremendous amount of context missing about the family in favor of a fairly simple "she wanted to be with her boyfriend" narrative. But I say that in part because I have read the 2015 piece by Karen Ho in Toronto Life that considers more broadly what led to this bizarre act. From the documentary Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion. HBO Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion, Max (available now) I can honestly tell you I was not very familiar with the Brandy Melville brand before I watched this film, which tells the story of how social media helped make a juggernaut out of a whole lot of nondescript tiny shirts. (It's more complicated than that, and ... also not.) The story of the gross in-store culture (which reminded me a lot of parts of the Netflix film White Hot, about Abercrombie & Fitch) is interesting and pretty lively, but I would have preferred a little more time spent on the fast-fashion element, which I do think is ripe for more documentary work. The Synanon Fix, HBO (airing now) Sometimes, it feels like documentaries are their own expanded universe. I was just watching an entirely different show about the "troubled teen" industry and its dark history, and it mentioned how Synanon, which began in California as a program to treat addiction, influenced much of what became the "we will grab your badly behaved teenager from their bed, take them to some secluded location, allow them no contact with anybody, and turn them around" model. And now, Synanon has its own docuseries, which considers whether and when Synanon turned into what you would call a cult. (Was it the head-shaving? The mass weddings? The dictates about reproduction?) But what stands out the most is the consideration of how a program and a community can change shape, and it takes a while for people inside and outside it to register those changes. We're only scratching the surface of what's out there -- Netflix's #1 show as I write this is their Unlocked: A Jail Experiment, about a "program" that gives incarcerated men more freedom. And I am 100% committed to finding time before it expires on April 20 to watch Menus-Plaisirs -- Les Troisgros, the latest from the great documentarian Frederick Wiseman, which is available on PBS. Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend After I talked last week about how much I love the Netflix athletic competition Physical: 100, several people told me that I needed to move on to Siren: Survive the Island. Just like Physical: 100, it's a South Korean competition show on Netflix that puts a variety of very fit people through some grueling experiences. But! Instead of an individual series of fitness contests, Siren: Survive the Island is a team competition. It pits teams of women -- Team Police, Team Firefighter, Team Athlete, Team Stunt (made up of stuntwomen), Team Guard (bodyguards) and Team Soldier -- against each other in what's basically a big game of capture the flag that takes place over about a week. It took me a full round of play to understand how it works, but once I did, I was hooked. Highly recommended. And by the way, maybe the best thing about it is that they hardly ever talk about the fact that they're women. They just are, which is similar to how men exist on television most of the time. The podcast Who Killed the Video Star? about the history of MTV might seem to be an exploration of a well-worn topic: Why did MTV stop showing videos and stop focusing on music? But fortunately, when you listen, you are in the hands of the wonderful writer, funny person and onetime MTV host Dave Holmes, and Dave knows his stuff. It's a fascinating piece of history, and he's the best possible guide for this angle on it. (Also I recommend his memoir, Party of One, a book so fascinating and entertaining I once got a sunburn because I was mesmerized while reading it and lost track of time.) I'm still working my way through the episodes I have of HBO's The Sympathizer, based on Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel, which premieres Sunday. And while I have a few misgivings about a few things, including the quadruple use of Robert Downey, Jr. in four different roles, the central performance from Hoa Xuande is transfixing, and I'm very excited to see more and talk about it with people. 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 Is Conan O'Brien the best Hot Ones guest ever? Discuss. Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images Glen wrote about how Conan O'Brien catapulted himself into the top of the list of Hot Ones All-Stars. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Carrie, we re-shared the episode Stephen and Glen did with Barrie Hardymon and Tasha Robinson about the works of Stephen King, both in print and on screen. As I always do when people talk about King, I will just add: don't forget the short stories. Me personally, I might like the short story collections best of all. It was a real treat talking to Eric Deggans and Wailin Wong about the new FX adaptation of Shōgun. If you haven't been watching, it's on the last couple of episodes, and it's been a real treat to see a traditional historical epic (in some ways) get the FX treatment. There are some very, very good performances, and as Eric points out, it's a really interesting combination of retro (old-school miniseries epic) and modern (American audiences growing up about subtitles). Stephen, Aisha and I talked about the Apple TV+ documentary Girls State (a follow-up to Boys State, which a different panel covered back in 2020). These films are both fascinating, particularly considered next to each other. We really love both. What a great panel for the complicated film Civil War: Glen, Walter Chaw, Monica Castillo, and NPR's own Danielle Kurtzleben. I haven't seen this one yet, but I've heard a lot about it. And finally, a note from something else I did: PCHH listeners are familiar with the wonderful Ronald Young, Jr., who is a frequent panelist and the host of the podcast Weight For It (which recently won three Ambies, woooo!). He's also one of the rotating hosts of Slate's podcast Working, which is about the working lives of creative people. Having done so many episodes of PCHH where I was hosting and he was on the panel, Ronald and I turned the tables on each other, and he interviewed me for Working about all the jobs I have and some of the ones I've had in the past. It was a great chat. 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: Monica Castillo: Riddle of Fire Danielle Kurtzleben: Palm Royale, streaming on Apple TV+ Walter Chaw: Alfred Hitchcock Storyboards, by Tony Lee Moral Glen Weldon: The People's Joker 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? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Pop Culture Happy Hour emails. 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