The Paramount+ series, based on the game franchise, starts off stiff and familiar. It may take some time for the show, and its main character, to loosen up.

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: nerdy podcasts, chill shows and an unbeatable mashup.

The Netflix movie, directed by Charlie McDowell, follows three unnamed characters played by Jason Segel, Jesse Plemons and Lily Collins. What unfolds is unsettling, suspenseful and very, very tense.

Playing someone real is a completely different task than playing a fictional character.

Russia's growing isolation in the cultural world is poignant for those who remember optimistic outreach of the 80s and 90s.

Russia's growing isolation in the cultural world is poignant for those who remember optimistic outreach of the 80s and 90s.

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: BTS, Sandra Oh and meditations on humor.

In this effective, straight-ahead time-travel yarn, Ryan Reynolds digs beneath his usual persona to find something a bit less glib — and thus, more sympathetic.

The executive producer of HBO's new series Winning Time is known for his fourth-wall breaking, look-at-the-camera-and-explain style. That approach comes up in Super Pumped, a show he didn't make.

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: new music from Drug Church, learning to knit and Judy Greer.

The Dropout is about Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos founder recently convicted of misleading her investors. But at its best, it's about everyone who let it happen.

Matt Reeves' approach to the venerable hero is more emo than goth, and Robert Pattinson brings a haunted quality to the role.

The scene: a high school cafeteria. The subject: the Oscars' decision to deliver eight prizes prior to the live awards ceremony.

When months — even years — separate TV seasons, plotlines are lost to the sands of time.

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: The Secret History, a Futurama reboot and more.