What’s Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend reading, viewing, listening and gaming

This week, another long, weird awards season ended on a perfectly pleasant note, a certain “find the bad guy” reality show ended on a hugely satisfying note, and Telly Monster’s perpetual state of anxiety was cruelly vindicated.

Here’s what NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.

Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones by Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton’s 2023 memoir is Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones. Our beloved Dolly sadly lost her husband this week after 60 years. And I took that as a chance to reread this book while listening to it, and I highly recommend that’s how people consume this book. It gave me that book on tape experience I had as a little child, paging through picture books while listening to the story. This book in particular works so well that way because the book is so visual. There are hundreds of costumes and she tells the story of several of them. She talks with her stylists, designers, and her costume archivist. The conversations are so delightful when you get to hear them while looking at the images — sometimes you can hear Dolly giggling. — Kristen Meinzer

Reacher, Season 1

Reacher, streaming on Amazon Prime, is a show starring Alan Ritchson, a human iceberg crashing through bad guys and doing things that are just ridiculous for people his size to do, like capering around on windowsills. He’s this rectangular justice machine, sort of the human SpongeBob if SpongeBob were made of solid grappling muscle. — Jeff Yang

‘Bittersweet’ by Semma

Mariah Carey has been busy mostly promoting her Christmas song that’s 30 plus years old now. And she’s not making as much new music as I would like. To fill the void, I recently discovered a new-ish artist named Semma. She’s a London based singer songwriter who gives so many Mariah Carey vibes but puts her own spin on it. Her 2019 EP Ribbons & Bows, is definitely worth checking out. It features a really great song called “Bittersweet.” She is definitely playing into it as well in 2024. She released two songs called “Honeycomb” and “Salty.” There’s a lot of great sonic warmth and goodness going on here. I just think she’s so fun. — Aisha Harris

Dredge

Dredge is an indie game available on several platforms. You are a fisherman in an archipelago. You go out on your fishing trawler during the day to fish, bring them back to port, sell them, upgrade your equipment, then go back out so you can go out further. I know what you’re thinking. “Glen, are you seriously recommending a fishing simulator?” I am. However, it’s clear from the jump that something is up because the creepy townsfolk keep warning you to return to dock before the fog rolls in at night. And if you are still out there at night, when the night comes on very swiftly, you start to see things in the fog. You get disoriented, you start to panic if you choose to risk it and stay out fishing at night. What you pull up is strange and sinister. It is creepy and fun. It’s for anyone who ever read The Perfect Storm and thought, you know, this is fine, but it really needs more unnamable, eldritch horror. — Glen Weldon

More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter

by Glen Weldon

Actor Don Johnson was interviewed on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast this week. I had no idea the guy’s been basically Forrest Gumping his way through pop culture history – hanging out with Jerry Garcia in 1968 San Francisco! Having Jimi Hendrix wipe cocaine off of his nose! Chilling at The Factory with Andy Warhol et al.! Growing close to his one-time neighbor, Hunter S. Thompson! (He tells stories about Thompson that paint the guy as a sweetheart, which: Okay! Contradicts my impression of the dude, but I’ma take your word for it!) Given all that hard partying, it makes sense that he’s a Buddhist now, I guess? The episode’s worth a listen just to hear Thompson’s game attempt to get Marc Maron, of all people, to relax and let go.

All six episodes of the Dimension 20 show Dungeons and Drag Queens, Season 2 are now available on the Dropout streaming service. The Season 1 queens are back – Monét X Change, Alaska, Jujubee and Bob the Drag Queen – and once again they’re guided on a quest by dungeon master Brennan Lee Mulligan. It’s hilarious and fun, of course. But the queens have changed – they’ve settled into their characters now, and are more versed in the game’s mechanics. It’s surprisingly heartwarming to see them becoming better, more confident players. They’ve always taken impulsive risks, made big swings – but this season they have a clearer sense of the stakes. So now, those big swings seem less impulsive, more considered – yet they’re just as wild, just as chaotic, and thus even more thrilling.

There’s a Monopoly movie coming! Did your blood just run cold? Did an inchoate cloud of heavy wet dread just settle over you? No yeah I get it, but listen: They’ve hired John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein to write it. Those are the guys who directed Game Night and directed and co-wrote Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. You loved those movies! And you haven’t seen them in a while! So go, watch Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves again!

Dhanika Pineda adapted the Pop Culture Happy Hour segment “What’s Making Us Happy” for the Web. If you like these suggestions, consider signing up for our newsletter to get recommendations every week. And listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.