This week, Taylor Swift got praise she might not have expected, Halloween costumes and labor unrest crossed paths, and Netflix raised prices ... again.
Here's what the NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.
Bad Bunny's new album, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana
This past Friday, Bad Bunny dropped a new album after much anticipation after Un Verano Sin Ti which was his super hot record last year. And then now we have Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana which is kind of like his return back to Latin trap. It's so much fun. I'm dying to get back out there to dance to it. It is just that kind of music. And I'm already hearing it on streets wherever I walk in Brooklyn. — Monica Castillo
Slotherhouse, streaming on Hulu
The movie Slotherhouse, available on Hulu, is well worth its 90 minute runtime. It is about a college senior who finds herself adopting what seems to be a cute and cuddly sloth, who she hopes will help her become the next sorority president. As the film progresses, the sloth comes to trap all the sorority sisters in the house, and kills them one by one. It is about as schlocky as a horror movie could get. I firmly believe that if everybody saw this movie, this sloth could become the new Baby Yoda. It is so adorable and it has so many great gif-able scenes. Go out and watch it. — Sam Yellowhorse Kesler
Birth/Rebirth, available on VOD
I highly recommend Birth/Rebirth, which is available for rent on VOD. It's a psycho/horror thriller directed by Laura Moss, starring Marin Ireland as a pathologist who's determined to figure out a way to resurrect the dead. Judy Reyes (who you might recognize from Scrubs) plays a maternity nurse whose 5-year-old daughter dies unexpectedly. The daughter becomes the prime subject for this pathologist's experiments, and she and the mother are working together to bring her back to life and keep her alive. There's a lot of body horror in it. It's kind of a Frankenstein tale with the maternal perspective — it's all about the lengths that a mother will go to to protect her child. It's creepy. It's dark. It made me think a lot. It's a perfect Halloween themed movie. — Aisha Harris
Taskmaster, streaming on YouTube
Taskmaster is a British comedy gameshow — each season features five different British comedians competing to successfully perform a series of tasks assigned by a Taskmaster. The tasks in question are very low-fi, very hands-on and very stupid. Like: Build a catapult to launch this shoe into that bathtub. Or, make a music video of a nursery rhyme in 15 minutes. Or, conceal this pineapple somewhere on your person. Or, make this coconut look like a businessman. Hugely dumb. We watch their attempts and then the Taskmaster proceeds to assign them points for their efforts and make fun of their attempts. I love everything about the show. The 16th season started up a few weeks ago — you can watch all 15 previous seasons on YouTube. — Glen Weldon
More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter
by Linda Holmes
I enjoy an occasional session of virtual urban planning myself, so I enjoyed this Kristen Kagei review of the Cities: Skylines sequel.
You may have been reading about the success on Max of the British dating show Naked Attraction, where everybody ... gets naked. I want you to understand: in the simple words of PCHH producer Liz Metzger when she was trying to explain the show to our team, "You see everything." There is no blurring, there are close-ups, you see everything. (This trailer is censored, but the actual show is not.) This show has been around overseas since 2016, but its arrival recently in the U.S. has gotten everybody kind of riled up. Why am I telling you about this? Because we're going to talk about it on PCHH in a while, and honestly, I think it's kind of interesting! It's obviously not for everybody, and at first, if you're mostly used to American dating shows, it sure is bracing. But ... well, we'll talk about it. (Also, NPR's Neda Ulaby has a piece about "nudity creep," which includes the indelible phrase, "People will never get tired of nudity.")
As I write this, it's October 20. And when do the Hallmark Christmas movies start? Well, they start tonight. Is this bizarre? Yes. But I don't make the news, I just pass it on to you.
Beth Novey 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.
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