© 2024 91.9 KVCR

KVCR is a service of the San Bernardino Community College District.

San Bernardino Community College District does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, creed, religion, disability, marital status, veteran status, national origin, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

701 S Mt Vernon Avenue, San Bernardino CA 92410
909-384-4444
Where you learn something new every day.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'Straight Outta Compton' And Too Much TV

MC Ren (Aldis Hodge), DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr.), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) and Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins) form N.W.A in <em>Straight Outta Compton</em>.
Jaimie Trueblood
/
Courtesy of Universal Pictures
MC Ren (Aldis Hodge), DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr.), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) and Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins) form N.W.A in Straight Outta Compton.

Linda Holmes is finally back from two and a half weeks cooped up in an L.A. hotel for the Television Critics Association's press tour, but her return coincides with Glen Weldon's vacation, so Linda and I are joined by two guest panelists this week: All Things Considered cohost Audie Cornish and Code Switch blogger Gene Demby.

First on our agenda: the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton, whose blockbuster opening weekend blew away expectations. All four of us heap varying degrees on praise on F. Gary Gray's film, but unleash some scorn along the way, too — most notably for its portrayals of women (and lack thereof), its avoidance of a particularly ugly chapter in N.W.A history (here's a damning Gawker piece that expands on an incident discussed in this episode), the group's insistence on controlling its own historical narrative, and a few more mundane issues that several of us (cough, Gene, cough) have with biopics in general. Plus, I reference this fine NPR Music roundup of the Straight Outta Compton soundtrack's many Dr. Dre-approved newcomers.

Then it's on to a press tour recap, in which we tackle one of the event's big takeaway questions: Is there too much television right now? FX Networks CEO John Landgraf asserted as much along the way, and Linda responded with a thought-provoking essay earlier this week. So we tackle the topic from a few different angles: Why do we decide not to watch certain shows? If any given series can bounce from platform to platform, is anything ever truly canceled? If there's this much great TV out there, what becomes of TV that's merely good? (When you're done listening to the show this week, be sure to read Linda's voluminous writings on the state of television in 2015, running all this week and next.)

Finally, as always, we close with What's Making Us Happy this week. I wax relieved about Linda's return from TCA, before singing the praises of a heartwarmingly silly Twitter feed. Audie is in love with a recent favorite book whose pages have become streaked with her tears. Gene has warm thoughts for his collaborators on this long-running podcast. And Linda, besides being happy to be back in her own bed, is delighted to appear on a few other podcasts of her own while she was in L.A.: namely, this one and this one. She also took in a taping of this one, on which she didn't appear, and is psyched about an upcoming movie scheduled to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. More on that soon.

Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: the show, Linda, me, Audie, Gene, producer Jessica, and pal and producer emeritus Mike.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)