Linda Holmes
Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.
Holmes was a writer and editor at Television Without Pity, where she recapped several hundred hours of programming — including both High School Musical movies, for which she did not receive hazard pay. Her first novel, Evvie Drake Starts Over, was published in the summer of 2019.
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King's 1982 novel was set in the year 2025, in a world with widespread poverty, mass surveillance, and giant corporations. The newest film version loses some of its critique. -
And on Apple TV, a touching and surprisingly funny new documentary about the poet Andrea Gibson and their struggle with cancer. -
The haunting new show from Vince Gilligan, who created Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, is set in Gilligan's now-signature location, Albuquerque. -
From the supernatural to the slightly-too-realistic, it's been a banner year for scary movies, many of which are available to stream from home this Halloween. -
Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera star in the true story of a bus driver and a schoolteacher who bring a bus full of children to safety during California's devastating 2018 Camp Fire. -
Showgirls stars Elizabeth Berkley as a Vegas dancer trying to move up from a seedy club to a glamorous hotel show. Paul Verhoeven’s NC-17 movie was a notorious flop, but it is now considered a camp classic and a window into a moment of moral panic. Showgirls turns 30 this year, so today we’re revisiting our conversation about the film. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture -
We look at the best of this fall's movies and TV – including some standouts from the Toronto International Film Festival.
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In the new horror film HIM, Tyriq Withers stars as a young football player who has a chance to be trained by his idol, played by Marlon Wayans. As they train at a mysterious facility in the desert, it becomes clear early on that greatness might not be worth the price. From director Justin Tipping and produced by Jordan Peele, the film takes some big swings you may not fully see coming. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture -
The coming months will bring new seasons of Stranger Things and Slow Horses, a mysterious new science fiction series from Apple TV+, and a new Ken Burns documentary about the American Revolution. -
Hollywood star Robert Redford died Tuesday at 89. Redford may have once been known for his glowing looks, but he was never content as a matinee idol.
