Unapologetically basic TV and movies that we love

Pop Culture Happy Hour

In this lighthearted episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour, hosts Linda Holmes, Aisha Harris, Stephen Thompson, and Glenn Weldon celebrate their love for

Key takeaways

• Basic entertainment doesn't have to be bad—it can be a source of comfort, nostalgia, and shared experience.
• The appeal of films like National Treasure lies in their ability to be forgotten immediately after watching, making each viewing feel fresh.

Main topics

• Unapologetically basic entertainment
• National Treasure franchise

Notable quotes

"Every time I watch National Treasure, it's new to me. Basically, if the Da Vinci Code is too plausible for you... the National Treasure movies are right there." – Stephen Thompson

Conclusion

The episode ends with a celebration of embracing simple pleasures in pop

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:00) This week on Sources and Methods, behind closed doors at the highest levels of the intelligence community on 9-11. We Speaker 8 (0:06) said you can go. If we have to die, we have to die. Speaker 7 (0:10) And how that day is still shaping global events. Speaker 8 (0:13) Difficult decisions were made. Speaker 7 (0:15) We have shortchanged totally our soft power. Listen now to a special episode of Sources and Methods, the national security podcast from NPR. Speaker 2 (0:24) You're listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour, the podcast that keeps you plugged in about the latest and greatest in pop culture. Now, if you're a pop culture enthusiast who is not following the show yet, we're recommending you fix that right away by following Pop Culture Happy Hour on your favorite podcast app. Speaker 1 (0:39) I'm defining basic here as the familiar, right? The comfortable, the mainstream, not in any way challenging or difficult. Because you know what this film interrogates is nothing. Speaker 2 (0:56) When you hear the words pumpkin spice latte, maybe you think of fall, maybe you think of cloves, but maybe you just think, ah, the pleasures of something that is unapologetically basic. Well, the same can be said for movies and television. So today, the hosts of Pop Culture Happy Hour are revealing some of the most basic things we really, really love. I'm Linda Holmes, and joining me are my fellow hosts, Aisha Harris. Hello, Aisha. Hello, Linda. I'm slightly embarrassed, but we're going Speaker 3 (1:24) to get through this together. Speaker 2 (1:26) We're going to do it together. Stephen Thompson. Hello, Stephen. Hello, Linda. Glenn Weldon. Hi, Glenn. Pumpkin spice must flow. Hey, Linda. That's right. All right. We actually didn't talk too much about what we meant by pop culture pumpkin spice lattes, but I think we didn't really have to. These are things that are unpretentious, ubiquitous, ultra basic pop culture pleasures for which we can. confess a weakness. Stephen, I am going to start with you because... I feel like it. And because I know that the basic lies within you. Speaker 5 (2:03) Tell Speaker 2 (2:04) me what you chose. I Speaker 5 (2:05) am nothing if not a basic, basic man. So I think I've mentioned this before, but my partner and I have a family tradition where every July 4th weekend, we gather to watch a big, dumb movie about America. Independence Day is key to this tradition. So is Team America World Police. But the linchpin of this tradition is the... extremely convoluted movie franchise, National Treasure. Now, if you've never seen the National Treasure movies, or if you've seen the National Treasure movies and forgotten them immediately, they're from 2004 and 2007. They star Nicolas Cage as a treasure hunter who comes from a long line of treasure hunters. Sure. As one does. In both movies, he winds up embarking on a highly ridiculous... extremely Byzantine plan to steal various national artifacts, including the literal Declaration of Independence, in order to unlock secret treasures and clear his family name and blah, blah, blah. It's very complicated. These movies are so silly, but what makes them transcendent as pop culture pumpkin spice lattes is that I watch them and forget them almost immediately. Speaker 6 (3:17) Which Speaker 5 (3:18) means that Every time I watch them, I'm like a newborn baby. Like, no recollection whatsoever. Every time I watch National Treasure, which I have watched several times now, it's new to me. Basically, if the Da Vinci Code is too plausible... for you, too devoted to airtight logic, the National Treasure movies are right there. They're streaming on Disney Plus for you to watch, enjoy, forget immediately, and then watch again. And let me tell you, we've been waiting almost 20 years for National Treasure 3, and when it comes out, I will be first in line. And I will remember none of it the next day. Speaker 1 (3:53) Is that a thing that's actually happening or is that a joke? Speaker 5 (3:55) They've been talking about it, planning it. I mean, these movies made a ton of money. There's been a TV spinoff on Disney+. They've definitely kept this franchise alive. But there have been, like, aborted plans to reboot this franchise for almost 20 years now. And it just hasn't happened. They haven't been happy with the scripts. Because, you know, these other two scripts, they're a hard act to follow. Speaker 2 (4:17) Let me ask you this. I have never seen any of these movies. Can you invite me some year? Yes. All right. My God, man. It's on the books. Come over now. It's on the books. We've got to watch National Treasure. Speaker 1 (4:29) Like Linda, this was one of those cinematic phenomenons that missed me completely. So during COVID, I thought I'll watch the first movie. I'll dip a toe in. And that toe got covered in stupid so fast that I whipped it right back. I mean, look, I am a person who consumes a lot of media involving people in tights and capes beating the snot out of each other. I know from stupid. I know the joys of stupid. This just isn't the species of stupid that works on me. Speaker 5 (4:57) I will say, I don't think I've ever watched these movies when it wasn't July 4th weekend. And I do think that's part of the fun of just like silly summer streaming. Speaker 5 (5:05) Nonsense? Is it stupid? Yes. Is that part of the fun? Absolutely. Yes, yes. Speaker 3 (5:10) Well, look, I'm going to go on record here and say that I have also not explored this franchise. Come to town. Come to town. Honestly, this would have been right in my wheelhouse, at least age-wise, when this movie came out. But I completely skipped it. I've definitely seen it on in the background when I'm like at the gym on cable TV and it's playing. It's Speaker 1 (5:32) a TBS mainstay. Oh, Speaker 3 (5:34) yeah, it's that kind of thing. But I've never actually tried to watch it. I've seen some of the most obscure direct-to-video Nicolas Cage movies, and yet somehow I have not seen this. I Speaker 5 (5:44) don't know if I would recommend watching it by yourself. Oh, Speaker 3 (5:47) well, no, I would never. Never. I would need some lubricants and at least two or three other people to watch this with. I think. Speaker 1 (5:55) And where is Nicolas Cage in this? Like, what level of Nicolas Cage is he? Ooh, good question. Speaker 5 (5:59) He's still kind of a Nicolas Cage leading man. Okay. And as far as the weirdness that you're going to get from a Nicolas Cage, I mean, first of all, his dad in these films is played by Jon Voight. Sure. Speaker 7 (6:10) So Speaker 5 (6:11) they certainly lean into, like, this guy's slightly odd. Slightly. But it's not as, like, fiercely committed as your kind of wildest Nicolas Cage performances, for sure. Speaker 3 (6:20) It's not face-off. It's not Con Air. Speaker 5 (6:22) Vampire's Kiss. No. Speaker 1 (6:25) Yeah, Speaker 3 (6:25) that's another strike against it for me. I want my Nicolas Cage weird, or at least if he's going to be a leading man, still a little bit weird, like Moonstruck. I want that kind of stuff. Sure. I don't know. But I admire this basicness. I love it for you. I'm Speaker 5 (6:40) not saying these movies are great. Speaker 3 (6:41) I'm Speaker 5 (6:42) saying they're basic and they're fun under certain circumstances. I think Speaker 3 (6:46) that's going to be a recurring theme of this entire episode. Speaker 2 (6:49) Absolutely. Absolutely. I agree. So Stephen's pick is the National Treasure franchise. We appreciate you, buddy. Now, Glenn, you were talking about how you have taken in a lot of content, shall we say, that has people in tights beating each other up. You did not pick anything like that. for this, but you did pick a film. Tell me about it. Speaker 1 (7:10) All right. Producer Lennon Sherburn, hit me one time. Speaker 1 (7:20) Such Speaker 6 (7:20) a good pick. Such Speaker 1 (7:22) a good pick. Speaker 6 (7:23) And against type. All Speaker 1 (7:24) right. We all know what that is, right? And let's stipulate, that is not just Dancing Queen by ABBA. That is a cover of Dancing Queen by ABBA, the second cover of Dancing Queen by ABBA that occurs in the Mamma Mia verse. It was first covered, of course, in Mamma Mia! The Movie 2008. This is the version from 10 years later, the film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which I would argue is as... basic as it gets. This is alkaline. This is pH 14. This is cinematic Drano. I'm defining basic here as the familiar, right? The comfortable, the mainstream, not in any way challenging or difficult because you know what this film interrogates is nothing. Speaker 3 (8:07) Paternity, right? Well, sure. Speaker 1 (8:09) Yeah. But that's more the first film. This is familiarity. That's true. Freshly interpreted for 2018, but not in any way that is a take on the material that undermines it or deconstructs it or critiques it or comments on it or holds it up to any kind of scrutiny. That's not the mission brief here. This is just serving it up and serving it up. with love. And, mama mia, here we go again. We covered this on this show. I reviewed it for NPR. I said then that this movie is not just a box of wine. It is not just a box of rosé wine. It is not just a box of white Zinfandel. It is a box of blush wine. It is that basic, that enjoyable. And in the scene we just heard, a flotilla of boats covered in colorful flags carrying two of Amanda Seyfried's characters' father figures, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård, sort of curve into the harbor. And her characters dance down to the docks to meet them. And the characters on the boats disembark and dance on the docks. And I said at the time, I'm going to keep this scene in like a tab on my browser just to have