Pop Culture Diary: This Week's Reviews, Reads and Roundups

What I've Been Into...

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (Netflix) Hate to say it, especially as a guy who considers "Derry Girls" to be one of the best and funniest TV series ever, but this followup from the show's creator, Lisa McGee, just isn't working for me.

My wife, who feels similarly, and I are four episodes into the show and are hoping that things will turn around, but we have a sneaking feeling that McGee has bitten off more than viewers can chew.

There's A LOT going on in the series, which is a comedy about four old of friends — one apparently dead —and a mystery (hence the apparent death). The concept of a funny who-done-it that's also a did-it-even-happen is compelling. But the show has layered on a lot more, including lot of additional cast members and sub plots that are tricky to keep track of. There are coverups, explosions, extramarital flirtations, mysterious symbols and hints about a cult. Plus, the action keeps shifting between the present and different periods of past, including the central characters' teen years.

All together, the show is a bit like "Derry Girls," "Yellow Jackets," "Bad Sisters," "Lost" and maybe "White Lotus" all mixed in a blender.

The one constant, however, and the reason we'll continue watching, is the hilarious dialogue and the lovable lead characters. Very much like "Derry Girls," the show is full of creatively phrased one liners and insults lobbed amongst eccentric, goofy women who genuinely love one another. Character is McGee's greatest strength and it's on display here, just maybe with too many distractions that get in the way. I'd be happy just watching these women have a pint together and jawing.

"Jeopardy!" (Hulu) Yes. "Jeaopardy!," the long-running game show that your parents watch.

Our empty-nested household is no longer inhabited by spring chickens, and we're ok with that. Along with senior discounts at the local arthouse theater and mom-and-pop supermarket, we've also embraced eating dinner and going to bed early, and watching Ken Jennings entertainingly quiz some pretty dang smart members of the general public.

We're not retired, yet, however, and the show's availability on Hulu (albeit with episodes on one day after their initial broadcast) has made it possible for us to watch it after work and after dinner (about 6 p.m.).

Jennings' cheerful moderation and his quick quips are lovely to behold. There's no drama or tension among the contestants, either, just camaraderie and good sportsmanship. Given the state of this country and the way Americans treat one another, its greatly reassuring to tune into something like this and see people treating one another decently and celebrating the power, and importance of knowledge.

Also greatly enjoyable to us is the element of satire and subversion we've detected in many of the questions the contestants get asked, and how the questions and categories they're phrased. It's definitely not a coincidence, to which was say "Bravo and keep up the good work."

Sunday Reads:

Via Variety: The producers and engineers of the new Beach Boys boxset "Gotta Move" talk about assembling the collection, which looks back at the band's mid-1970s "Brian is Back" era.

Said Hanlon, “There was a point where Steven Moffitt told me to blend into the woodwork, which was easy for me. There was a Nakaamichi wall cassette recorder, and he said, ‘Just set up one mic on the piano and one on Brian’s vocal and get out of there. Don’t interrupt him, no matter what. If he daydreams, if he walks away from it, just leave him alone.’ And anybody who knows working with Brian knows that’s exactly what you do. We used 120-minute cassettes and I left never walked in that studio, once he started playing on these writing sessions.

“He would be doing three-part harmony and get hung up on the fourth (part), so he’d go sit down at the piano and play another song, like ‘Help Me, Rhonda’ or something. Most engineers would make a stupid mistake of opening their ego-ed mouth and go, ‘Brian, we’re working on this.’ But that’s how he came up with the fourth or fifth part in his head, while he was working on something else. He’d clear his head, go back over to the mic and all of a sudden there’s the third, fourth and fifth. He was a genius, even though he couldn’t elucidate speech-wise to you what he was trying to do.”

Wilson is alone on those solo demos, apart from one moment that stands out to Edelson. “He’s playing ‘I’ll Bet He’s Nice’ to Mike for the first time, and you hear Mike give like a whoop — a holler — and you hear Brian just get filled with this little bit of joy. Like ‘I’m being heard and there’s kindness being shown to me.’ And he starts playing a little stronger and he starts singing a little better. It’s such a great moment,” said Edelson.