An octopus, the Outer Banks, and Hall & Oates highlight my recent pop-culture intake
I’ve gobbled up plenty of TV and movie pop culture over the past couple of months and, well, not all of it gets a full article dissection here at the website. So let’s get caught up with some quick takes …
Outer Banks - Season 4: I may be biased, since I’ve vacationed in the Outer Banks of North Carolina just about every year of my life, but this show is really entertaining. As I wrote about Season 1, “while it certainly isn’t much like OBX the actual place (and not filmed there and not including any OBX names or geographical landmarks), the coming-of-age story about the kids from the wrong side of the tracks battling the creepy rich kids is done really well. You can’t help but fall for the poor-kid Pogues in this young-adult mashup of Scooby Doo, Ozark, and Friday Night Lights.” The same holds four seasons in, as the gang continues to get in trouble and continues to dream of treasure. 4 out of 5 stars
The Sex Lives of College Girls - Season 3: I can’t believe I’ve now watched all three seasons of something that sounds more like a porno than the relatively funny show that it is. After Season 1, I wrote, “this was a surprise. I thought this might be something to see on a whim and give up after an episode or two. But several friends’ recommendations were not wrong. This is the modern version of Beverly Hills 90210, but, dare I say, funnier. The four roommates are all needles in the haystack … it truly takes me back to my freshman year, in a way that no other show has ever done for me.” Season 2 was more of the same, but the latest, Season 3, took a major hit when Reneé Rapp left to try to become a pop star. Pauline Chalamet, Timothée’s sister, holds down the fort to steal every scene she’s in and make this show still enjoyable, but it’s begun to lose its pep. 3 out of 5 stars
You’re Cordially Invited: It’s tough to not be intrigued by a movie pitting Will Ferrell against Reese Witherspoon stuck on an island with an accidentally double-booked wedding weekend. It uses Adam Sandler’s patented comedy formula, but doesn’t pull it off as well. Still, if you have two hours of braindead time to kill, you could do much worse. 3 out of 5 stars
Behind the Music: Yes, this is still that show that started in 1997 on VH1. It’s now issuing new episodes on Paramount+. The two new seasons mostly feature musicians that I consider borderline trash, but I couldn’t resist watching the Daryl Hall & John Oates and Huey Lewis episodes, and by darn, they’re both pretty exceptionally told tales. It’s almost enough to make me want to sit through the episodes on Peabo Bryson and The Pointer Sisters. 4.5 out 5 stars
Outbreak and Congo: For some reason, the week I had the flu, I decided to watch movies about pandemic situations. Outbreak is a 1995 film with a stellar cast of Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Donald Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr., Kevin Spacey, and Patrick Dempsey. It’s all about how the military makes its decisions about how much it wants to hide from the public and was a huge smash again in the early days of the Covid pandemic. I somehow missed it in 1995 and 2020, but it’s pretty entertaining if a bit dated, as almost everything dealing with very-serious issues is in these even darker days of 2025. Congo is another film from 1995, and it was a big box-office hit, but man is it a stinker. Laura Linney was somehow convinced to star in this sci-fi snoozer based on a Michael Crichton book, in which the gorillas seem to be smarter than everyone else involved in the entire production. Even still, I somehow seem incapable of completely disliking anything about apes. Outbreak is 3.5 out of 5 stars and Congo is 2 out of 5 stars
Moana 2: Everyone in my family fell hard for Moana as our favorite Disney film in a while. It presented a true, tough, girl-power lead instead of the tried-and-true princess yearning for a man to lead her. In the sequel, we still get Dwayne Johnson as her friend the demigod Maui, but there are several other well-done characters riding along on an adventure to see what’s beyond her own land. The only weak link is that the music isn’t nearly as good as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s in the original. 4 out of 5 stars
Jeepers Creepers: Sometimes you just need a classic rewatch, and since my son loves a good horror flick, I thought I would take him back to 2001 with this sometimes-forgotten gem starring Justin Long as one of two siblings who get caught up with a terrifying stranger in an old truck. The opening scene alone is enough to land it in the horror classics category, and even if it flails at times, it’s impossible to lose interest in this weird movie. 4.5 out of 5 stars
My Octopus Teacher: Since I’ll be visiting Cape Town, South Africa soon, this Academy Award-winning documentary sounded intriguing. And it is. Just try to take your eyes off the oceanic marvel captured by filmmaker Craig Foster, who spends more than a year swimming in a kelp-forested area, each day venturing out to meet with his little octopus friend. The octopus may just be the most lovable star of any of these movies. 5 out of 5 stars