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Some Like It Pop Patreon Exclusive: Best of June 2025
00:30:50
Twelve times per year, Matt Tamanini and Jennifer McHugh will be recapping their favorite pieces of pop culture of the past month. Let us know what your favorites are by emailing patreon@broadwayradio.com.
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- [00:00]
A
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B
Welcome to your July episode of Broadway Radio's pop culture podcast, Some Like It Pop. My name is Matt Timine and as always I am joined by the brains of our operation, Broadway radio's Los Angeles bureau chief, Jennifer McHugh. Jen, you're a little under the weather. Or maybe like not under the weather anymore, but still recovering from being under the weather. How are you feeling? How are, how are you adjusting to your post heat stroke life?
- [01:05]
C
I'm doing better. My voice is a little hoarse, but I am on the mend. Nothing like me and having a big cold in the summer.
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B
Yeah, that is the worst. But I'm glad that you are feeling better. If you are unfamiliar with what we do here on Some Like It Pop, every month we look back the past 30 to 31 days, or I guess 28 depending on what month it is, and talk about the three things in our pop culture diet from the previous month that we enjoyed the most and wanted to pass on to all of you. That can be tv, movie, books, concerts, podcasts, live events, theater, anything at all that falls under the very large umbrella of pop culture. We will talk about it, discuss it with each other, and then hopefully make some good recommendations for you to add to your your next month of pop culture. So Jen, why don't you start us off. We had talked last month about your trip to New York City. So first off, I don't know if any of your things have to do with New York or not. You were also going to your college reunion and all that stuff in general, other than getting sick, how was that trip?
- [02:11]
C
It was very long. Fifteen days might be a little bit too long for me at this age. I don't like being away from home that long. I missed my bed, I missed my pillow, missed my air conditioning, but overall it was great. And I will mention some highlights as we go along here, but my first suggestion is one thing that I find is interesting is that when you travel you tell me about all the reading you Catch up on. When I travel, I never read. It's very strange. So I didn't read a lot in the last month. But what I did read I loved. So I'm going to recommend a book called My Friends by Frederick Bachman. I don't know if you've ever read him before. He had a big hit with the book Beartown and A Man Called Ove. I think he's a Swedish writer and these are translations. This is his latest book.
- [03:07]
B
Tom Hanks did a movie adaptation of A Man Called Ove and they changed the name. It was like a man called something. Otto, I think. Otto.
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C
It was Otto. Yeah. But yeah, he's a really, really good writer. He's very into coming of age stories and nostalgia. This book is told in. In two time periods as he usually does. One is in the present and then one is learning stories in the present about the past. And it comes down to this young girl who sees that falls in love with this painting of the sea. But what she really sees are three people on the dock of the sea and they're laughing and she's just astonished that you can capture someone laughing. And a series of events she manages to track down not only the artist, but some of the people in the painting. And it's. It's just a multi generational story about how magical summers are when you're young and you think you're immortal and you just laugh and you just are stupid. And then as you get older things change. And you always look back at those times as some of the best times of your life. And it's just this really sweet and exquisite written story about coming of age in the summertime and where life takes you and. And the people you miss, even if you only knew them for a little while. Very had a stand by me kind of vibe and without the dead bodies. And it's just really sweet. And it's a really good straightforward literary fiction. There's no, you know, thriller twists or anything. It's just a really good storytelling. And I highly recommend this and any of his other books.
- [04:50]
B
I think I have a book or two of his on my shelf that I haven't read yet. But certainly good to know that he comes with high praise. I'm gonna make a switch cause I forgot to add something to my list to go back and look at from a book that I finished this past weekend when I was in Las Vegas. So I'll go with a book as well. It is called the Wedding People. Have you read this one, Jen?
- [05:12]
C
I have it was one of my book club picks.
- [05:15]
B
Oh. Have you mentioned it on our show before?
- [05:17]
C
I haven't, but no. I love that.
- [05:19]
B
Oh, okay, good. Okay. Yes, it is a novel by Alison Espach or Esposh. It is about a woman who. I don't know how much spoiler alerts I want to give here, but anyway, it's about a woman who, for various reasons of things that go on in her life, decides to just go on a whim to a luxury hotel in Rhode island where there's not supposed to be any vacancies because a very wealthy woman has supposed to have booked the entire hotel for her wedding week and all of her friends and family are in town. And because she's kind of this interloper into this whole wedding celebration, she kind of becomes a de facto confidant for the bride and in turn, the bride becomes one for her and they develop this friendship where they can kind of tell each other the truth where that is not possible for them in any other situation. And it's a kind of a lovely, unexpected friendship. And they both go on some pretty emotional journeys, as you would expect from a book like this throughout the course of the story. And again, without spoiling too much, I just found it to be a lovely book where you saw real characters. You know, a lot of times, especially in books like this. This is not a rom com type of book, but especially it kind of hues more towards that than, you know, a thriller or anything. But the characters are fun and they're well created, but they're not super deep. I felt like both of the main characters, Lila the bride and Phoebe, the main character, were pretty deep and nuanced and well rounded and had a lot of different levels to them. And I appreciated that in the writing. So if you want one that has a pretty good amount of heart and some good character excavation, I would recommend the Wedding People.
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C
Yeah, it certainly went in a direction I wasn't expecting. I first heard about it because.
- [07:23]
B
In the first chapter.
- [07:25]
C
Yeah, because somebody gave it to their bridesmaids as a wedding gift. And then I started reading and I'm like, this is a terrible wedding gift for your bridesmaids, but it's a really good book. It. It, like you said, I like the way you said that. Excavated characters.
- [07:40]
B
Yeah. Very good. All right, what is up next for you then, Jen?
- [07:44]
C
Well, as Matt mentioned, I got to go to New York. And just like Matt goes every month, I go once every few years. So I'm not going to be saying anything groundbreaking or breaking any News to anyone, but I did feel privileged to get to see two of the hottest tickets in town. And I got to see Cole Escola in their last week on Broadway in O Mary and I got to see Jonathan Groff in Just In Time. So I couldn't be happier with those two choices which you recommended both highly. I wound up buying the script for oh Mary because I just know I missed so much of the dialogue from the laughter from, from the lights coming up. I laughed until the curtain call. It's just non stop. I don't think I've ever been in that much pain laughing at a play. And the energy is just palpable with the joy and the happiness inside the theater compared to outside. It was one of the best theater experiences I ever had. And then the next day I go see Just in Time and, and it matches it and I just feel like we're in. I'm, I'm going to be proud to say in years to come that I got to see Jonathan Groff in his prime, doing his best because that show, it's just again filled with joy. He is like a theater kid living his best dream every single day. This was a matinee in 100 degree weather and he was having the time of his life. And the supporting characters, Gracie Lawrence, I've become a fan of the last few years and just a powerhouse voice. And one of the actresses I recognized the whole time and realized I had watched her on Shameless many years ago. The one that played his mother, Emily Bergle, Emily Burgle. And then there's just this group of character actors who come out and play a bunch of different parts and it just felt like everyone was having a blast. And I think we were the youngest people there by about 45 years. But just I kept looking around the.
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B
Audience and Jen, I know how old you are. If you were the youngest, probably 45 years, that was a very old audience.
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C
I am telling you. There was walkers, wheelchairs, everything and the just glancing around the audience and the smiles on these faces and just tears and like laughing and singing and it was just such a joyful two days of theater. And I can't thank you enough for recommending those two shows because I don't get to go very often. So for me to go for four days and get two of the best shows I've ever seen is just a real, real win.
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B
I love that. Very good. I am going to go to the world of television here. And I binged the entire season of the Bear in one Day. Season four as I've talked about before, seasons one and especially season two of the Bear are up there with the greatest TV experiences I've ever had in my life. I think that season two of the Bear is the best episode or the best season of television I've ever seen. I think that the season two episode Forks is the single best episode of television that I've ever seen. Season three was a low for me. I did not particularly enjoy it. I didn't hate it, but I didn't really love it. I thought that they were getting a little bit too big for their britches with some of the stuff and lost all forward momentum with the story. And I was a little nervous about season four because they filmed season four on the back of season three. So they filmed these in the first three seasons very quickly. They would film them in the early winter of a year to then release them in June, so they'd have a four month turnaround. But they filmed season four directly after they shot season three. So I was nervous that it would hue more towards season three rather than the first two seasons that I thought were excellent. I think it kind of straddles the middle. We still had a little bit too much plotting focus on some things that have been asked and answered. We've seen this already. I don't know why we're continuing to do this, but there was a little bit more forward momentum. My issue with that forward momentum is that Christopher Storer, who is the creator, executive producer, main writer, he has an unbelievable knack for turning things that should just be like a one act, like in a 30 minute TV show that's like the first 10 minutes turning a one act story into an entire episode. So it just feels like nothing happens. But like stuff does happen and it's there and there's a purpose. But he drags it out too long and I wish that there was less of that and a little bit more actual focus on development and change because it feels like we've had a lot of stasis over the last three seasons. There was some character development as the season went on and he certainly seeded some of those things in throughout. But what really remains the joy for me is just spending time with these characters because they have been able to make an entire cast of of people over these four years. Whether they are the main characters or they are, you know, just the supporting characters. We only see for like maybe 10 lines the whole season, but they are like just kind of around. I love them all and I want nothing but good things for them and they are all generally just wonderful people, like struggling through life and just trying to do their best and trying to be good at their job and trying to help each other. And I really love them and I love this. And there is a little bit more, like I said, development without spoiling anything, Jen, because I know you haven't seen it, but we do start to get to some sort of resolution to things. And one of the questions a lot of people had and I'd actually written about over at thestreamable.com is whether or not this was going to be the series finale. They did not say it was, but they also didn't say that it wasn't. And I will tell you that the 10th episode of season four is called Goodbye. So when I saw that, I was like, oh. But as we're recording here on Wednesday, they have already announced that season five has been greenlit and they will film it in early 2020. So it is not wrapping up this year, which I think could have gone either way depending on how you viewed that series finale, but a positive season up from season three. I wish, I still wish it was better, but I have hopes for season five, but I just can't not love it because of the characters. I Evan Moss Bacharach as Richie. It just continues to be my favorite character since Jaime Camille on Jane the Virgin as Rogelio de la Vega. I just love Richie. So it was also nice to have Molly Gordon back as Claire a little bit. I wish she was more back more, but enjoyed season four quite a bit more than I enjoyed season three. And as always, the cameos and guest appearances are excellent if they aren't a little superfluous at times as well. So recommend that. And especially because I think it foretells better things in season five.
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C
I've only seen the first episode.
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B
Okay, so we'll catch up after you've watched it all.
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C
Yes, I will talk to you in late September because you know, I hate binging anything. I watch it weekly.
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B
I know.
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C
I'm so annoying.
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B
So I watched. So I guess this was what is today Wednesday. So on Monday I got back from Vegas, which will be something I talk about here for my third thing. So I got back and I watched all 10 episodes and most of them are like under 30 minutes. So I watched all of those straight through. And then I had watched episode one of Ironheart on Disney already. So the first three had come out last week and the second three, it's only six episodes, came out this Tuesday night. And so I watched the rest of The Five on Tuesday night. So I binged two shows back to back on consecutive days. I'm very tired. But also I really enjoyed Ironheart, but I did that on July 1, so that doesn't make it into this month, but a little extra benefit for that. So I know you don't like binging, but I don't. I do.
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C
But I did watch the first three of Ironheart.
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B
Oh, you did? Okay.
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C
We did, yeah. Especially with Marvel shows, those tend to get spoilers right away.
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B
Yes.
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C
And the way they're releasing stuff now, we're trying to do at least one a night. So I did the first half.
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B
I will tell you, I would go ahead and watch all three of those as quickly as possible if you don't want to get spoiled.
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C
I figured. Yeah. So I just have been staying off socials.
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B
That's totally fair too. But I will say the finale, big spoilers in the finale.
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C
Okay.
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B
Which is again, not a surprise for a Marvel thing. But I'm just saying if you are trying to avoid spoilers, watch that as quickly as you can. But anyway, what is your third thing here, Jen?
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C
Well, my third thing is inspired by my second thing because I found the story of Bobby Darin very interesting. Even though I knew some things, I didn't know everything. So my third recommendation is the 1961 film Come September, starring Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin, which is where they first met. And that is addressed in the show Just in Time. Bobby Darren and Sandra D. Their first marriages, I think, to each other. And I thought it was a really cute movie. First of all, it's very 60s, it's very dated, but it's very cute. And. But what's interesting to me is it made Bobby Darin 3D for me. I've only seen pictures, I've only seen him portrayed. I've never really seen him perform. And after seeing Just in Time, first of all, kudos to Jonathan Groff for really personifying him. But it was just nice to see him being him and being an actor. And Sandra Dee I'd only ever seen In a Summer Place and she's just adorable and I love Rock Hudson, but it's just a really cute early 60s Rom com. And it's just really fun to watch, especially after you've seen the story of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee, which, you know, it's not a fairy tale, but it is a really sweet thing to be able to see on film the moment they met. Maybe not the moment, but you know, anyway. I just highly recommend it if you're in the mood for an old movie. I love 60s rom coms. They're just such a great snapshot of the period. And it's, you know, it takes place in northern Italy, so it's gorgeous. And it was just a really nice break to watch something really sweet and innocent as we try and tune out the world around us.
- [19:08]
B
Oh, yes, absolutely.
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D
All right.
- [19:11]
B
My last thing also involves a trip. You went east from the West Coast, I went west from the east coast and I spent 5ish days in Las Vegas, partially because I like getting out of town for my birthday so I don't have to be around anybody who knows it's my birthday. But also because I was crossing something off my bucket list. I spent my 44th birthday at a poker table, 11 hours at a poker table, crossing off playing in a World Series of Poker event. From my bucket list. I played in event 67 of the 2025 World Series of Poker, the Gladiators of Poker, no Limit hold' Em tournament. Normally World Series of Poker events, the majority of them start no less than like fifteen hundred dollars to get in. This one though it is called the Gladiators of Poker because it is only a $300 buy in. I don't know that I can stomach paying more than $300 for a poker tournament. And it just has a huge amount of people that played in this tournament. They have four day ones. So it's like there you can come in on one of four days. And because of that, it became the second largest live poker field in history. There were 24,629 entrants into this tournament and 15% of those got paid. So what that means is if you last to 20 or last to 15%, you get the $300 back that you paid and then you double your money. So you effectively the min cash, the minimum cash that you can get is $600. And that went out to only 3,695 people. I was one of them. It was my first ever World Series of Poker event and I did not have high hopes of being able to cash in this event. I thought that I would just kind of go in as long as I didn't get embarrassed. As long as I could play for a couple hours, I was going to be happy. But the tournament started at 10 local time. I finish at, I guess it would have been 9:30 or 9, sometime a little after 9 o'. Clock. And there were breaks in there, there was a dinner break in there, but I Lasted to, until I cashed, I got paid, which is always a good thing when you go to Vegas that you, you know, you make a little bit of money, although I ended up spending it on other things. But it was just an absolutely thrilling event. Like I'm somebody who I. I've watched the World Series of Poker religiously since 2003 when Chris Moneymaker, yes, that's his real name, won the main event in like the first major broadcast of the main event that ESPN did. And I have been watching, I mean like religiously is true every year since then, especially over the past 8ish years since poker go became a significant part of broadcasting. The World Series of Poker, that's a streaming service that once the World Series starts, it has almost daily broadcasts of different tournaments. And I will stay up late until the night to watch, you know, the $1,500 pot limit Omaha Eights or Better tournament. I'm not, I don't really, like I said, I'm not a great poker player, but I enjoy it. So just to be able to be in those rooms and to play and to say like in history now I have cast in the World Series is a huge major thing for me. And I'm still just kind of giddy and beside myself that it happen also. That was on Thursday. And so on Saturday I went back over to the Horseshoe Casino to where the featured main event or the featured table is and they had the, it happened to be the final table for the, the $50,000 entry poker players Championship, which, you know, you can argue if that or the main event is the most prestigious. I would say that it's the Poker Players Championship because it is a much higher entry and it is a mixed game, so you have to be good at like eight different games to win. I was there for the final table, saw Michael Mizrahi, who is known as the Grinder, win that tournament for the fourth time. No one else has won it more than twice and he is just one of the best. So to be there for that was incredible. So an absolute highlight that far exceeded all my expectations for a birthday bucket list trip. And I'm already thinking about. All right, well, I guess am I going to go back to play that tournament again? Am I going to find a higher buy in tournament? I don't know that I want to, but we will see. But loved everything about it. Loved being back in Vegas. I haven't been in Vegas. I haven't been in Vegas proper for a while. Like I visited my sister a couple of times. And she lived in Henderson, and we would go into the Strip to, like, go to see shows or go to basketball games or stuff like that. But I never. I didn't really gamble when I was there, so it was my really first time in 13 or so years of playing in a casino. But it was a ton of fun. Absolutely loved it. And we'll definitely be doing it again at some point in the future.
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C
Wow. That is just a world I know nothing about.
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B
It's fun. I mean, like, I don't. You know, like I said, I've watched a lot of poker over the years, and basically it's on every night at my house during the World Series. But I don't think I'm that good. Like, I used to play a decent amount. I used to play a lot more a decade or so ago, where I would play a couple times a week. I lived in a place that had a really kind of bustling bar poker scene, which is like, where you go and play poker at a restaurant or a bar, and it's free, but you can, like, win prizes. And the point is, the restaurants want you to come in, you know, to spend money on food and drinks. But there, where I lived in the past, they had, like, a league, so you would get extra points, and then depending on how well you did with the points, you could play in a. In a bigger tournament for bigger prizes and all this stuff. So I was playing quite a bit, you know, 10 to 15 years ago, but since I've moved to Florida, I only play a couple times a year, so I've not been very good in the times that I played poker recently. So I was not expecting much, but I had the best day. Like, I don't know that I've played all that great. I think I played well, but it was just such an enjoyable experience. And like I said, just on cloud nine about how it all went. All right, Jen, so what is something that you were looking forward to in the month of July?
- [25:36]
C
Well, two shows I watched that are ending, the Sandman and the Summer I Turned Pretty could not be more different. But I'm looking forward to those final seasons, and I'm looking forward to Superman and the Fantastic Four.
- [25:52]
B
Yeah, those were going to be my 2. I've already got tickets. Friends of mine and I are going. No, that's okay. My friends and I already have tickets to opening night of Superman. Already have tickets to Fantastic Four. Got them both the day they were released. You know, it's funny because to me, my. You know. You know, Jim, when We were growing up, there weren't superhero movies. There just weren't like they were not a thing really until Batman in 1989 and that. But yeah, that one still didn't set off like a huge rush of them. So for me though, like growing up, the, the comic book movie, a superhero movie was the Christopher Reeve Superman. Like that to me is the epitome of what I want from superhero movies. They're fun, they're a little silly, they don't take themselves too seriously. And the DC movies of the past decade have taken themselves way too seriously. And I do not enjoy them whatsoever. So I am hoping that this kind of gives us a little bit more of the Richard Donner influence on this while still obviously being for a modern audience. But I love Superman's my favorite character and I don't think he's been represented super well on stage or on screen recently on TV has been represented much better than on the big screen. So looking forward to that. And then the Fantastic Four, they're the first family of Marvel. For people who only know Marvel through the mcu. Like, you don't understand. The Fantastic Four is Marvel. And while I don't think that Dr. Doom is going to appear in this film, maybe in a post credit scene, I don't know. We know he's coming, obviously, but like Dr. Doom is the villain in Marvel. He is the greatest villain in comic book history. So the fact that we are approaching this makes me very excited. So ecstatic to see both of those movies on the big screen here in the next couple weeks.
- [27:48]
C
I agree about Superman. That was what we had and I loved it and I loved the sense of fun that it brought. That hasn't happened in a really long time. I know nothing about the Fantastic Four, but I do love anything retro fe futuristic. So I'm so already in with the styling and the, you know, I mean, the stellar cast is just unbelievable. So I'm very excited.
- [28:16]
B
It's the best. And I'm also super happy that all of the people who want to get all worked up about oh my God, they've made the Silver Surfer a woman. This is woke. No, that just shows me that one. You are trying to pretend that you are a comic book nerd and purist, but you're not because there are multiple Silver Surfers and the one that is this movie has always been a woman in the comic books. So take that and shove it up your incel ass as far as I'm concerned. I'm so over it. It just makes me so Happy to see all of these people outing themselves as even bigger assholes than we already knew that they were. But, yeah, so love it. I cannot wait for both of them. And I'm sure. Well, I'm hoping that we'll be able to talk about them next month because if they're not good, we won't talk about them. But I'm hoping that they, at least one of them is good enough to make one of our top threes for next month's episode.
- [29:06]
C
Sounds good to me. And I hope I can get to the theater. You know, I don't like to leave the house in the summer.
- [29:11]
B
No, yes. No, I totally agree with that. I completely understand. But I think these movies are big enough events that you'll, you know, you'll want to go. Maybe you go out early and, you know, for an early matinee on a weekend or maybe a late at night or something so you don't have to deal with all the heat. But I think these are worth it.
- [29:31]
C
I agree. And we're over the superhero fatigue where there was like 5, 6 coming out in a year. Now they're not as common. So now I'm like, okay, I do want to see that in that theater. So I think we'll try and venture out.
- [29:47]
B
Yeah. And they've really done a smart thing both at Marvel and I think at D.C. as well, to really kind of hone in on what they do. Well, they've recalibrated their process and I think so much about the height of the superhero, superhero run has been about always doing more because every single one of them was a billion dollar movie. And now that that is not the case, they're really focusing on being the best versions of the movies that they can possibly be. So I'm hopeful and optimistic that what we see on the screens will live up to the promise of what these very, very rich comic book legacies could be. All right, everybody, that's all that we have for this month's episode of Some Like It Pop. Let us know if you have watched, read, or experienced any of the things that we have talked about on this month's episode. What the things that you love from your pop culture diet in the month of June and what you are most looking to forward to in July. You can reach out to us on social media at broadwayradio. And thanks for listening here on Patreon and supporting us and we'll be back to talk to you next month.
- [31:21]
D
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