A theme emerges! This week’s pop culture recommendations are all over the map: from Ireland to South Africa, and even “Chicago.” If you’re familiar with any of these, or have checked out any of my previous recommendations, send me a note letting me know what you thought!
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (2026)
If you liked Derry Girls, you might want to check out Lisa McGee’s latest series: How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. The show follows a group of childhood friends whose past has just caught up with them. It’s equal parts dark comedy and crime thriller, as three friends – now grown adults – travel to a friend’s funeral following her sudden and somewhat mysterious death.
Although the girls had not seen each other in more than 20 years, we quickly learn that they were all involved in something sinister. There are a lot of badass women characters who live in the moral grey area (kind of like Killing Eve, but… funny?), so it’s something a bit different. Looking back, nearly all the primary characters are women.
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast is only eight episodes, and a second season has not been confirmed. Honestly, I was surprised to hear a second season was being considered, as I thought the eighth episode provided a satisfying conclusion to the many mysteries the show introduced. You can watch the show on Netflix.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (2016)
This book is the perfect blend of history and comedy. Born a Crime is a memoir about Trevor Noah’s experience growing up in South Africa during apartheid. Embarrassingly, I didn’t know much about that part of history, so the combination of the dark and racist history of apartheid plus Noah’s hilarious anecdotes about his childhood provided for the perfect learning environment.
If you haven’t read it yet and are okay reading on a screen, I found a PDF version of the book. Noah also narrates the audiobook, and I’ve heard that it’s wonderful. There are a number of different languages spoken in South Africa, so it’s pretty cool to hear everything pronounced by him.
His Netflix special, Son of Patricia, also covers a lot of the same ground as the book. The whole thing is really a love letter to his mother, and I loved both.
Pretty in Pink (1986)
This time, I’m actually recommending the soundtrack instead of the movie. Over the weekend, Pretty in Pink, starring Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy and Jon Cryer, celebrated its 40th anniversary. I had a chance to see the anniversary screening on Saturday and have some thoughts, but mostly that the fashion and the music aged better than the film itself.
“Good times for a change
See, the luck I've had
Can make a good man turn bad
So, please, please, please
Let me, let me, let me
Let me get what I want this time”
I’m fairly certain it was the first time I’ve ever seen the movie all the way through, despite being super familiar with other John Hughes’ movies such as Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and even St. Elmo’s Fire. Just like its predecessors, Pretty in Pink delivered an incredible mix of pop artists, plus an iconic scene set to Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness,” and it made me miss the art of a good movie soundtrack. Shockingly, that song is mysteriously absent from the official soundtrack.
A few things I learned in the spoiler-ridden “documentary” before the film started include:
Apparently, the studio initially offered the role of Duckie to Anthony Michael Hall, which I just can’t even imagine. The role later went to Jon Cryer, after Hall rejected the part.
The ending had to be reshot after a test audience booed the “original” ending of the film. This is pretty ironic because I absolutely hated the actual ending of the film.