Linda Holmes
Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.
Holmes was a writer and editor at Television Without Pity, where she recapped several hundred hours of programming — including both High School Musical movies, for which she did not receive hazard pay. Her first novel, Evvie Drake Starts Over, was published in the summer of 2019. [Copyright 2025 NPR]
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A TV version of The Rainmaker is out this week, which gave critic Linda Holmes as good a reason as any to rank the on-screen adaptations of John Grisham's legal novels. -
Denzel Washington stars in a loose remake of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa film High and Low. And four anthropomorphic turtles are back in theaters for an anniversary re-release. -
Weapons is a story about a community recovering from an inexplicable trauma that arrives like a natural disaster, wreaks havoc, and then cannot be reversed, only survived. -
This erotic thriller murder mystery series on Netflix is silly, raunchy and high drama. But if it's up your alley, you might find it a pretty well-executed bit of summer entertainment. -
Liam Neeson plays the detective Frank Drebin, Jr. in a Naked Gun reboot that piles on the jokes. Meanwhile, a stunning documentary explores the history of stone and cement in architecture. -
NPR critic Linda Holmes has been a Billy Joel fan since the '80s. HBO's new two-part documentary still taught her something new about his life — and provided a chance to consider the role of his music in her own. -
Apple TV+ must be happy about how many nominations they've raked in this year for hit shows including Severance and The Studio, NPR critic Linda Holmes says. -
The new Netflix series stars Megan Stalter (also Kayla on Hacks) as a 30-something who moves to London after a breakup. -
It's natural to feel some skepticism when a celebrity makes a documentary about their own family. But Law & Order star Mariska Hargitay tells a story that is both effective and empathetic. -
The new season picks up right where we left off — with a review of the restaurant — and refocuses on the relationships between Carmy, Sydney and Richie.
