Pop Culture Happy Hour - Practical Magic 2 and What’s Making Us Happy

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

In Practical Magic 2, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as witch sisters doomed by a family curse that means any man they love will die. They embark on a new chapter where the next generation is discovering the dangers of being born into this family. It’s been over 25 years since the original film. But will practical moviegoers be swept up in the magic twice?If you are gearing up for the witchy spooky season, check out these episode: In ‘Obsession,’ love hurts. It really, really, really hurts.Adam Scott checks in to a haunted inn in ‘Hokum’'Wicked: For Good' will bring you to tearsThe scary movies and books that still haunt usConnect with Pop Culture Happy Hour:Letterboxd / FacebookOur weekly newsletterSupport public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour, the podcast that keeps you plugged in about the latest and greatest in pop culture. Now, if you're a pop culture enthusiast who's not following the show yet, we're recommending you fix that right away by following Pop Culture Happy Hour on your favorite podcast app. So I don't think the story works, but I saw the charm of some of the actors getting together. So maybe that's the point. People love sequels and they love witches. That's the thinking behind practical magic two, the new follow-up to a film about two sisters who are doomed by a family curse that means any man they love will die. More than 25 years later, stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are back for this new chapter

in which the next generation is discovering the dangers of being born into a family of cursed witches. I'm Linda Holmes, and joining us today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is culture writer Kristen Mineser. Hello, Kristen. Hi, how you doing, Linda? I am well, thank you. Also with us is Margaret Willison. She's a culture writer who is teaching a class about Jane Austen. Hello, Margaret. Hi, Linda. Thank you so much for having me. Of course. Also with us is Jordan Cruciola. She's the editor of the action movie newsletter, The Action Desk. Hello, Jordan. Hello, thank you so much for having me, Coven. Fabulous. Practical magic, which came out in 1998, starred Sandra Bullock. and Nicole Kidman as Sally and Jillian Owens, sisters and witches who discovered that any man they fell in love with would die, thanks to a spell cast by one of their ancestors. By the end of that film, it seemed like the curse had been broken and they might be able to love happily. But in Practical Magic 2, we learned that this was not to be, and that Sally, who was happily coupled by the end of the first movie, is single again. Devastated by the effects of the curse, she's kept it from her own daughters, played by Joey King and Maisie Williams,

that there is a curse at all. They also don't know that they are witches like their mother with powerful magic at their disposal. Naturally, this creates problems once the curse starts to assert itself in their lives, and Kylie, played by King, decides to figure out how to end the curse once and for all. This is not as easy as it sounds,

and it naturally puts Kylie in danger. It also brings her mother and aunt into the orbit of a sexy professor who studies the dark arts. He's played by Lee Pace. You ignore your heritage at your point. Peril. Oh my God, can we please not do the peril speech?

You're blocked. Yeah, she's very blocked. You know what? I'm not a drain. I'm a human being. Practical magic is in theaters now. Jordan, I'm going to start with you. How did you feel about Practical Magic 2?

Practical Magic 2, Linda, did not have its hooks in me from the very start, and I was a little worried that it was feeling a little cash grabby, it was feeling a little clunky, it was like, oh no, this trailer. which had me worried, is seeming to fulfill my concerns. And I was like, I was not feeling optimistic about the rest of the movie, but at a certain point, it did turn over. If I fully embraced it, I was with the perfect person. I was watching my best friend in L.A.,

and we were laughing out loud to each other for all the right reasons. Okay. Throughout the entire rest of the movie, and I got to say, by the end of it, we looked at each other, and we were like, what an outstanding time. I didn't know I wanted to welcome practical magic two back into my life, but it turns out that I do. All right. Well, hey, I am glad to hear it. A surprise even to me. A surprise even to me, I will say. Listen, I hear you. You never know what you're going to get from these sequels.

Kristen, how about you? What did you get from this sequel? Oh, I got to say, Jordan, I love your enthusiasm. And I will concede. There are some bright moments in this film. The crowd favorites, of course, Diane Weist and Stockwood Channing. They get a little bit more screen time in this movie than in the original. which I like, and there's way less of Sandra Bullock making out with boring men. That's probably the biggest problem with the first movie. Okay, huge. Real problem with the first movie. That being said, the movie is just way too long.

It's trying too hard to convince us that Sandra Bullock is a regimented anti-magic, who is a stick in the mud. They spend a lot of time on setup, and they spend a lot of time on breakdown. There's not one, not two, but at least three endings to this movie. True. I just wanted them to get into the story. Let us be in this world. Let us get into the action. Less meandering. Let's get to it.

Okay. So we have Jordan, who's firmly pro. We have Kristen, who is not, not, not pro. Margaret, where are you on Practical Magic, too? I feel like if you told me this movie was generative AI from STEM to Stern, I would be like, wow, it's incredible what AI can do. So in that sense, it could be worse, but it could also be so much better. The aesthetics, the overall aesthetics of the movie, were very distracting to me because they were so cloyingly overpopulated. And I did go back to watch the first movie again after this and be like, was this always the vibe? But there is just such a difference between like an organic, like this is the first time we're using these aesthetics. And between this sort of bedazzled reanimation, it felt a little bit like this is maybe a niche reference.

But if you are somebody who likes to go on the internet and get like cozy diner, 4K HD loop, this felt like somebody had kind of created like cozy witch house, like 4K HD, like relaxing loop. That's kind of how the movie registered for me. There are many worse things. But there are also many better things like the original movie. Yeah. That was where I came down on it. Yeah.

You know, it's interesting. I realized as we came up to this that I don't think I had ever seen the first. Practical magic. I was like in my, you know, late 20s when that came out. So I was maybe a little bit out of the kind of primo age for that. I know of such great fondness in people who are like a sketch younger than me. But I just missed it when when it first came out. It was not my speed. And so when I went back and watched the first one, I watched it. I thought like, okay. And I looked at what some of the reviews of it at the time said. And it did not get great reviews when it came out. And one of the complaints about it was, you know, it's kind of tonally all over the place. They don't seem to really necessarily know what movie this is. The thing is, I had that feeling about this sequel as well. Some of the same complaints that people had about the first one that it felt a little disjointed and it felt a little like it's a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

I do think the most successful parts of this second film are the parts that are comedic, particularly playing off of either the chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman or between Sandra Bullock and Lee Pace, both of which I think brings some funny little bantery. There's a lot in this that is just this is what Sandra Bullock is good at. And I found those things delightful. But there's also this extremely heavy, dramatic story kind of hanging over this that I didn't think was interesting, that I didn't think was successful. And that was maybe a little too sad for what the movie otherwise was. But I sort of feel like, well, you can say that, but the first one was maybe the same way.

So maybe people who love that first movie aren't going to care that it has this quality, whereas I kind of got to the end and I was like, I would watch this for like 10 minutes of banter. But all of the stuff about the actual curse and the witching and all that stuff, I did wish I had a better sense of how the witch stuff actually. actually worked. There are some times when I feel like this is a lot of chanting, but I'm not sure I'm understanding, like, where did that come from and why is this happening? And what turns out to be the main antagonist of this movie kind of comes out of nowhere a little bit for me. So I don't think the story works, but I saw the charm of some of the actors getting together. So maybe that's the point. The highlights for me were definitely the Slapsic-Owen sisters when it was Sandra and Nicole being Sandra and Nicole.

And almost like, obviously the Fliberti Jibbitt sister that is Nicole Kidman has been true since the first one. But I am also, there was sort of a super textual aspect for me where like post-divorce Nicole Kidman, the busiest working woman in Hollywood. I was like, this is just Nicole Kidman living her life right now as Jillian Owens. And there was like a sort of satisfaction that this is just her out here being her. Yes. I was happy to see her not doing the like rich icy lady. You know. But like you said, would it really be a practical magic movie if it didn't flit between

the silly Owen's sisters and a grave matter of trauma and psychological terrorizing? Because this, I think of the first practical magic as the movie where I first experienced the darkness of domestic abuse amid put the lime on the coconut and mix it all up. So like that kind of whiplash, that's baked into the experience for me. And I felt like this one was a lot more subtle than the first even. Yeah, I got to agree with you, Jordan. least this time there's not a police investigator from another state coming in to try and deal with this. And there's not the domestic violence. There's not, you know, scary scenes of abuse happening

in this one. And I got to give credit to Lee Pace. At least this time, we have a sexy man. I can't truck with this Aiden Quinn slander. In the first movie, I just don't think that the love interests were, they were such boring men. Come on. If you are a witch, you can have any man. She was a sexy man. I love both Mark Furstein and Aiden Quinn. So like this is, I respect your taste, Kristen. No man should be for all women, right? Eden Quinn and those mom jeans in the first movie? It was the 90s.

I can't disagree with you harder. And also just the absence of chemistry between Lee Pace and Sandra Bullock to me was really striking in this. And I know it's not Lee Pace's fault because I have seen him have stunning chemistry. He's incredibly handsome. He's incredibly charming. What a joy to see him on my screen. there were all of these scenes where it's like, oh, they're looking at each other. And I was like, this is nothing. There's nothing here. I have nothing. Nothing is coming for me. Whereas

Sandra Bullock and Aden Quinn in that first movie really did it for me. And I also just want to counter to the whiplash claims. Because like I think it's fair. Like I think I had a hard time figuring out when I first saw Practical Magic One because like the overall tone is very like seventh grade sleepover. But the domestic violence plot is very like not seventh great sleepover friendly. But what I would say is everything is more coherent in the first movie. You have Sandra Bullock, who's from the start, like, sort of scared of her magical powers. And she turns away from her magic, not because the curse killed her husband, but because her aunts put a magic spell on her, put a love spell on her to make her fall in love with

the first boy. And she feels pretty betrayed by that. And I'm like, you know what? That really checks out. You know what doesn't have any logical consistency? It's like, hmm, my daughters are witches and we live in a town where everyone knows we're witches to such an extent that every night women are showing up at their aunt's door asking for them to solve witch problems, right? But they don't know their witches. I'm never going to tell them. And I'm certainly not going to warn them in any way that if they fall in love with a man, he might die. Because that'll protect them, you know it won't protect them from that. I will agree that makes no sense. That's fair, Margaret. When the chickens are coming home to roost on that, when it was like you planned about

30 seconds in advance of that vow you made to yourself, and this was not a sustainable parenting solution. Yeah, it was like, I understand why you dreaded the conversation. What happens in this movie that forces the daughters to learn this was kind of always going to happen unless you, you know, figured out some other way to keep them away. from, you know, romantic partners or whatever? What were you going to do? Is a fair question, I think. What were you going to do?

Yeah. And then to go back to the unrealistic part, if you rewatch the first movie, the little girls exist in the first movie where people in the community are yelling at them, calling them witches. So the little girls grew up the first five or ten years of their life being exposed to, oh, they're actually witches themselves. It seemed to me that she managed to, like, make them forget. I thought that was like a glamoring. happening there. It still doesn't work. It still doesn't make any sense. It's still a bad

choice. It's still a bad choice. One thing that I am curious about for those of you who have more history with this movie than I do, because I don't really have the history with the first one, until this week. I feel like having watched these close together, it also suffers a bit from the legacy sequel problem of sort of just making the first movie again. The beats in this are extremely similar in some ways. And I do think it's fair to say, this is really Sandra Bullock's movie much more than Nicole Kidman's. Nicole Kidman doesn't really have a story. She's kind of a sidekick in this. You start off with kind of in both movies with sort of Sandra Bullock. She tries to help someone else. That's mostly what she's obsessed with and is kind of rejecting love for herself. And she's also kind of

rejecting the magic in her life and things happen. And she figures out eventually that you have to rely on your magic and accept and embrace that you have all this magic and all this power, and you have to embrace it and accept it. And then maybe in the end, you will be able to fall in love. And I feel like if they wanted to, they could come back and make practical magic three in a few years and say, oh, nope, that didn't do it either. And we could kind of go through all this all over again. I did feel like the beats are other than the fact that Nicole Kidman is now living this somewhat carefree life without this series of bad men, which seems to me because she's kind of concluded that she's just not going to get involved with men very much.

The curse is working great for Jill. The curse is working great for Jill. But aside from that, I do feel like the beats are really similar. And I think the care, unfortunately, the characters of the daughters, like the Joey King character exists a little bit. The Maisie Williams character really doesn't exist at all besides she's a doctor. My prime gripe is I wanted more for Maisie. Yeah. I want to see her back and I want to see her having fun and doing more. Joey King is a fantastic talent. And she's given a pretty reed-thin situation to work with. But dang, that girl can face act.

Yeah. And she is really effective. And truly, as the one on the panel who was totally bought into Practical Magic 2, I was super ready by the end for Practical Magic 3 in which those silly Owens sisters, the youngest generation, like solve local crimes with their powers in their little New England town. To go back to what Linda was saying, though, you know, in a lot of ways, this is just kind of like rebooting the first movie. Yeah, which is slightly, I'll just say it, a victim of its own 90s trappings. The first movie was during the era of made for TV movies where, of course, there's going to be a police investigator at some point who shows up in every made for TV movie. Of course, there's going to be domestic violence. But it's also that 90s era of you have riot girls. You have the uvra of the craft. You have the girls coming together with girl power. And yet you have the 90s obsession of must have a man, must have a man, must have a man, must have a man. I'm really doing a lot of intention there.

Yeah. So I feel like in the 90s, a lot of things were very muddled with best intentions, but also with all the messes of the period. And thus, remaking it is going to have a lot of those same problems, I think. You know, I sometimes feel like it's difficult to wrap my arms around exactly what I mean when I say something is very 90s in the same way that I feel like I can when I say it's very 80s. But I do feel like the first movie is very 90s. And it is. very of its moment. I think Kristen is right on to kind of identify the made-for-tiv-movie element of it as well as that kind of girl power kind of thing that was going on at the time.

Because I do think, you know, the most effective, in some ways the most emotionally effective thing about the first movie is this coming together of generations, right? The sisters and the aunts. And when the ants are being played by, you know, Diane Weiss and Stockwood Channing, of so much heft in those performances and in what they're able to bring to it, I did think that was kind of one of the more effective parts. And then I think when you get to this, on the one hand, I kind of want to say, yeah, this is the kind of movie that doesn't really get made now. It's like a middle-sized grown-up movie, you know, because it does have a little bit of that. Sometimes it's a comedy. Sometimes it's a heavy witch drama. And so I want to cheer for it in that way.

I'm cheering. I'm cheering on your behalf, Linda, if you feel like you can't. I know, I know. And I wish that they had been able to bring a little more, like, are these women any different than they were 25 years ago? Which is like, and I'm not saying are the actresses any different. I'm saying, like, are the characters any different? Like, you're going to be at a different place in life. She's, you know, Sally has raised children who are now adults.

And yet these characters kind of feel like they're exactly the same people that they were. in the first movie. Yeah, I wouldn't watch these back to back. That would not be my advice to people if they were coming in fresh. I watched it wrong. Like, let them breathe a little bit and watch the second one first. Because I feel like it's actually better to go back in time in this chronology. Because like, I don't know, when I saw the trailer for this, I was like, yikes, frankly. It was like, that house looks like it's made a rubber. Or is that the most tennis ball, CGI sky you've ever seen when they're standing on the roof of it? There is an uncanny valiness to it that I think is intentional, but I'm not sure they know exactly how to deploy it. I did not get the cheapness that came from the trailer when I was watching the movie. Like, by the time we get to the house part where we see it in the trailer, I was like, oh, this was like a real place with real people. And what we saw looked like an unfinished, like, effect situation in a trailer. So that was, like, kind of the vibe I carry into something.

And I don't normally come into a movie thinking of, like, the ways I'm going to disadvantage it right out of the gate. But then as I watch it, I was totally surprised that, like, the banter and the dynamic. And I was just so happy that everybody's best friends with their sister in this movie and the little jokes and the chemistry of playing off one another, the moment by moment of it carried it through for me in such a joyful way, even as I recognize all of the structural things that you're all telling me in this conversation and its shortcomings, which are absolutely real things. I do want to just go over, hop over to Kristen for a second, because I'm curious how you felt about this business of kind of the look of the movie and the stuck in time. of the movie. Yeah, yeah. Well, I really noticed the 90s aesthetics in this movie in the costumes. I actually thought the costumes look like they were straight out of the same closets of the characters from the 90s. And to the point where I'm like, I kind of want to go back to the first movie and see, did they reuse any of the costumes? Do they still have clothes from the 90s they're wearing? Like me? Maybe.

But the aesthetics, some of the soundtrack, I'm not sure if you noticed, but some of the songs that are played as... Amazing cover of Massey's starting. fade into you by the way. Yes, exactly. That jumped out at me. So I think a lot of the remake quality of a lot of the 90s quality, I think that was on purpose. It didn't seem like it was done accidentally. It was to bring us back to a place we've been before. We're hanging out with these aunties. We're hanging out with these sisters. I had no issue with any of that. It was a lot of the other things that I already mentioned that I took issue with. Again, when I went back to the original movie, it's like you see like the garden that the Owen sisters

have, it looks like a real garden. And then when you look at this, you're like, oh, this looks like a garden in a computer screen saver. But again, it's a magic world, Margaret. It's not real life. It's a magic garden. I'm not opposed to magic worlds. I love the magic flowers in the first movie, for example, where, you know, a rose bush grows out of season. And that is an indication that, like, something they thought was managed is not managed and is in fact going haywire. Here, it's not not considered. It's just sort of like, wouldn't it be fun if there were all of these flowers? And sort of yes, but sort of no. For me, it's a yes. Well, I think this is, this is the right question, right? Which is, are they emulating the aesthetic of the first movie because that aesthetic is

specifically a magic, witchy sort of aesthetic? And are they emulating, you know, I think as Chris incorrectly called out, are they calling back through the music purely out of nostalgia? Or is it just to keep you attached to the fact that this is the same world of magic and witchiness? And as I said, I didn't necessarily feel like they kept me entirely apprised of how the witchy stuff was working. It's lawless witchiness. It's definitely lawless witchiness. There are times when I'm like, if you can do this, I would think you would be able to do this

and solve your other problem and so on. I think you're all asking the right questions. And I think as people go and check this movie out, they will explore. And I will be very curious to hear from people who have a relationship with this first movie and then people more like me who maybe don't. Well, so that is practical magic too. It is in theaters up next. What is Making Us Happy This Week. Welcome back.

If you're not following Pop Culture Happy Hour yet, hit that follow button on your podcast app and stay plugged in to every thing PCH has to offer. Now it's time for our favorite segment of this week and every week what's making us happy this week. Kristen, I'm going to start with you. What is making you happy this week? Well, like a lot of the world, I am still mourning the late great Dolly Parton. But one thing that has been making me happy is her 1994 memoir, Dolly, my life and other unfinished

business. So Dolly wrote this book when she was in her late 40s and still on the cusp of being very guarded with her personal life. So she reveals some things in this book like professional breakups beyond her big one with Porter Wagner, the times in her life when there was tension between her and her soulmate best friend Judy. The book also shows Dolly's saltier side. For example, at one point she writes, there are times when I feel like saying something like, why don't you get out of my face, you ugly woman, and take those brady kids with you. But at times like that, I usually get all flustered and say stupid stuff like,

Kiss my ass. That's what you are. And don't think I can't do it. So I got to say this book is so fun. It's a less curated side, a less perfect side of Dolly. She is showing some of the things that people might not worship so much. And it's just a great ride. It's so fun. Again, the book is called Dolly My Life and Other Unfinished Business by Dolly Parton. Love it. Love it. Thank you very much, Kristen. Jordan, I'm going to ask you next, what is making you happy this week? You know what? I was going to go with the different answer. But in the spirit of remembrance and the season and talking about witches, Kristen said Dolly. And I'm going to throw a Tim Curry in there. Tim Curry is what is going to be what's making me happy this week specifically. We are going to go with if you are feeling magical and witchy on the heels of practical magic two, then you should pull up the worst witch. It is a, God, is it a British made for television movie? It might as well be. But if you want to see Tim Curry playing as, as a, he over the top often does. Like the high witch warlock that an entire girl's school of witches looks up to. So when he visits, they're all starstruck by the visiting witch. And he wears a long cape and he wears a dress shirt and black pants. And his signature song in the movie is called Anything Can Happen on Halloween.

Just play Anything Can Happen on Halloween for yourself on YouTube. pull up the whole entirety of the worst witch. But if you want to light some candles, if you want to put some lime and some coconut to mix it all up, put on the worst witch while you do it, and watch Tim Curry give one of his lesser-sighted, but every bit as enjoyable and played to the Rafter's performances that you're going to find.

Wonderful. Thank you very much, Jordan. We are remembering Tim Curry and particularly the worst witch. All right, Margaret Willison, what is making you happy this week? What's making me happy this week is the, nerdiest podcast I listen to, which is the thing about Austin. I've been listening for a long time, and I'm revisiting it presently to prep for the class and teaching. And it is an incredible podcast with two Austin academics where what they do is they just dive into the material history

and context around various different things in various different Austin novels. Like, does it mean anything about Captain Wentworth that he's carrying around an umbrella in bath, in persuasion. They're like, it sure does. And you can listen to the thing about Captain Wentworth's umbrella. These are great episodes because they're pretty short. They're usually around half an hour long. They're extremely well researched, but they're also very funny and like snappily delivered. I have been lucky enough to go on the podcast one time. But that is one of those things where much like my journey with pop culture happy hour started out as a fan and fans so hard. They were like, come out up.

Chat about Captain Wentworth's letter in persuasion. And I was like, I would love to. Just look for the one that's going to catch your eye. If you are someone who would be inclined to listen to a podcast like this, you would never find a better version of it than this one. The podcast is called The Thing About Austin. And that is Austin with an E.N, not an I-N. Correct.

Because it is about books and not Texas. Although I'd probably listen to The Thing About Austin with an I-N too. Again, some really nerdy podcast. Nice. Yes. All right. Thank you very much, Margaret Willison. So what is making me happy this week? As many of you know, I have spent much of 2026 thus far reading thriller novels. I found my way to the New York Times list of 50 best thriller books of the 21st century, which, listen, that is a good list. That is a list from which I have read books. It is a list of not entirely books that are actually thrillers, I would argue. It has that as a challenge. But listen, Jean-Rabelle. boundaries tend to be blurry. But several jumps from that list brought me to the mystery novel, Mother-daughter Murder Night, which is by Nina Simon. And it seems like a perfect book to salute during Practical Magic 2 discussion because it is also about three generations of women. It's

kind of Gilmore girlsy. It's a young mom of a teenager and then her mother. And there is a murder in the area where they live. And the grandmother in particular gets very, very intense about figuring out what happened and solving the case. She's dealing with some health problems and it seems to be like it kind of gives her something else to think about. So she gets very, very committed to figuring out what happened. It took me a while to get into this book because a lot of it is about real estate. And when a mystery has a lot to do with real estate and control of land and stuff like that. My eyes glaze over. That's always been true. I really like how it's executed. I really liked the relationships between the characters. And I do really like the fact that it is these three

generations of women who are very reliant on each other, whose primary bonds are with each other. So it is called mother-daughter murder night by Nina Simon. And it definitely is what has been making me happy for the last couple of weeks reading in bed. And I was delighted to finish it. Because I love to finish a book. Okay. That brings us to the end of our show. Kristen Mineser, Margaret H. Willis and Jordan Cruciola. Thank you so much for being here in all your witchiness.

Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thank you. This episode is produced by Liz Metzger and Mike Katzif and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello, come in, provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. To keep listening and keep enjoying, please make sure to follow the show on your favorite podcast app.

I'm Linda Holmes, and we will see you all next time.