Down To Watch

If for whatever reason you wanna take your mind off of the world's troubles this November, Down to Watch has some worthwhile distractions to de-stress or displace that anxiety. Dan and Raul checked out the upcoming schedule and found plenty to fill your TV tray as we head into the holidays. We've got more Yellowstone, a new show from Taylor Sheridan, another look at the assassin, The Jackal, and a series of creepy Creep Tapes. In theaters, we see Jesse and Kieran being real pains, Hugh somehow being scary and Denzel being Denzel in a gladiatorial setting. There are shows made from books, a doc about music, and more! Come get your gifts early! 

This week it's the first two episodes of the sequel series to The Batman and DTW is down to waddle! Dan and Raul both love the new HBO series on Max based on Batman's old school villain The Penguin and Colin Ferrell is a big part of it. The Irishman has tackled what could easily be a throwaway genre cliche with artistic aplomb. The result on paper is a straightforward crime story, but in live action is revealed to be a layered story built around an excellent performance. Ferrell is in good company with solid character actors, new faces, and the titular mother from How I Met Your Mother (Cristin Milioti), but this corner of the DC Universe is all about Oswald Cobb and can absolutely hook you after only two eps. What are the chances we'll see a gas umbrella or a duck boat though???

Another spooky season sneaks up on us and the DtW crew checked out the tricks and treats being handed out all October. The guys catch up on last month's hits and misses before knocking on next month's door and getting a mixed bag of fun size, full-sized, and sharing size! Dan's bag is overflowing with reality and documentary TV like Starting 5, a Netflix look at NBA lives, or This is the Zodiac Speaking, a dive into the mind of a mysterious killer. Raul's bucket of treats is all dramatizations like the criminal boxing world of La Maquina, The Franchise's MCU send-up, and Hysteria inserts read demons into the satanic panic. We got a ton of FBI checking the candy, some Halloween specials and what's so scary about a Teacup? You haven't seen Get Out, have you?

September is getting spooky sooner than expected this week on Down to Watch! Dan and Raul are happy to have Jonnie back as usual and he's got some thoughts on the latest nostalgia sequel in theaters, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. The ghost with the most is back and the reception has been mostly positive but it's time to see what DtW thinks about Keaton wigging up again. Of course, no visit from this pod favorite guest is complete without a peek into the MCU and the guys are ready to talk spells, psychics, and scarlet witches because Agatha All Along has arrived to scare up some good old witchy fun with that Disney superhero studio money. Does it add up to the Marvel equivalent of TV magic or are we watching illusions and misdirects? These guys might know!

This week we're Down to Watch a buncha punks! Dan and Raul take a trip back in time with The Decline of Western Civilization, a 1981 doc filmed from within the Los Angeles punk scene as it was cresting on a wave of drugs, violence, art, and energy so potent the LAPD chief at the time forbade the film's screening. Through interviews, gig footage, and crowd interactions, filmmaker Penelope Spheeris managed to capture one of the most authentic portrayals of a musical movement ever seen on film and does it impressively despite such an unwieldy and abstract genre. This pod is a conversation in admiration and fun for sure, but if the documentary sounds interesting, it's free on YouTube!

Time to look ahead to September with the Down to Watch crew as the fall TV season starts to get in gear. Dan and Raul scraped the internet's endless lists to figure out the best in new streaming and even some old-fashioned network shows. There's plenty of real-world drama in docs like Mr. McMahon, Child Star, and American Sports Story, big moments at the Emmys, and more funny news from Roy Wood Jr.  Lot of tough guys coming back, too, from Tulsa Kings to an Old Man and even a Walking Dead. We got Japanese women's wrestling, modern British court drama, Colin Farrell's Penguin, so much Ryan Murphy and was it Agatha All Along!?! Maybe! Better listen! 

Deep into August, the DtW team treks into the 80s with a film that resonates with an audience of a certain age, The NeverEnding Story! Dan and Raul are both interested in the legacy left by one of a few fantasy flicks they remember as formative for their age group and dove into the world of Fantasia. Old-school fantasy story beats mix with ahead-of-their-time tropes like meta-narratives and crossing realities when a bookish kid hides from the world with a stolen book that literally places the reader at the center of the story. Does it hold up? Can it live up to the memory of one host and the expectations of another after a lifetime of hearing about Atreyu and Artax swashbuckling across our imaginations? Is there... an ending??? These guys answer some of those questions, maybe!

Summers in Florida are sweaty and sweltering, so this week, DtW is watching a new Sunshine State series on the TV with the A/C cranked! Dan and Raul caught their old friend Vince Vaughn sneaking around outer Miami in search of clues on Bad Monkey, a sunny murder mystery with the A-Lister as a motormouth detective who's off the force for a litany of reasons. The first two episodes have dropped to more than some acclaim while drawing comparisons to a number of previous shows that might denote a little less quality. So, did AppleTV+ manage to sneak in some quality noir around the fast-talking banter and baby turtle facts, or should this show have been successfully delivered to the gators only a few feet from the highway? Mayhaps the hosts can shine an unconventional streetlight on this!

This week, DtW has a couple of premieres from the TV Premieres ep that stood out to our intrepid hosts. First, Dan and Raul are back into the "A-Lister on TV" trend as Natalie Portman tries out the small screen in a dark drama tying two murders together while Natty Ports' harranged housewife discovers her purpose in Lady in the Lake. A good-looking production filled with quality acting has a few interesting twists, including a narrator who does double duty as one of the victims, but this is a well-worn genre, and star power doesn't guarantee success. On the other hand, a series remake of a fantasy film from the 80s from a Monty Python alum is in no danger of being overwhelmed by mainstream attention, but a cult following for the source material and a snappy script for the whole family might make Time Bandits a show worth recommending. There are so many unique flavors between these two shows that it's something that stands out for anyone! Check it out!

This week, DtW comes to a turning point, a fork stuck in the road, as time passes by and the world watches the Fox Marvel films come to an end with Deadpool & Wolverine! Dan and Raul have Jonnie back to say bye, bye and bye to cameos and references galore as the fourth wall-breaking Merc with a Mouth arrives in a second sequel made for MCU and comic fans alike. In this one, the couple of ramblin men in the title travel across dimensions in a bid to save what the hosts eventually believe is Marvel 10005, his home universe from the TVA, Professor X's in utero twin and a host of other characters from other continuities, franchises and even mediums! Red and Wolvie arrive like a prayer, just when comic book movies need the fans to believe in them again. Does it work? Are they back!?! Did they save the MCU with the power of love!!?!! Listen and find out, bub.

Summer is sliding into home as the sun bears down upon us and Down to Watch has the lineup for your August TV rotation! Dan and Raul are looking for home runs in a month of expected ground outs, and hopefully there's a series that can give you a bit of relief from the hazy heat. Over in the real world, Max is taking a listen to Elizabeth Taylor's Lost Tapes and the New York Times wants to Lie to Fly, while the animated scene has some big franchises trying for triples with Rick & Morty, The Terminator and Batman entries. A month that starts with Good Girls and ends in Kaos, with tons of returning shows worth mentioning, is coming out of the bullpen to save the season! More baseball metaphors!

This week Down to Watch veers off the path of "Essential 80s" for something a little strange and different but nonetheless classic & cult with The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension! Dan and Raul are astounded at the talent level in this esoteric lampshade placed on spy, musical, sci-fi, and romance genres while kinda spoofing serials in general. There's a ton of recognizable faces in this goofy romp from genre films like Doc Brown, Doc Brundle, and the titular Robocop, as well as character actors galore, but the film is filled with sorta-jokes, references to never-seen characters and events, and a decent amount of cultural confusion that doesn't necessarily play as cleanly today. Did our intrepid hosts survive traipsing across genres and comedic sensibilities to arrive at a satisfying film, or is there a reason this never reached the successful film dimension? Can this level of acting talent turn a flighty script and some improv asides into film history? Do aliens ca

Down to Watch is back in business, and that business is refrigerrr...robotics, actually! Dan and Raul followed Rashida Jones into a tragic mystery centered around the bot-building company Imatech and her late husband's classified research in the new AppleTV+ series Sunny. American ex-pat misanthrope Suzie deals with life in Japan (as well as in a near future where robot helpers abound) after a plane crash has taken the lives of her Japanese engineer husband, Masa, and their young son. As the world around her tries to help assuage her pain with culturally unfamiliar customs, clues begin to drop about Masa's secret life that led to him leaving her with a bespoke AI robot, Sunny. The company is hiding killer robots, her mother-in-law is busy destroying clues, and now the Yakuza is involved? This show is wrapping cool music, bouncy sci-fi concepts, and dark humor around an investigation into grief processing, and we're here to talk about it!

This week, Down to Watch is down but not out in Beverly Hills! Dan, Raul, and Jonnie take a trip to the fancy side of 80s revivals as Eddie Murphy brings back a classic action comedy character in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. All the hosts have seen the original, some more recently than others, and the whole gang is on board for a return to fast talkin', quick thinking Axel as he deals with rich guy villains, flashy cops who sold out and a ton of 80s tropes revisited with a modern mentality. Does the old cast bring back all the chemistry they had in the original, and do the new characters add or remove from the fun of the fantastic first movie and its sequels of arguable quality? If they're laughing funny, sporting dodgy accents, and doin' the Neutron Dance, it's on this pod!

The temp is rising, the BBQs are lit, and new TV shows are hot off the grill and into our living rooms this July! Dan and Raul are checking the summer snacks served by the multitude of streamers who want our hard-earned subscriptions. Among the burgers and dogs awaiting us are spicy new offerings like Natalie Portman's Not Being a Lady in the Lake, Nic Cage and a pair of Longlegs, and Rashida Jones's seeing the 'Sunny' side of a scary situation.  On the animated menu, Kite Man says Hell Yeah to some more adventures; somehow, a show is called Exploding Kittens, and the BBQ links keep coming in Sausage Party: Foodtopia. There’s a mess of returning shows, a whole Olympics, more Maxxxine and a really sick party in The Decameron (whatever that is), so come summer with us!

This week, Down to Watch is on summer vacation! Dan and Raul met up IRL with podfriend Hannah to watch the 25th (ish?) anniversary re-release of the German time loop film Run Lola Run. Rebel and indie filmmakers had a resurgence in the 90s, and this kinetic electro-fable still stands among the most lauded German productions ever, with critics, award groups, and a wide cult following on display in theaters over the last few weeks. All three hosts were glad to revisit this film at the Los Angeles staple, Landmark's Nuart Theater, and they have tons to say about it! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message

Big franchises collide with indie drama in this week's two-show showdown on Down to Watch! Dan and Raul have been observing the hype around the new Star Wars series The Acolyte with a bit of skepticism after the last few TV tries from the Skywalker clan resulted in a mixed bag at best. The new show might be angering fans and podcast hosts alike early in the first episode as well, but can the pilot turn fan opinions around by the closing credits? But first, there's a show about a missing kid and his dirtbag dad being desperate enough to find them that they enlist the help of an imaginary friend of the child's to delve into a seedy underbelly. Although the premise is familiar, Benedict Cumberbatch's new Eric is far more dour and sinister than the similarly plotted Happy! from a few years back. Boasting proper acting talent, will this show be back on the pod for a season recap? It does have puppets!  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message

This week, the DtW trip through the 80s film landscape hits a bit of a bumpy road! Dan and Raul watched Firestarter, a 1984 Stephen King adaptation starring a tiny Drew Barrymore alongside plenty of Hollywood talent about a rogue couple and their pyrokinetic daughter on the run from the clandestine sci-fi government organization responsible for all their unnatural talents. Despite the talent on screen and the material's pedigree, this film was torched back in the day, but the cult following it may have garnered since belies a secret classic of the weird and paranoid that gave us titles like Videodrome and Scanners. Or maybe it's just bad; come find out! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message

This week on Down to Watch, it's a handy June guidebook for what's going on in TV and in theaters! Dan and Raul find the new TV offerings to be meager so the monthly look forward includes many returning shows and trips to the theater. On the new TV front, there's an NBA scandal, a hyped-up Star Wars series, Jake Gyllenhaal getting into legal limbo, and a look back at the pack full of brats. Out in theaters, the summer starts with a remake of The Crow, a re-release of Run Lola Run, M Night's daughter's first twist vehicle, the first days of A Quiet Place, and a possible hit, man. We also welcome back a mayor, some boys, a bunch of angry dragons, the staff of a tasty sandwich shop, and more! Get out of the hot sun and check 'em out! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message

This week, DtW takes a trip to 80s Louisiana to admire the flowers and friendly faces in Steel Magnolias! Dan and Raul continue to complete their education in the cultural classics by watching a movie both remember as very well loved but never got around to watching. With a half dozen powerhouse women playing the cadre of close friends at the center of the film, there was no doubt this would be a showcase of incredible talent, but will the story hold its shape, or is it as dated as a big frizzy do? This definitely isn't Fried Green Tomatoes! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message