Down To Watch

Finally, the long-awaited and eagerly anticipated Alien TV show has arrived! Dan and Raul fancy themselves pretty well-versed in the 'Xenomorpho-verse' so they were stoked to see what accomplished TV-creator extraodinaire, Noah Hawley, had in mind for the expansion of this very popular universe. Listen to the guys iterate on the details that link stylistically the many interesting ways the OG Alien movie gets referenced while offering many new characters that include cyborgs, synths, and the newly spawned hybrids. Corporations battle for control of Earth in 2120 and the many aliens are just part of this sci-fi, horror punchbowl, so listen ahead to see if the guys are drinking the Kool Aid or wishing Ridley never allowed this to happen!

The burning hot Down to Watch summer is stretching into August with a rock solid addition to the MCU that's anything but invisible, girl! Dan and Raul can't talk about the Fantastic Four: First Steps without the stalwart Jonnie to round out the comic adaptation team, and the three launch into a space spanning story about parenthood that brings Marvel's first family to the big screen again. This round, the story is expected to tie into the ongoing timeline that's being shepherded by the House of Mouse as opposed to the previous stand-alone attempts, but is the franchise cache enough to make this into a Galactus-man-sized hit or do the crowds clamor for the original cloud-based menace of the older films? There's a baby in this one! 

Down to Watch is back to the monthly map of new series and favorite franchises just in time for an awesome August! Dan and Raul have the details on the worlds we're returning to, including a surprising "sequel" to The Naked Gun trilogy, the Alien franchise landing on Earth as a TV show, Wakanda goes animated and John Cena is Peacemaker again but now with a new Superman. That's not to say the new stuff isn't exciting, as our hosts are very excited for the upcoming film Weapons, from Zach Kregger of Barbarian fame. Also new to TV is a reality doc about The Biggest Loser, a funky claymation telenovela on Adult Swim, the story of Hawaiian war between the islands and another series from the creator of Bojack. This is plenty to look forward to, but if looking back is better then Jaws and TMNT are coming back to theaters. So much stuff for the fellas to talk about, and for you to listen!

Down to Watch is up in the sky with the birds, planes and the 1978  Superman! Dan and Raul ride the current Kryptonian hype and watched the film that inspired the new incarnation as well as so many other films. Christopher Reeve gives us a man of steel that has yet to be topped,  the music is an iconic ode to the character and the special effects are charming enough to make you believe a man can fly. Come take that flight with DtW, we promise minimal poetry! 

Down to Watch is back in theaters and back to the UK to see how they're doing 28 Years Later! Dan and Raul are glad to see the team of Boyle and Garland getting back together to revisit the world they created when they rewrote many zombie tropes with 28 Days Later back in 2002. After a middle movie that has basically been written out of the series canon, do the originators of the series return it to its groundbreaking luster or does this entry stray from the fast zombies far enough to fail the franchise? Whatever the outcome, that poem is spooky! 

This week on DtW, the zombies are fast again! Dan and Raul watched 28 Weeks Later in anticipation for the soon to be released third entry. 28 Days introduced the world to an eerily empty London, a talented young Peaky Blinder and the concept of the running dead, so the sequel had big shoes to fill. Fielding a new director, 28 Weeks Later starts with an incredibly tense and gut wrenching opener that is able to build upon the stylistic triumphs of the original, only to then unfurl an entirely original take on post zombie society. Do you need to listen to this episode to get ready for the fantastic looking 28 Years Later? Probably, yes!

Room service, Down to Watchers! This week, Dan and Raul watched 90s neo crime noir King of New York! Abel Ferrara brings art house sensibilities and evocative imagery to the realm of gang hits at drug parties in dilapidated dens and high society hotels. The film is full of familiar faces, with Christopher Walken and "Larry" Fishburne in particular bringing a wild energy to a moody tone poem of a film. The vibes here are enough to make for a fun chat, whether you think this is an artsy outlier or a canon crime thriller, so don't not listen to this podcast. It's a stupid thing to do...

This week, Down to Watch is a podcast on the run! Dan and Raul have two months to preview this week since the pickings are slim and the time is short. Both June and July are mapped out after a trip down last month lane, and the upcoming tv season includes family drama along The Waterfront, a true crime tale about a macabre Mortician, a couple comic books and a bunch of returning favorites (plus, the big blockbuster summer movie season gets a preview). Get your summer bod on the couch with these shows, and hurry! 

This week, GDT takes DtW to Mexico for some fantastical bloody business! Dan and Raul picked the earliest Guillermo Del Toro feature film for a trip to the mystical and macabre with Cronos, the 1992 quasi-vampire movie that highlights a lot of what would become Del Toro's signature style. An old man and his granddaughter run an antiques shop where a mobster's goons fail to find a magical brass scarab. When the man discovers and applies it's unique abilities, his life turns around but the mobster is mad and the granddaughter is afraid of what her beloved grandpa is becoming. A spooky look into the origins of one of our most imaginative directors working today, but was it fascinating enough for the guys to recommend? Is eternal life worth living with a crazy complexion? Answers within!

This week on DtW, fast drivin', hard crimin' meets robot angst and action! Dan and Raul watched the first eps of Duster and Murderbot, a couple of shows with not a lot in common outside a toy-centric opening intro. Duster is an old school 70s crime series about a seasoned getaway driver played by Sawyer from Lost, teaming up with the first Black female FBI agent as they attempt to prove or disprove that boss Keth David had the Duster driver's brother killed. The pretty straightforward, pulpy yet breezy crime drama stands quite in contrast with Murderbot, the new AppleTV+ book series adaptation where a newly sentient security robot with a perfectly human face attempts to pass off as a perfectly normal functioning security bot, poorly. After the first two eps, it seems as though the self-named Murderbot (played by Alexander Skarsgard with the helmet off) might be finding a place among his hippie space community, though word of his autonomy spreading might endanger this. All in all, a good couple of

This week on Down to Watch, sometimes the heroes you need are the bad guys you made along the way! Dan and Raul team up with MCU stalwart Jonnie to talk about the latest phase coming to a close with Daredevil: Born Again and Thunderbolts*. These two entries might prove a return to form for the massive franchise or an anomaly on the road to irrelevance as the story of the MCU behind the scenes is as interesting as the one they're telling in the films. Has the House of Mouse wrung all the successful films it can from the House of Ideas, or is this a resurgence the upcoming F4 movie will carry on? Answers within! 

This Week, Down to Watch go from vacation home to vacation home to a galaxy far far away! Dan and Raul start the week's show talking rebellion and spycraft, all while bringing a gravitas to the land of lightsabers, with the return of Andor. Cassian Protagonist is mixing it up with the Empire again and while our hosts don't have a complete grasp of the Star Wars timeline, they definitely know the names of the actors involved! Next up, podcast favorites Steve Carrell and Tina Fey return in The Four Seasons, a miniseries remake of the Alan Alda original film about adult couples figuring it out in their middle age and beyond. While being more grounded than most Fey-produced sitcoms full of cartoonish buffoonery buoyed by sharp comedy, Seasons is more about the feelings you get as the passions dull but the days go on. These two shows are on opposite ends of the universe, genre-wise, but you can count on your intrepid hosts to brave the distance between them!

This week, Down to Watch ventures into the May-est month of the year and returns with a bunch of cool stuff! Dan and Raul each return from their adventures in the television wilds with arms full of real stories about surfers looking for 100 ft waves over several seasons, NBA shooting guards shooting, a couple of Brits who got super murdery, and life as Pee-Wee. On the scripted side, Tina Fey and Steve Carrell follow older couples across various vacations, a security robot who starts thinking about how bored they are, Sawyer from Lost as a 70s getaway driver for the first black lady FBI agent, and more! Tons of returning favorites round out a very fun month, so come take a listen and learn about the (immediate) future of television!!!

Down to Watch lurks in the shadows and stalks the smokey alleyways this week because it's a Mystery Bag show! Dan and Raul got it into their sneaky little heads to surprise the audience and each other with a few films and TV shows they've put away in the last week or so. Dan saw a dramatization about the guy who got too good at Press Your Luck and a series about a guy pretending to be his own twin brother, as well as a guy who has previously been an idiot but now seems to be talking to himself, and possibly the greatest 80's detective/crime noir film is discussed. Raul on the other hand decided to watch a bunch of cartoons but starts off with the story of a dead Kevin Bacon brought back to bounty-hunt demons, before launching into animated mushrooms, pac-men, and, actually would you believe, another demon bounty hunter but this time from video games? All that and more, but no titles in this description, because myssssssssstery!

It's 'upcomings' time again on Down to Watch, so let's see what April's got in store! Firstly, get super excited for some super sad shows that are coming back, from the prophetic Handmaid's Tale to the prescient Black Mirror, though maybe the real harbinger of end times is that Dan's got a cartoon on his list. Raul's got a toon as well, plus trips to hell, fungal apocalypse, questionably moral revolution and Poland! This month sounds like it's all over the place so grab your compass, our guide, and some government cheese!

This week on Down to Watch, two unique takes on a life of crime in Dope Thief and Deli Boys! Dan and Raul watched the first few eps of these new streaming shows to contrast the lives of the title characters and their extrajudicial activities. The eponymous Thief has had a hard road, is finding himself in a dire situation, and by robbing the Dope dealers for money has chosen a dangerous solution. The Boys of the titular Deli meanwhile have lived privileged lives while unaware of their convenience store magnate father's crime-lord aspirations. When the patriarch departs his mortal coil, these two dopes need to keep up with their savvy aunt's tutelage to stay out of jail and in the lap of luxury. No need for legal or criminal puns about watching these shows, just listen to this pod!

This week, Down to Watch has got that Night Fever and the only cure is a Disco Inferno! Dan and Raul finally saw Saturday Night Fever, the film that reinvigorated the Bee Gees careers and launched John Travolta as a movie star, but how could they know it was gonna be a gripping social issues indie film? The driving soundtrack and magnetic lead performance buoy what might otherwise be an overdramatic morality tale, but did SNF dance it's way into the history books legitimately? You should be listenin', yeah!

Turns out this year is gonna have a March as usual, so Down to Watch is  sneaking a peek at the upcoming TV treats! Early in the month, Dan's gotta catch the Oscars and Raul's happy to see the Daredevil series get Born Again. Later, there's comedy in crime family bodegas and Seth Rogen's studio dealings. On the serious side, real cops deal with missing and invisible victims on the streets while fake cops shake down drug dealers despite the bad vibes those kind of hijinks might attract. There's a look back at the elimination of Bin Laden, a look forward to Mulaney taking a crack at live TV, and more! March right over and have a listen!

This week on DtW, the MCU flies too close to the emerging Celestial we never talk about! Dan and Raul ventured into theaters this week to catch the next installment of "Has the MCU gotten itself together yet" and the answer is a resounding: Soon, We Promise. Captain America: Brave New World seems to smash together so many ideas that none of them get the attention they deserve, as this seems to be equal parts Hulk movie, continuation of the Falcon TV show, table setting for the future of the MCU, and tying tons of loose ends while disregarding aspects of the previous installments that didn't work out. Does the stellar acting and action make it worthwhile to catch on the big screen or is Disney hoping you shell out theater money for a lesser outing? Listen up and get smart, like The Leader or whoever the villain of this film is!

The Down to Watch crew dives into the complicated world of David Lynch this week with Blue Velvet! Dan and Raul take a trip through the mind-bending works of one of their favorite filmmakers, spending a little more time on the MacLachlan - Dern - Hopper starring psychosexual mystery thriller that places corny young love in the center of an underworld of drugs, sex, danger, and abuse. Lynch finds his two top muses in the two leads of this cult classic about creeps and killers that operate just under the surface of normal suburban life and puts them through a complicated hell constructed by the maniacal Frank Booth. Dennis Hopper brings to life a legendary villain who functions more like a force of nature than an actual antagonist, existing as deep drug-filled breaths of anger and tears often followed by uncomfortable exclamations and vicious violence. As a shining spot in a fantastic career, Velvet is worth a watch in the modern era, and DtW is happy to spotlight all of Lynch's career in a retrospective ep