Down To Watch

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

This week, DtW takes a look at both sides of a sad, scary, and strangely funny story of The Sympathizer! Dan and Raul checked out the Max streaming, HBO-branded adaptation of the darkly comedic novel of the same name, and are both impressed after a few eps. Lead character The Captain walks a frighteningly fine line between soldier, spy, and effective enemy operative as he weaves between his Vietnamese allies on both sides of the confrontation. Peppering in A-Listers in surprising roles at times helps keep the pace bouncy alongside the playful narrator, but is it worth sticking with, or do a few small issues add up to anything serious? Who's to say what side is the right side, It's best to listen and find out! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message

DTW is dipping into docs this May with several entries in the upcoming month telling stories that are as strange as they are true! Dan and Raul found they were looking forward to many of the same true tales lined up for the next few weeks, including a look into the life of Muppet inventor Jim Henson, the story of the melodic musical legends The Beach Boys, and an odd but well-documented life in Japan called The Contestant. The oddness continues with a return to hit doc The Jinx, a popular show thought completely told. Scripted TV stays weird with more Outer Range, more multiverse in Dark Matter, some spy stuff, and even movies in this one, so May...be have a listen!? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message

In anticipation of the soon-to-be-streaming prequel, The First Omen, this week, DtW flashes back to the original 1976 The Omen! Dan sees it for the first time while Raul revisits a classic he used to watch on constant rotation, with star power in the front and satanic panic pushing it forward. Gregory Peck stars in a familial nightmare with a political tinge, detailing a family's fall after unknowingly adopting the son of Satan. Famous moments from scary movie history were made possible by this nefariously apocalyptic tale, but the fears present here were also fueled by an outsized fear of the devil saturating the culture of the age. Does it still scare and compel, or were these fears and feelings only indicative of 70s American unease? Let's talk about it! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message

This week, DtW crawls out to the Prime adaptation of Fallout! Dan and Raul complete the gamer configuration of the show by inviting Jonnie to talk about the first two episodes of a tongue-in-cheek gorefest set in the post-nuclear apocalypse. Lucy is a sheltered vault-dweller encountering the Mad Max-style carnage of the surface world for the first time, Maximus is trying to escape his ineffectiveness as part of a military religion by stealing a suit of robot armor, and The Ghoul has stuck around since pre-war America to give us a modern-day perspective and more Walton Goggins for our TVs. After a few days out, the show has stuck to the game's vibes and continues to get good reviews, so is this another successful adaptation of a game, or is it a bomb with a diminishing half-life? These three brickball aficionados probably know!  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message

This week, Down to Watch follows a couple of mystery men through their new streaming series! Our DtW hosts start off talking about another take on The Talented Mr. Ripley, this time simply titled Ripley and led by a couple of recognizable BBC faces. The show is set in stark black-and-white Italy and slowly meanders through the crime thriller's story, but is it so thoughtful it forgets to be compelling? A question that can also be asked about the second show covered in this pod is AppleTV+' Sugar, an LA-based crime noir starring Colin Ferrell. Ferell? A new kind of hero, John Sugar, doesn't appear to be as seedy as the story he's in, but will the show's inevitable twist undo the character work done in early episodes? These are questions for Dan and Raul! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message

Down to Watch is back this week, dodgin' bunnies and chuckin' eggs to bring you a shower of April television picks to make your spring even more sprung! Dan and Raul brought a basket of green plastic grass, hollow chocolate, and adaptations like Fallout, Ripley, Parasyte, and Dead Boy Detectives. A bunch of spy craft shows are lined up like a pack of peeps, including The Veil, The Sympathizer, and an LA gumshoe story called Sugar, keeping the investigation domestic. Learn what is happening to the thoroughbreds at the race track with the New York Times doc film Broken Horses, what Conan finds while wandering in Conan O'Brien Needs to Go, and what happened back during The Hijacking of Flight 601. Keep your heads dry while waiting for May to bloom with these great picks!   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message

This week Netflix dropped a tentpole series with a lot of hype, and DtW is back to tell you about it! Dan and Raul watched the first two episodes of 3 Body Problem, an adaptation of the first book in the Chinese sci-fi series that is beyond popular in China and worldwide. Showrunners/writer/director duo Weiss and Benioff found success and fame helming the groundbreaking Game of Thrones but suffered consequences to their subsequent projects based on fan reactions to the finale they crafted. Does this mean they're ready to burst back on the scene with an equally vast story full of scientific wonder and terror, or does their handling of the GoT ending prove that their stories are rudderless without a source material to draw from? That's a very specific question, and also, there's a Tarly! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/downtopod/message

Down to Watch drops this week with a couple of spring streaming shows with secrets aplenty! Dan and Raul caught a couple of sneaky little shows in their sights with titles that might be misleading. First, AppleTV+ does not have the third season of Manhunt from Spectrum TV, but they do have an adaptation of the book Manhunt that describes the lawful search for John Wilkes Booth. The investigation into Lincoln's assassination is new ground for most viewers and the first two eps get a lot out of the procedural of it all as well as an unexpected emotional element. Next is The Gentlemen, a spiritual sequel to the film of the same name, both from writer-director Guy Ritchie who continues his resurgence after shedding most of his style-over-substance artistic persona. The show follows a new Duke in charge of a surprise weed grow op under his newly bequeathed manor and how his quick wits will serve him well as head of a criminal franchise and a family of aristocratic kooks. Word on the street is positive on both