Down To Watch

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 crossi...

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...

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 acti...

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 rambl...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 p...

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 sc...

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 b...

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...

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 Vietna...

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 Ja...

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 un...

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 ineffectiven...

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 c...

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 Sympathi...

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 suffere...

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 i...

This week, DtW watches Netflix bend a beloved Nickelodeon franchise into a live-action epic adventure despite previous attempts failing spectacularly! Dan and Raul have a literal family, and fellow podcaster Chris is on to discuss what they did with one of his favorite small-screen stories: The Last Airbender. Horrors abound in the previous incarnation, so the bar is low, but that doesn't mean...

This week on Down to Watch, it's an age of honor, discipline and a bunch of swords on your hip because it's Shogun time! Dan and Raul are your pilot navigators through the first two episodes of the new FX series based on the same name book that tells the story of an English sailor who arrives in Japan to find a whole TV show. In the 17th century, a time of treacherous trade routs and infig...

March comes in like a lion, and Down to Watch is taming the wild new TV shows just for you! Dan and Raul went down the list of new series' ready to pop off in month number three, as well as a handful of returning winners. There's a ton of comeback shows including Invincible, Somebody Feed Phil, Full Swing, X-Men '97, American Rust, Girls 5eva and Eugene Levy's travelogue The Reluct...