Down to Watch lines up an evening of scares with 2011's Fright Night! Dan and Raul are squaring a spooky circle they started last year with the 1985 original by checking out the second go-round with Colin Farrell, Toni Collette, Imogen Poots and Anton Yelchin in the main roles (we still get an Ed but lose a Billy). This retry at a horror version of Rear Window has the advantage of 20+ years of horror history to draw inspiration and experience from in order to turn this send up of b-movies that ended up as one itself by addressing the mistakes of the first and bringing these characters into the 2010s, an ideal position for a cast and crew to tackle the dreaded remake. Do these modern filmmakers make good on the promise of a clever premise and talented cast or is this an uninspired rehash of the first foray into fang territory? Vegas odds are good!
This week, DtW is going to Alaska to see about some chairs! Dan and Raul caught a couple of pilot episodes for The Last Frontier and The Chair Company. In Frontier, we revisit the idea of a bunch of Cons in the Air when a prison transport crashes near remote Faibanks, and Frank the local marshalls have to contend with dangerous fugitives in the area while an arriving CIA agent has to lock down one specific asset she's lost. Codenamed Havelock, this asset was added to the transport roster at the last minute and he's got skills that make him very dangerous to the rest of the cast. On the other side, The Chair Company sees the perennially intense and awkward Tim Robinson take his over the top characters into a long form story about shame, aging and how hard you can freak out without throwing everything away. Lead character Ron has an embarrassing event escalate into an absolute collapse of decorum while he runs down a seemingly real conspiracy surrounding the titular company. What do these shows have in common? They're on this pod!
This week on Down to Watch, it's a dangerous business being a truthstorian! Dan and Raul caught a couple eps of The Lowdown, Hulu's new drama from the creator of Mare of Easttown. The cool new series follows Ethan Hawke as an indie reporter getting the dirt on the powerful people in town. He's great at lots of things, like being a dad, getting the scoop, and receiving a whooping. But how many punches to the face make a great reporter in this promising new tale based loosely on a true story? Maybe this pod knows!
Spooky season is upon us and Down to Watch is rattling up some new TV! Dan and Raul have sifted through the tricks and treats of October and have filled your round plastic pumpkin pale with a bit of everything. There's Tim Robinson getting weird at The Chair Company, Pennywise making people feel Welcome to Derry and something like Con Air redux in The Last Frontier. Scary stuff includes animated Avengers with a hankering for brains while the theaters welcome back some freaky favorites. There's docs and true stories and a cartoon about spies so make sure to double check your haul and dig in!
This week, DtW has just one Task! Dan and Raul previewed the new HBO crime/family drama in the monthly upcoming TV shows ep and after hearing good things about the premiere, it's time to tackle the first two eps. The story follows dual protags with mirrored lives, as a priest turned FBI agent searches for a crew robbing trap houses in the area led by a secretly vengeful family man down on his luck. Both characters have heavy and complicated tragedies hanging over them while the dope dealers make moves against them. Does the drug house have a nice score within or did we come up empty handed and running for our lives? It is your TASK to listen!
This week, Down to Watch isn't afraid to go back in the water after 50 years of Jaws! Dan and Raul reminisce about the first blockbuster that set the stage for a summer of big budget blowouts, a series of sequels and copycats and a lifetime of Spielberg flicks. Bruce, the big mechanical shark that didn't work right during production, is the star here as the world learned to be afraid of even land-locked bodies of water, but there's plenty passed the gray-skinned chomper to praise regarding one of the most influential and beloved horror movies ever. Is it worth releasing to theaters a half-century after it's first swim in the sea? Heck yes! And more, so listen up!
This week the DtW crew is out of the office but into The Paper! Dan and Raul are subscribed to the new spinoff from The Office, borrowing the creator and a single character from the original show. Greg Daniels continues to draw attention thanks to the legendary status of the original program, despite his previous attempt in Space Force falling well short of his original hit with Steve Carrell. This time he brought Oscar along for a look at a branching story about paper, a fading newspaper in this case, owned by a company more interested in delivering quality toilet paper rather than reporting. Is this the social bend Daniels needed to take with his next project or are we missing the hook of empathizing with lives that resemble those of it's audience? Extra, extra, the answers are within this pod!
It's back to school time again, and despite societal collapse it still means new TV shows for DtW to talk about! Dan and Raul are happy to see returning friends from Tulsa royalty to multi-unit based murderers but the real fun is in all the new friends to be made. There's a serious Task from the Mare of Easttown creator, a Billionaire's Bunker from them that made Money Heist and The Paper from The Office's originators. The Savant is searching for killers, Chad Powers is trying to find a second chance and Epic Ride: Universal is looking to push your nostalgia buttons. We bet you can find something to watch in this episode, so let's get back to it!
It's all synth and sunglasses on Down to Watch this week as the summer heat is the perfect temp for a trip to 90s Florida! Dan and Raul watched the pilot and season 4 finale of the original Miami Vice TV series, a show that gave us slick detectives, fast cars and boats, and hit tunes to fill out a crime drama with a new feel. The cultural impact of this show was so great that Crockett and Tubbs became names even people who have never seen the show can recognize, and the style of Miami Vice has been honored with homages, spoofs and ripoffs throughout the next decades of TV history. All that said, does the show still hold up as a fun and cool undercover cop show or has it's cover been blown as a dated exercise in cringe? Give in to your vices and give it a listen!
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 shows worth finding out about, so have a listen and check em out!
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!