Down To Watch

This week, Down to Watch gets back to looking ahead! With both strikes over as of recording, Dan and Raul are happy to see the writers and actors get back to doing what they're supposed to: filling this pod's monthly upcoming TV premiere' episodes! While one host looks forward to the return of favorites such as For All Mankind (AppleTV+), The Crown (Netflix), and Fargo (FX on HULU), the other host found some genre fun in new series' like Los Billis (Prime), Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (AppleTV+), Beacon 23 (MGM+?, yes) and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix). They also discuss another Nathan Fielder joint liable to [The] Curse (Showtime) your sanity, a Las Vegas bomb squad too Obliterated (Netflix) to do their jobs, and a mystery right out of an Agatha Christie novel set at the [Murder at the] End of the World (FX on HULU). It's short as far as upcoming TV premiere episodes go, but there's still plenty to look forward to!

This week, the gang's all about that animated padawan turned live-action lightsaber swinger they call Ahsoka! Dan, Raul, and Jonnie are all caught up on the latest Disney+ series to take place in a galaxy "far, far away," and the reviews are definitely mixed. Taking place over a decade after Return of the Jedi, the new series looks to fill in some gaps left by the films and continues some stories seen in the other Disney+ titles like The Mandalorian and Andor, but the continued reliance on the Skywalker storyline and skipping around within the timeframe of that tale may begin to prove confusing or taxing on viewers. Despite that, there are plenty of good moments between Ahsoka and her band of cartoon friends, now portrayed by mostly excellent actors handling a very Star Wars-y script. Does it land on the good side of the space cheesiness we love about it, or did this one come out stinky from the start? The force is strong in these podcasters!

This week on DtW, houses fall and generations... v? Dan and Raul are back on the streaming scene with two new shows making waves on the socials. First up, the world of The Boys dips into higher education with the university-based superhero academy show Gen V on Prime. As usual for this world of metaphysical debauchery and depression, the powers that the kids at Godolkin University, God U for short, come with dark origins and karmic retributions. The first ep alone has many tragic events surrounded by the fun and drama of starting a new school, and the show ties back to the main series while keeping a unique identity. Over on the big red N, modern horror stalwart Mike Flannagan has delivered another scary story with The Fall of the House of Usher. An Edgar Allan Poe adaptation (or several) by way of Severance and similar stories, Bruce Greenwood stars as the patriarch of a Pharma family plagued by diabolical deaths. Two shows that promise creative kills and gore aplenty just in time for the spookiest day of the year!

Forgiveness is hard this week on Down to Watch, but fighting aliens is harder! Dan and Raul watched the new Hulu sci-fi thriller No One Will Save You, and they have some words to say about the artistic flourish the film takes. Small-town girl Brynn is dodging her fellow townies due to a plot that will be revealed, but she has to put her hesitations aside when she kills an invading alien in her family home where she lives alone. None of this matters too much, as the 90-minute run time is dedicated to fight scenes between a creative version of the classic gray aliens and an updated version of Home Alone's Kevin. It's smart and fast-paced but will the film's tractor beam pull you in? These guys might know!

This episode of Down to Watch is declared to be required listening for fans of good TV 'By Order Of THE PEAKY BLINDERS!!!' During this slow period of new TV, the guys are catching up on some instant classics from the golden age of streaming, and while Dan is getting to experience the successes and follies of the Shelby clan for the first time, Raul is an old (red, right) hand at the comings and goings of the Small Heath heathens. This is a show deserving of the admiration it gets if only for the amount of fun it squeezes into a small story of family drama surrounded by the violent and vicious machinations that come with a rising criminal empire. Listen up or Danny Whizz-bang is gonna come for ya!

Spooky season starts early on Down to Watch with witches, zombies, and creepy vibes across two new shows! Dan and Raul checked back with a couple of TV offerings they highlighted in the September TV Premieres ep, to solidly scary results. First up, AppleTV+ has Lakeith Stanfield fighting memories, mystical wishes, and witches by the lake when his wife makes the unfortunate decision to make 3 wishes in a horror thriller. As an 8 episode series that starts with a visual flair, the series is poised to tell a taught and terrifying tale, but the many different parts might not fit perfectly if the critics are to be believed. In the meantime, over on an entirely different streamer, fan-favorite Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead has ended up on an entirely new continent and in his spinoff! He's trekking through France after an as-yet-untold event saw him overboard when he runs into a mix of acid-blooded zombies, weapon-wielding nuns, a few groups of people with bad intentions for him, and possibly a new world savior...? That might even be a savior; we are in Europe, after all!

This week (dundundun) Down to watch (dunDUNDUN) is fightin' cyborgs for the fate of 80s Earth! Dan and Raul slipped back to the days of big hair, synth tunes and a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original James Cameron series starter, The Terminator. More famous as the launching point for its worldwide smash of a sequel, the original film sees a less lethal Sarah Connor being singled out by time-traveling murderbots bent on killing the mother of the general who would see them defeated before he was even conceived. Time travel rules, 80s culture, and the future of sci-fi film are all on display in this classic mix of slasher and science fiction, but do these parts still come together as a fun film, or is this an artifact of a young director poised for massive success? Answers possibly await within one possible version of this!

This week on Down to Watch, the climate conversation EXPLODES! Dan and Raul watched the indie film How to Blow Up a Pipeline, based on the Swedish nonfiction book that some might say is a call to excessive action. The story follows a group of young adults with various reasons for banding together to commit admitted acts of terrorism in response to a generation of despair after being handed over a wasted planet and grim future. The gritty realism in the acting and filmmaking does a great job of revealing sympathetic reasoning over a series of flashbacks, but do the filmmakers do enough to put you on the side of domestic bombers? That probably comes up on this pod! 

This week DtW is going Deep Cover on the incognito tip! Dan and Raul travel back in time but stay in the state of CA for a 90s crime drama with a famous theme song. Lawrence Fishburne, going by Larry back when Deep Cover came out in 1992, plays a cop who saw his stickup thief father shot down while criming and has devoted himself to the law. However, in this exaggerated 90s Los Angeles crack game, he's been assigned to put his morality aside and lean into the crazy characters and costumes of this sordid street parable. Does this count as a legit crime classic with an early gangsta rap feel or is it a mishmash of cultural curiosities from the time? Maybe these two hosts have both opinions!

The Down to Watch pod for September! Dan and Raul are back with some new Fall shows that are about to drop, and despite the strikes and the TV seasons changing, there's enough to keep any TV fan chasin' the clouds away. Right off the bat, The Changeling is a creepy and mysterious drama that will keep our friend Darius from Atlanta pretty terrified. Later in the month, the Morning Show and Wrexham series have new seasons lined up. The Walking Dead, John Wick, and The Boys have spinoffs starting in Daryl Dixon, The Continental, and Gen V, respectively, and animation has a moment with Krapopolis and Castlevania: Nocturne. A few more new shows and returning favorites round out the conversation, but you won't know which unless you listen to this pod!