Down To Watch

Down to Watch is drivin' through August with the tank full, the guns loaded, and a little bit of horror in tow! Dan and Raul open the show with a little "elevated horror" talk in honor of the film Talk to Me, a movie that rides between fun, scary flick, and indie arthouse horror film and has both audiences and critics praising it. Then the motors get runnin', and the drivers get gunnin' in Twisted Metal, adapted from a plot-thin destruction derby video game into a Peacock original with some star power and little holding it back. The story of a world after an early 2000s apocalypse where people in killer cars are all playing Mad Max outside the safety of the walled cities, and the strange characters we find running amok there. Does this show keep the levels and flavor of weirdness just right, or is this wild ride teetering on becoming a wreck of smashed-up nonsense? Either way, these guys know!

Down to Watch is back to the heavenly hosts and their sinister counterparts in Good Omens Season 2! Dan and Raul watched the first two eps to catch up on David Tennant's demon Crowley, his existence-long angel friend Aziraphale (Michael Sheen), and apparently a butt-naked John Hamm back as the amnesiac Archangel Gabriel. When the memory-wiped angel lands at Mr. Fell's door, the best bud protagonists worry that the holy and evil alike will descend on them, ruining their peace. A bit of miraculous magic sets up a season's worth of antics to be laid out alongside recaps of the pair's history, and while the trips down memory lane illustrating the flowering friendship of the two charming leads are executed terrifically, is it enough for the second season to hang a whole halo on if the main story loses its wings? The answers and more angelic analogies are on this pod!

This week, Down to Watch is full of shifty imposters with the Disney+ series Secret Invasion! Dan and Raul are dipping back into the MCU, so they meet who they believe to be the real Jonnie (Dan and Jonnie open the show with a brief discussion of BarbenHeimer) as they discuss the ups and downs of a Marvel series that is seeing mixed reactions. Sam Jackson's Nick Fury feels responsible for a new threat to the safety of Earth; this time in the form (or forms?) of the shape-shifting Skrull race of aliens who have taken the places of prominent figures in the world. While "Nobody calls me," Nick promised them a home world in exchange for spywork on our planet, he also disappeared for five years thanks to Thanos, and in the meantime, the Skrulls left behind have begun their takeover. Does Fury still have what it takes to carry a show that feels like it should have been a movie? If the DTW hosts are who they say they are, the answer is likely on this pod!

Down to Watch has possibly the last full upcoming shows pod for the foreseeable future, and we support unions trying to get a fair shake out of the obscenely wealthy studios, fun stuff! In the meantime, Dan and Raul are looking forward to a ton of returning favorites, like more action on Physical, an increasingly dangerous domicile in Only Murders in the Building, more purple and gold history in Winning Time, one last season with the Reservation Dogs and a bunch more! New shows are a bit light in quantity but Ahsoka is the big Disney show of the season, and Netflix has One Piece showing off another attempt at anime adaptation. Creators Dan Harmon, Shea Serrano (or is it a movie?), and the Safdie Bros are all behind new shows, so there's plenty to talk about on the pod before the shows all go awaaaaaay!

Gunfighters beware, cuz Down to Watch rolled back into town with Raylan Givens in tow! Dan and Raul dive into the world of Elmore Leonard adaptations with another outlaw-hunting adventure in Justified: City Primeval. The new miniseries, broadcasting on FX and streaming on Hulu, returns to the holster of the fastest draw in Harlan County as he trades fast banter and much faster bullets with a collection of criminals and lowlives. Having been transplanted to Detroit for the length of the story, Timothy Olyphant is tasked with pulling off the previous show's success without his stable of scene partners and against a villain with a very high Boyd Crowder bar to clear. Is actor Boyd Holbrook bringing enough to live up to more than just a matching first name, and can they hit the bullseye again after an 8-year absence? This pod takes dead aim at answering that after only two eps!

Down to Watch is on a plane this week and it's been taken! Dan and Raul watched a few episodes of the new AppleTV+ series led by Luther himself, Hijack! Idris Elba is some sort of a highly talented business negotiator who's gotta maneuver a bunch of randos who apparently have a plan to take a plane traveling from Dubai to Heathrow. If that wasn't enough, his wife is carrying around with a cop man to her son's chagrin, the pilot and the stewardess are also fooling around on the side, tough guys, worried ladies, and some kids who are just as bad as their parents! This show might carry the audience through a complex, fascinating conundrum or fumble the specifics of the scary situation with cheesy choices; who knows? Maybe the guys on this pod do!

Down to Watch is ready for a big dang summer! Dan and Raul are scanning the sunny horizon for the most interesting and unique shows during the lean months of the television year, and the new Prime series I'm a Virgo is an oasis of originality.

A giant black teenager grows up watching a world of exaggerated culture and politics from the safety of his hidden backyard. His parents fear a world that hunts down giants, but a teen's gonna teen, and soon enough, Cootie, the 13-foot-tall 19-year-old, is riding with friends, smoking weed, and tackling a world that wants to use him.

Walton Goggins and Mike Epps lend impressive performances to class up the joint, but this is an absurdist comedy with many strange layers & angles. Strange enough for you? Listen and find out!

Half the year has already scampered past, and the summer months are famously bereft of quality content on the small screens. Thankfully, Down to Watch has Dan and Raul to dive deep and find the worthwhile stories that will fill the sunny season. This month there's plenty of returning shows to be excited about; specifically, the conversation bops around Futurama's brainy eps, another round of Raylan Givens givin' justice in Justified, some metaphysical fun represented in more Good Omens and What We Do in the Shadows, and the fascinating observations of How To with John Wilson. New shows were slimmer pickings, but the guys come through with a trippy true crime caper, The Horrors of Dolores Roach, some shady kidnappings among the rich in Full Circle, and another game adaptation with Twisted Metal. That's literally all the shows on the list, so go listen now!

This week the Down to Watch crew is checking out alt-versions of animated worlds in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse! Marvel guide Jonnie joins Dan and Raul to dive into one of the year's most loved films. The continuing story of Miles Morales meeting other spider-people hits several bumps in the road in a story about finding your place in the world, connecting with your family, and forging your path. Does this foray into the wider multiverse that the MCU will eventually pillage earn all the adoration it has gotten from audiences and fans? These are the best versions of these hosts to tell you about it!

Down to Watch is a 90s throwback podcast this week with the cult classic Dark City! Dan and Raul meet a collection of young Kiefers' and Connellys' darting around dark alleys in what looks at first to be an amnesia-based whodunit noir but quickly reveals the sci-fi mind trip it was hiding under its hat like a translucent alien bug. The themes of individualism and free will aren't the only things this movie has in common with The Matrix, and the guys discuss how the two films share sets, storylines, and more. So does the indie look allow this fan favorite to remain evergreen, or do the dated effects and odd acting choices fail to hold up to our memories? Only one way to find out, and it's not a needle to the dome!