Down To Watch

Sneaky stuff is afoot this week at Down to Watch! Dan and Raul dipped into the clandestine world of cloak and dagger, and have returned from the shadows with Citadel from Prime and The Night Agent streaming on Netflix. Citadel is a star-forward vehicle with a huge price tag and middling reviews that has two spinoffs in the works. The banter and action might be subpar, but do pretty faces from magazine covers make up for it? Also, The Night Agent flaunts similar tropes from the spy romance thriller playbook, but does a different cast and tone bring better results? This top-secret pod has been declassified just for you!

The barren summertime TV landscape has reared its dusty face again as we roll into June, but Down to Watch is an oasis of content, ready to quench the thirsty viewer. Dan and Raul put their safari hats on and properly searched for television programming to fill the hot days on the way and are pleased to see plenty of returning friends like Jack Ryan, that Witcher over there, our friend The Bear, and the gang from the ever-sunny Philadelphia. Some questionable company appears around HBO(?)'s controversy-saddled The Idol, and Secret Invasion may see Marvel struggle with a new slate of television, but there are some high hopes for everyone in The Crowded Room and a couple of Kate's. There's a lot of hot new shows, enough for everyone, but best come get it before it all evaporates!

This week on Down to Watch, there's double trouble to be found deep down! Dan and Raul are a few eps into a couple of new shows and have plenty to say about 'em. First up, the Cronenberg film Dead Ringers has a miniseries remake on Prime that has Rachel Weisz in the dual twin OB-GYNs, and the discussion covers the excellent acting and directing, the deeper themes and intense visuals, and some storytelling troubles the show may wander into. Over on the other show, society has retreated into the safety of Silo, the new post-nuclear apocalypse series on AppleTV+. There are plenty of inventive and exciting actors and situations, but the overarching story once again seems to stumble. Did these streaming services end up birthing modern classics, or is it an irradiated wasteland across our televisions? These guys know!

This week, Down to Watch is down with the Algorithm! Dan and Raul are lucky to have guest Hannah add her analysis to the DtW brain trust as they try and unravel the mysteries of the new Peacock original series Mrs. Davis. Betty Gilpin is a "cowboy nun" who serves as a possibly literal bride of Jesus at the convent by day and runs down scammer magicians outside of Reno by night when we are introduced to this wacky world. Mrs. Davis, an algorithmic AI that communicates to nearly all humans via earbud, has pretty much taken over the world and a particular interest in our protagonist Simone, formerly Lizzie. It's bloody, funny, irreverent, and action-packed, but does it have any depth behind the Coen Bros-esque incongruity and hyper-violence? These three podcasters know the trick!

Another month is upon us and DtW has it mapped out for you to safely travel across May with no new show unturned! Dan and Raul travel across content-continents to bring you the latest tales of series from the corners of the globe. They dive into an underground Silo to see the remnants of humanity, a reunion of Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne (formerly in the comedy film, Neighbors) as longtime friends, and check in on a loopy detective in the High Desert while they're in the neighborhood. There's some action in the DC area between the motley crews making up the Class of '09 and White House Plumbers, murder and arson in NY with a City on Fire, and L.A. lady soccer in Angel City. This pod is a great guide, even if it's a little all over the map!

Spring break is over, and Down to Watch is back with a history course from the great classical author Mel Brooks! Dan and Raul checked out History of the World Part 2, the new Hulu sequel series full of modern comedy stars, as well as the original hit film full of vintage comedy greats. Part 1, the '81 anthology film, is an avalanche of old gags both classic and dated, and great fodder for conversation about comedy styles past and present. The new class of internet jokesters and sitcom stars swing for the fences to match the manic energy of the original and the guys debate whether they achieve it. There's at least fifteen good reasons to listen... Ten! Ten good reasons to check out this pod! 

This week on Down to Watch, slap some steaks on the grill cuz we got Beef! Dan and Raul and guest-extraordinaire Natalia are all pretty into the new Netflix road rage series starring Ali Wong and Steven Yuen, and they're real heated about it, in a good way. The show centers around a couple of rotten people who cross paths and decide to ruin each other, while letting their humanity slip through the cracks as their war consumes the relatable jerks that surround them. Spoilers abound because two of the three hosts have seen it all the way through, and the conversation includes whether spoilers ruin things, why this show is of the moment, and of course, what happens at the end! Check it out!

This week, Down to Watch is all about fate and fandom! Dan and Raul grabbed a couple shows off the April upcomings heap that might be instant classics and are back with their thoughts. First off, The Big Door Prize has a small town flipped upside down when a futuristic machine that appeared out of nowhere starts handing out cards with everyone's potential written on it. This slightly sci-fi beat seems to be just a catalyst for a feel-good story about achieving untapped dreams, and how striving might affect the world around the characters of this surreal-ish world. Quite in contrast, the dreamlike sequences new series Swarm are usually harbingers of tragedy or violence as the buzzing of the bees in one superfan's head lead to a string of murders in what the series assures us is a true story. The death of her best friend leads a socially unmoored and mentally disturbed lead character to portray a tale of misguided vengeance in a toxic world. Does the talent on display in these new shows raise them to grand prize status, or was all the buzz just hype? That's what this podcast is for!

Things are starting to heat up in April after a brutal winter, and luckily DTW has you covered with some hot new TV shows that include a Florida Man (Netflix) resolving some criminal matters, a Beef (Netflix) involving a traffic accident gone too far, and a pair of 80’s movies being remade as TV shows: Cronenberg fresh retread of Dead Ringers (Amazon) with Rachel Weisz playing twin sisters & the steamy Fatal Attraction (Paramount+) with Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Kaplan.  Doc series this month aplenty with controversial ex-NBA player JR Smith going back to school and playing golf (Redefined: JR Smith, Amazon), and the legendary hip-hop rapper/producer/artist J.Dilla getting a feature-length over on FX/Hulu.  A diverse month of options means something for everyone, and thus no chance for any bitchin’ about nothing to stream: get out there and get watching!

This week on DtW, the Down of Us are finishing season one of the huge HBO game adaptation, The Last of Us! Dan, Raul, and gaming guru Jonnie are together again at the end of a beautiful and gut-wrenching journey, following Joel and Ellie as they make their way across a zombie America: fungus edition. The guys kick around the difficulty of adapting an interactive medium, like gaming, into a passive one you only watch before diving into the final episode themes and ideas and prognosticate where the series might go from the emotional finale. Does this ep draw comparisons between many different types of storytelling? Yes! Does it compare Ellie to Grogu? Nope!