Down To Watch

The snowy winter wonderland can hide deadly secrets behind its shine, and Down to Watch has enlisted Doc Ock to reveal them! This week, Dan and Raul are checking out what's happening in Three Pines, a new small-town murder mystery show with Alfred Molina as an investigator applying a kind but sharp mind to the tight-knit community of suspects. The real mystery here is whether this show is shiny enough to sparkle next to the great detective series it attempts to emulate. The solution lies between the opening music and goodbyes on this podcast! Listen and find out!

Down to Watch has a couple of gifts left in this holiday season, and a peek under the tree reveals a couple of Disney-wrapped packages for good TV nerds! Dan and Raul need another set of hands to handle ripping the wrapping paper off these Star Wars, and MCU-shaped presents, so they're lucky to find Jonnie halfway down the chimney. He's here to talk about the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, a throwback pastiche of the initially maligned cult classic Star Wars Holiday Special but painted with the James Gunn/Marvel palette. Speaking of a galaxy far, far away, the main chat this week is about Andor, possibly the first foray into the world of lightsabers and wookies aimed squarely at adults. Between space-based holiday antics and legitimate revolutionary drama happening Vader-adjacent, this week is stuffed like a stocking!

Down to Watch has one more monthly look-forward as December brings 2022 to a close. Dan and Raul have a collection of new and returning shows that should give everyone good reason to stay cozy indoors for the rest of the year. It might be opening presents next to any of the gifts Taylor Sheridan has given us, like Harrison Ford in the new 1923. Perhaps a big blanket and mugs of hot cocoa go great with some crime solving by Alfred Molina in Three Pines. It could be time travelling to slave-era Kindred, spying around with Jack Ryan and some Treason with DareDevil or even whatever Hot Skull is, all beneath the glow of colorful lights. It's the season of year-end tv and this is the pod to get you to 2023!

DtW had a little horror left over from trick 'r treating, but maybe saved the best treat for the end in the surprising and terrifying, Barbarian! Dan and Raul need a female perspective to appreciate this thriller and Natalia's back to drop some wisdom on the fellas. In this sleeper hit that recently arrived on HBO Max, traveler Tess finds herself at a double-booked rental house containing Keith, played by Bill "Pennywise" Skaarsgard as only the first in a series of stressful and fraught encounters that go from dangerous and uncomfortable to wildly shocking and frightening. Does this scary tale from a comedy-based director deserve the praise it has seen since its release or is it just a flash in the pan during an "elevated-horror" renaissance? If any two people plus guests know the answer, it's probably in this ep!

Down to Watch is so thankful for a November full of new shows to help us get to the turkey Thursday and black Friday that kick off the holiday season! Dan and Raul lined up a feast for pod listeners, including possible main dishes like The English, a Prime series about two unlikely frontier partners getting some grit in their bellies, which pairs great with the returning western from the same creator, Yellowstone. The side dishes are not to be missed either, including some Weird recipes mixed in (great for a Wednesday), a bounty of practical effects with the return of Willow, washed down with a Pepsi, (sans jet) and all in the company of a Tulsa King and The People You Hate at a Wedding. The table is set, come get your plate!

This deep into spooky season, DtW has been mesmerized by two vampire shows that just got started! Dan and Raul round out October offerings with a couple of charming blood suckers and their misadventures among people who fear and love them, sometimes at the same time even. First up, a reimagining of Anne Rice's bestselling and 90s movie classic, Interview with the Vampire, now streaming on AMC+. This time race and gender relations of 1910s New Orleans serve as a backdrop for the story of a man falling to the allure of vampirism, with all its violence, power and pleasure. Next is another remake of a book-made-film into a series, called Let the Right One In, a beloved film being filled out to make a world with a larger story to tell. Demian Bichir plays a father with a little girl who hides from the sun, thirsts for blood and is desperate to settle into a livable existence despite the danger she poses to people, including her young neighbor friend. Will the horrors of existing as a creature of the night ruin the lives of our protagonists while telling us something about human life and love? Probably, plus they're gonna drink some people!

The DtW crew includes Jonnie this week, which can only mean one thing: basketball talk! Before any of that though, everyone saw She Hulk and Werewolf by Night, a season of fourth wall breaking super hero legal comedy and a throwback, short creature feature in the vein of Universal Horror, respectively. These new entries to the MCU canon via Disney+ are hinting at the future of the franchise, so naturally the guys go sorting through the clues to see what all this comic book genre jumping means for the Marvel future. Finally, Dan and Jonnie saw The Redeem Team on Netflix and wanna share with Raul what they thought about this new doc centered around a wild time in US Olympic basketball. Could The Avengers pull off an upset win against the 2008 USA team in the gold medal game? Maybe these guys know!

Dan and Raul are joined by super-guest Hannah in Los Angeles as they celebrate Beyond Fest 2022 just before a movie screening.  The gang had a full weekend of filmgoing and saw Gravity in Imax @ the Imax headquarters in Culver City, Trick 'r Treat @ the Hollywood Legion theater for a 15th anniversary celebratory screening and Q&A with the director, and lastly put a bow on the weekend with a double feature of Park Chan Wook's revenge trilogy classics Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance.   This festival is one of the best in the country for genre films so if you are in or can be in LA during the end of September and early October on any given year you are in for a treat!

The Star Wars universe is full of space wizards and adorable baby green aliens, but ultimately returns to the stories of revolution against an oppressive Empire again and again. This week, Down to Watch checks in on another entry into Disney's continued expansion of the galaxy far, far away with the guerilla crew that sets off the whole Rebellion in Disney+'s, Andor. Cassian Andor, from the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is back to expand on his backstory that eventually culminates with his team delivering the Death Star plans that Darth Vader captures Princess Leia for in the first scene of the first movie of the franchise! Is this a deep dive into grittier stories from within the canon or another cash grab from the House of Mouse? Spoilers, it's the first one, but you should listen to us talk about it too!