Down To Watch

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!