Down To Watch

September is getting spooky sooner than expected this week on Down to Watch! Dan and Raul are happy to have Jonnie back as usual and he's got some thoughts on the latest nostalgia sequel in theaters, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. The ghost with the most is back and the reception has been mostly positive but it's time to see what DtW thinks about Keaton wigging up again. Of course, no visit from this pod favorite guest is complete without a peek into the MCU and the guys are ready to talk spells, psychics, and scarlet witches because Agatha All Along has arrived to scare up some good old witchy fun with that Disney superhero studio money. Does it add up to the Marvel equivalent of TV magic or are we watching illusions and misdirects? These guys might know!

This week we're Down to Watch a buncha punks! Dan and Raul take a trip back in time with The Decline of Western Civilization, a 1981 doc filmed from within the Los Angeles punk scene as it was cresting on a wave of drugs, violence, art, and energy so potent the LAPD chief at the time forbade the film's screening. Through interviews, gig footage, and crowd interactions, filmmaker Penelope Spheeris managed to capture one of the most authentic portrayals of a musical movement ever seen on film and does it impressively despite such an unwieldy and abstract genre. This pod is a conversation in admiration and fun for sure, but if the documentary sounds interesting, it's free on YouTube!

Time to look ahead to September with the Down to Watch crew as the fall TV season starts to get in gear. Dan and Raul scraped the internet's endless lists to figure out the best in new streaming and even some old-fashioned network shows. There's plenty of real-world drama in docs like Mr. McMahon, Child Star, and American Sports Story, big moments at the Emmys, and more funny news from Roy Wood Jr.  Lot of tough guys coming back, too, from Tulsa Kings to an Old Man and even a Walking Dead. We got Japanese women's wrestling, modern British court drama, Colin Farrell's Penguin, so much Ryan Murphy and was it Agatha All Along!?! Maybe! Better listen! 

Deep into August, the DtW team treks into the 80s with a film that resonates with an audience of a certain age, The NeverEnding Story! Dan and Raul are both interested in the legacy left by one of a few fantasy flicks they remember as formative for their age group and dove into the world of Fantasia. Old-school fantasy story beats mix with ahead-of-their-time tropes like meta-narratives and crossing realities when a bookish kid hides from the world with a stolen book that literally places the reader at the center of the story. Does it hold up? Can it live up to the memory of one host and the expectations of another after a lifetime of hearing about Atreyu and Artax swashbuckling across our imaginations? Is there... an ending??? These guys answer some of those questions, maybe!

Summers in Florida are sweaty and sweltering, so this week, DtW is watching a new Sunshine State series on the TV with the A/C cranked! Dan and Raul caught their old friend Vince Vaughn sneaking around outer Miami in search of clues on Bad Monkey, a sunny murder mystery with the A-Lister as a motormouth detective who's off the force for a litany of reasons. The first two episodes have dropped to more than some acclaim while drawing comparisons to a number of previous shows that might denote a little less quality. So, did AppleTV+ manage to sneak in some quality noir around the fast-talking banter and baby turtle facts, or should this show have been successfully delivered to the gators only a few feet from the highway? Mayhaps the hosts can shine an unconventional streetlight on this!

This week, DtW has a couple of premieres from the TV Premieres ep that stood out to our intrepid hosts. First, Dan and Raul are back into the "A-Lister on TV" trend as Natalie Portman tries out the small screen in a dark drama tying two murders together while Natty Ports' harranged housewife discovers her purpose in Lady in the Lake. A good-looking production filled with quality acting has a few interesting twists, including a narrator who does double duty as one of the victims, but this is a well-worn genre, and star power doesn't guarantee success. On the other hand, a series remake of a fantasy film from the 80s from a Monty Python alum is in no danger of being overwhelmed by mainstream attention, but a cult following for the source material and a snappy script for the whole family might make Time Bandits a show worth recommending. There are so many unique flavors between these two shows that it's something that stands out for anyone! Check it out!

This week, DtW comes to a turning point, a fork stuck in the road, as time passes by and the world watches the Fox Marvel films come to an end with Deadpool & Wolverine! Dan and Raul have Jonnie back to say bye, bye and bye to cameos and references galore as the fourth wall-breaking Merc with a Mouth arrives in a second sequel made for MCU and comic fans alike. In this one, the couple of ramblin men in the title travel across dimensions in a bid to save what the hosts eventually believe is Marvel 10005, his home universe from the TVA, Professor X's in utero twin and a host of other characters from other continuities, franchises and even mediums! Red and Wolvie arrive like a prayer, just when comic book movies need the fans to believe in them again. Does it work? Are they back!?! Did they save the MCU with the power of love!!?!! Listen and find out, bub.

Summer is sliding into home as the sun bears down upon us and Down to Watch has the lineup for your August TV rotation! Dan and Raul are looking for home runs in a month of expected ground outs, and hopefully there's a series that can give you a bit of relief from the hazy heat. Over in the real world, Max is taking a listen to Elizabeth Taylor's Lost Tapes and the New York Times wants to Lie to Fly, while the animated scene has some big franchises trying for triples with Rick & Morty, The Terminator and Batman entries. A month that starts with Good Girls and ends in Kaos, with tons of returning shows worth mentioning, is coming out of the bullpen to save the season! More baseball metaphors!

This week Down to Watch veers off the path of "Essential 80s" for something a little strange and different but nonetheless classic & cult with The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension! Dan and Raul are astounded at the talent level in this esoteric lampshade placed on spy, musical, sci-fi, and romance genres while kinda spoofing serials in general. There's a ton of recognizable faces in this goofy romp from genre films like Doc Brown, Doc Brundle, and the titular Robocop, as well as character actors galore, but the film is filled with sorta-jokes, references to never-seen characters and events, and a decent amount of cultural confusion that doesn't necessarily play as cleanly today. Did our intrepid hosts survive traipsing across genres and comedic sensibilities to arrive at a satisfying film, or is there a reason this never reached the successful film dimension? Can this level of acting talent turn a flighty script and some improv asides into film history? Do aliens call humans monkey boys??? Answers within this pod!

Down to Watch is back in business, and that business is refrigerrr...robotics, actually! Dan and Raul followed Rashida Jones into a tragic mystery centered around the bot-building company Imatech and her late husband's classified research in the new AppleTV+ series Sunny. American ex-pat misanthrope Suzie deals with life in Japan (as well as in a near future where robot helpers abound) after a plane crash has taken the lives of her Japanese engineer husband, Masa, and their young son. As the world around her tries to help assuage her pain with culturally unfamiliar customs, clues begin to drop about Masa's secret life that led to him leaving her with a bespoke AI robot, Sunny. The company is hiding killer robots, her mother-in-law is busy destroying clues, and now the Yakuza is involved? This show is wrapping cool music, bouncy sci-fi concepts, and dark humor around an investigation into grief processing, and we're here to talk about it!