Always Be Watching

This is it. The final episode of the Always Be Watching podcast. And what an episode it is. 

Okay - don't expect much from this podcast. This is really just podcast host Dan Barrett advising the many ABW listeners that the podcast has concluded. You're invited to join Dan over at his new podcast: Screen Watching. 

It's like Always Be Watching, but with actual preparation.

Check out Screen Watching:
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/screen-watching/id1550706825
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3tzhggYbZbvpy7PaKSCeO7
Pocket Casts - https://pca.st/j9smac3m
RSS - https://anchor.fm/s/497d3220/podcast/rss

Thank you for listening.

This week on the podcast Dan is joined by returning guest Blake Howard (One Heat Minute and the All The President's Minutes podcast). The two of them take a deep dive into what's going on with The Mandalorian this season with a very specific focus on the recent episode 'The Jedi' which saw the live-action introduction of fan-favourite animated character Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson).

Dan then goes on to discuss the new Saved By The Bell reboot/follow-up series. Does it live up to the hype?

Blake talks up the new Aussie sketch comedy show Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun. And then swings back to discuss a show we talked about earlier this year: HBO's Perry Mason.

Michael Meloni pops by for this week to fill in for Chris Yates who is away on assignment. Dan and Mike discuss the new Netflix drama The Queens Gambit, as well as new films Love and Monsters, and The Wolf of Snow Hollow.

Dan and Chris are back for another Always Be Watching podcast. What treasures have they unearthed this week?

Dan celebrates the icon of white supremacy Pepe with the doco Feels Good Man. (This probably should have been reworded differently).

Chris celebrates an icon of capitalism and corporate propaganda with Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, which takes a deep dive into the making of the smash hit Disney+ series.

Dan wraps things up with Host - a genuinely scary film currently streaming on horror streamer Shudder.

It's a good one this week folks. Join us... won't you?

For more Always Be Watching, check us out on the web - www.alwaysbewatching.com. You can sign up to the daily ABW email there with TV and movie news, along with weekly highlights.

Always Be Watching is a Televised Revolution podcast.

The gang is back together. Dan and Chris have settled their differences and have decided it would be proper to once again talk about the TV and movies they have been watching.

This week:
Fargo Season 4 - FX, Hulu, SBS, SBS On Demand

Trial of The Chicago 7 - Netflix and in cinemas now

On The Rocks - Apple TV+ Fri 23 Oct and in cinemas now

Trolls World Tour - Peacock (US) and in cinemas now

Dan and Chris this week are joined by Mark Humphries. You probably know him best as the host of the beloved, but cancelled too-soon Ten game show Pointless. Or maybe you know him from his weekly satirical sketches on the ABCs flagship current affairs show 730. We know him as a guy who really loves talking about TV.

This week we discuss new movie I'm Thinking of Ending Things, documentary The Social Dilemma, and the animated comedy Close Enough. All are streaming on Netflix.

The podcast is a little different this week with returning guest Simon Foster stopping by to fill-in for an absent Chris Yates. We talk about the new Disney+ feature film Mulan, HBO's The Third Day, Netflix's My Octopus Teacher (which is less sexy than it has been suggested), and new Amazon Prime Video series Utopia.

We top this off with a brief chat about Simon's work on the upcoming film festivals:

Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival - https://www.facebook.com/events/1377776789090595

Monster Fest 2020 - https://www.monsterfest.com.au/events/mf2020-sydney/

We go deep into the nostalgia well this week. Apologies to our bountiful Gen Z listeners.

Bill & Ted Face The Music - In Cinemas Now and on VOD in the US (04:24)

Away - Netflix (23:11)

Cheers - On Stan in Australia, and on both Hulu and Peacock in the US (31:17)

Cobra Kai - Netflix (48:09)

Don't forget, you can find more Always Be Watching on the Internet (it comes on computers) at www.alwaysbewatching.com

It's that time of the week again for you to put down the remote control and slide into some headphones for another Always Be Watching podcast. And after you hear what we have to talk about, you'll be rushing back to your TV remote with some fresh ideas of interesting things to watch.

This week:
Raised By Wolves (HBO) - 03:17
Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga (Netflix) - 21:25
Lovecraft Country (HBO) - 30:50
Hoops (Netflix) - 50:02

Dan and Chris have taken to the microphones once more after spending the past week having taken to their couches. And what more... they have new and exciting things to discuss:

Tenet - In cinemas now (02:48)
High Score - Netflix (20:21)
Biohackers - Netflix (33:55)
Into The Unknown: The Making of Frozen 2 - Disney+ (41:15)

Spend more time with Always Be Watching with the daily newsletter - www.alwaysbewatching.com

Joining boy wonders Dan Barrett and Chris Yates in the ABW cave is the beyond lovely Mel Tait, the talented multi-hyphenate (ABC Radio host, playwright, and now co-host of the upcoming A Country Podcast). 

We quickly get talking about what we've been watching.

Sorry To Bother You (Streaming on Netflix) - 03:00

Staged (BBC) - 20:46

The Other Two (Comedy Central / Stan) - (45:44)

A Country Practice (Streaming on 7Plus) - (33:00)

This is Always Be Watching - a podcast in which two grown men offer their considerable opinions on the children's entertainment program about Muppets.

This week:
Muppets Now (Disney+) - 01:37
American Pickle (HBO Max / Cinemas) - 19:01
I Think You Should Leave (Netflix) - 29:30
Perry Mason (HBO) - 43:45

Find more Always Be Watching - www.alwaysbewatching.com

What's worth streaming this weekend? This podcast offers you nothing but answers.

This podcast is a bit of a trial. Do people want this? Please let me know.

It's a theme week as we travel back to the future.

We start things off with a look at the 2020 version of The Fugitive, looking at what it gets right and wrong as a property based on a 60s and 90s TV show/movie. (03:25)

But then we had back to 1986 for the Talking Heads movie True Stories. (24:47)

Dan's been watching Halt & Catch Fire - a mid 2010s show set in the 1980s. (41:35)

And then we look at what might be the final years of cinema as TV and cinema finally converge. (52:52)

Yeah - it's a big episode.

On the Always Be Watching Pod, officially the podcast of record that cites the viewing interests of Dan Barrett and Chris Yates, the two watchers discuss the new Netflix documentary series Fear City: New York vs The Mafia. Dan has a grab-bag of movies he has watched recently including Almost Famous, State & Main, and new Netflix film Desperados. Oh, and Chris finally caps of his weeks-long watching of all the Jaws movies with the much maligned Jaws 3 and Jaws 4. 

It was a bit of a quiet week for us watching new TV (there's so little of it around worth chatting about), but that didn't stop us getting passionate about the things we were actually watching.

Dan went to the cinema and saw all three Christopher Nolan Batman movies - Batman Begins/The Dark Knight/The Dark Knight Rises and his opinions on the films have shifted. (06:19)

Both Chris and Dan are really excited by the new podcast The Oral History of The Office. The two discuss watching the show and how the podcast has made them feel about the show. {31:34)

Rosehaven is one of the few really good Aussie comedies and both Dan and Chris are into it... with a few reservations. (58:32)

Yes, this show ran long. But the passion these boys have for what they've been watching - it runs deep. 

Put on your facemasks and get ready for another talk about all the TV and movies we've been watching.

This week at Always Be Watching HQ Dan and Chris have a chat about the new 2-part documentary Laurel Canyon and then speak with filmmaker Allison Ellwood about it. 

Dan and Chris also talk about new Netflix film The Old Guard and then the classic shark flick Jaws.

The biggest theatre event on the planet this month took place not at the currently shuttered theatre, but on people's TV screens thanks to Disney+. Across the world people were watching Hamilton. Dan and Chris were particularly interested in how one takes a live theatre performance and actually lets it be good on TV - not always an easy task.

Chris stumbled upon Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan and loved it. Oh, and Dan stayed up way too late with a red muppet talk show host named Elmo. 

This is the Always Be Watching podcast. No flipping.

The biggest show on the planet has been Floor is Lava - Dan and Chris have both watched the show and absolutely bought into its ridiculous simplicity. Obviously, Dan has some criticisms.

Floor is Lava is just one of several big format activity-based game shows on the air right now. Dan offers a rundown on what else is happening in this space at the moment.

HBO launched a new Perry Mason TV series. Dan has one big concern with it. Meanwhile Chris lavishes praise on the new Netflix Eric Andre special. And then it's time for a look back at Freaks & Geeks. How does it hold up 20 years later?

Bad boys! Whatcha gonna do?

Cops on TV have been around for as long as, well, as long as there has been TV. The cop show is unquestionably the most successful genre of TV, each week delivering morality plays with good guys vs bad guys are the lines that blur inbetween.

This week on Always Be Watching we talk about cop shows and what we want from them. 

Is Ramy the best show currently on TV? It's right up there, so Chris and Dan discuss the first episode of that. They also flashback to the 1983 film The Right Stuff. And then there's the fourth installment of the Trip To movies which takes Brydon and Coogan to Greece.

Oh yeah... there's also the season finale of the Always Be Watching TV Masters trivia competition.

To infinity and beyond! This week on the Always Be Watching podcast Dan and Chris want to get boots on the moon as they talk about the new Steve Carell comedy Space Force (02:30) - the critics hate it... Chris really digs it. Dan watched the buzzy new doco Spaceship Earth - spoiler alert: it's not really about people on a spaceship. They were on Earth all along (16:36). Chris raves about new animated comedy Central Park (25:31). And then the guys wrap up the reviewing portion of this podcast by talking about TV's most basic romcom: Love Life (32:01).

And then they quiz. (39:08)

The gang this week discover they're creating too much content for one podcast.

Chris finally gets off his keister and watches Superstore after Dan told him months ago that he'd love it. Spoiler alert: He loves it. (05:30)

And Dan revisits an HBO classic How To Make It In America. (18:50)

Why are they watching older shows this week? They found them on new Australian streaming service Binge. Dan and Chris offer their thoughts on it and delve into the morality of paying for a partially Murdoch-owned service. (28:26)

And then they wrap up the week with a trivia quiz. (47:35)

Television is the thing this year, my friends. And boy do we have some TV to talk about.

This week:

Mint Condition (Vimeo) - 01:55

The Great (Hulu / Stan) - 18:31

Avenue 5 (HBO / Foxtel / Binge) - 27:26

Into The Night (Netflix) - 34:20

I've been advised to tell you by the Always Be Watching legal team that this podcast episode passes the legal definition of "too much show".

This week Dan hits the streets of Paris and plays his jazz flute along with new Netflix drama The Eddy. Chris drops $10k on a verse that lets us know what new rap-industry comedy Dave is all about. Dan and Chris both tsk their fingers at Jerry Seinfeld's disappointing standup special 23 Hours To Kill. And they both gush over the new Ghost In The Shell anime series. And let me tell you: they did not expect that to be the case.

Oh, and there's a round of TV trivia at the end of the episode.

The Midnight Gospel is a stoner animated philosophical comedy on Netflix. Opinions on this podcast are mixed. There's also the brand new pre-teen detective show on Apple TV+ Home After Dark. Dan has some very firm opinions on that. Meanwhile Chris has watched Upload on Amazon Prime Video and has several very positive thoughts on it.

And then the lads play some TV trivia.

This week Dan checks out the hyped new shows Normal People (Netflix) and Upload (Amazon Prime Video) - the good news is that both are great telly. Meanwhile Chris indulges his Beastie Boys fandom with the new feature doco Beastie Boys Story (Apple TV+) and gets nostalgic with the 1997 cult film Starship Troopers.

Stick around for the end of the podcast as our weekly trivia game continues. This week's category is Dogs on Screen. Can you score more points than Dan? Let's find out.