Movie homework with fast friend energy.
You Have to Watch This Podcast runs on movie assignments, pop-culture detours, and three friends arguing their way toward a take. The film of the week matters, but so does the tangent that starts with game music and somehow lands on Superman.
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You Have to Watch This Podcast is a film-discussion hangout built around a simple assignment: someone has to watch a movie they missed. That setup keeps the show loose, because the main review is only part of the fun. Alan, Ryan, and Devin usually begin with life updates, recent viewing, convention stories, superhero chatter, or whatever joke was already in motion before the intro. Then the movie takes over, more or less. Recent picks swing from Kate & Leopold to What You Wish For, Superman Returns, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Madame Web, Hook, X, and episodes about childhood favorites. The range is part of the identity. A romantic comedy can lead to actor trivia and Marvel side quests. A Superman episode can start with video-game soundtracks and food news before landing on the legacy of a franchise entry. A horror conversation can spend time on rural setting, slow-burn pacing, genre style, and how much tension a viewer can personally tolerate. The panel talks quickly, but the rhythm stays welcoming. People correct themselves. Someone remembers a detail. Someone else questions the category, the title, the franchise label, or the emotional logic of a scene. That back-and-forth gives the show a lived-in feeling that more formal review podcasts often sand down. It is not trying to sound like a lecture. It is trying to capture the way movie friends actually talk when one title opens a dozen smaller doors. Nostalgia gets treated with affection and suspicion at the same time. Childhood favorites are allowed to matter because they were childhood favorites, not because they need to become masterpieces in adulthood. The show also has room for tribute episodes, especially when Maggie Smith gives the panel a reason to revisit a beloved film. Its best moments come from recognition: a line, a soundtrack cue, a casting choice, a bad franchise decision, or the sudden realization that memory swapped one Peter Pan story for another. The result is warm, busy, and opinionated without turning stiff. It suits movie fans who enjoy the conversation around the film as much as the verdict on the film itself.
Made for: For film fans who like casual panel chemistry, franchise detours, nostalgia checks, and spoiler-friendly conversations about both beloved and oddball titles. It especially suits people who enjoy hearing friends reason through a movie in real time.
What sets it apart: The show is less a polished review desk than a recurring movie night where missed classics, modern franchise entries, horror picks, and childhood favorites all get the same conversational treatment. Its charm comes from the digressions, corrections, and personal memories that surround the actual film talk.
3 friends making each watch movies from a list of ones they have never seen. From classics to modern hits, you’d be surprised how long the list is. New Episodes every Wednesday Follow us on Instagram: @youhavetowatchthispodcast Like Us on Facebook: @YHTWTpodcast
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Alan, Ryan and Devin make first-time watches richer by testing immediate reactions against nostalgia, craft details and each other's movie memories.
Alan, Ryan and Devin turn unseen movies into friendly arguments, comparing first impressions with the memories of whoever chose the film. Their range stretches from From Russia With Love and Kate & Leopold to a Maggie Smith tribute centered on Hook, with occasional departures…
Hook gets confused with Peter Pan & Wendy; your hazy movie memories are safe here.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm return to the movie-club routine, with Kate & Leopold, birthday chaos, and a 10th-year milestone close by.
Kate & Leopold gives Alan, Ryan, and Devin a comfortable way back into the PlayNext rhythm. The 2001 romantic comedy starring Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan fits neatly with a show built around movies at least one host has never seen, and the episode carries the feel of a standing…
A stolen identity has one host bracing for the moment it is discovered.
In What You Wish For, a man visits a culinary-school classmate he has not seen in years. After the classmate dies, he takes his identity. The hosts linger on how hard it is to watch him keep up the lie, with discovery seeming close at every turn.
A warm, self-aware discussion of why childhood favorites can still matter even when no one is claiming they are masterpieces.
This episode looks at childhood movies as memory holders, not untouchable classics. The hosts return to favorite films from their youth, with Little Monsters standing out as the clearest case: the appeal is less about proving it as a masterpiece and more about recalling what it…
Three hosts ask whether *X* earns its slow build.
Devin picks 2022's X for Alan and Ryan, who are both seeing it for the first time. Their discussion keeps returning to the film's slow build: how long can it hold back the blood, gore, and even a clear idea of who the killer is before the wait becomes the point?
A From Russia With Love discussion balances Bond reputation, Ryan's marathon memory, and Alan's Austin Powers filter.
Devin's James Bond series moves to From Russia With Love, framed as the 1963 second franchise entry directed by Terence Young and starring Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, and Lola Elena.
A Hans Zimmer wild-card episode where Pearl Harbor leads the sharpest movie and music debate.
Hans Zimmer's score work gives this wild-card episode its shape as Alan, Ryan, and Devin move through four Zimmer-scored films, his career, a tribute to James Earl Jones, and a few side turns.
Brisk movie talk with room for detours.
Fast movie talk from the tape stack.
Movies, soundtrack memories, and retro joy.
The hosts spend the back half of the episode on From Russia with Love, the 1963 second James Bond film directed by Terrence Young and starring Sean Connery and Robert Shaw.
The hosts discuss the 1990s superhero film 'The Phantom' and share recent pop culture experiences.
Alan and Devin introduce a back-to-school triple feature episode of their podcast, discussing three school-themed films.
The hosts of You Have to Watch This Podcast discuss the 1989 film Roadhouse, with Devin introducing it as his pick for the week.
The hosts discuss Devin's pick, The Phantom of the Opera, after a brief chat about their week.
In a special wild card episode, hosts Alan, Ryan, and Devin break their usual format to tribute composer Hans Zimmer.
Alan, Ryan, and Devin cover Kate and Leopold, the 2001 rom-com with Hugh Jackman, Meg Ryan, Breckin Meyer, Natasha Lyonne, and Liev Schreiber.
Ryan chose What You Wish For after his wife warned him he would "hate me for about 90%" of it, and he paired the viewing with Domino's because he had no idea the film would center on eating and cooking.
The hosts discuss the 2006 film Superman Returns in honor of James Gunn's new DCU Superman movie.
The hosts discuss the Mel Brooks film 'Dracula: Dead and Loving It' and share experiences from New York Comic-Con.
The hosts discuss the Sony Marvel Universe film Madame Web and their upcoming plans for New York Comic Con.
Ryan’s pick, Little Monsters (1989), follows Fred Savage, Howie Mandel, and Daniel Stern through a monster world under a bed, with time zones used to get the kids home before sunrise.
Maggie Smith was 56 in Hook, yet the hosts treat her as a constant reference point for Granny Wendy and Harry Potter.
You Have to Watch This Podcast spends much of its X discussion on Ty West’s 2022 farmhouse slasher, the 1979 setting, and Mia Goth’s dual-movie role across X and Pearl.
The hosts banter about Eminem's new album and childhood memories before introducing their movie podcast.