Watch This is a podcast started in September 2021 by Romi. A spin-off of Rock Of Ages, it consists of herself and a few of her friends from that podcast doing commentary tracks for several movies. These commentaries have a tendency to not have much to do with what's going on in the movies themselves, which range from classics like The Muppet Movie and The Blues Brothers to film-kid gems like Chungking Express to semi-obscure curios like Bandslam.
It can be heard on Anchor
and Spotify, among other places. Romi also has a YouTube channel where she posts Hunger Games simulators and podcast highlights that can be found here.
In March 2023, Romi announced that the podcast would be ending after only a year and a half, citing availability problems. She still allowed it to have a Grand Finale in the form of The Fabelmans.
This podcast contains examples of:
- Adorkable: The panelists' tendency to be like this is lampshaded from time to time.
- Alternate DVD Commentary: The podcast's format, which itself is based on the occasional commentaries made by Schaffrillas Productions' Shinycast.
- Author Appeal:
- Romi's a big fan of The Muppets - three of the first 12 mainline episodes were of Muppet productions, though two of those were handpicked as holiday episodes.
- John C. Reilly is another author appeal of hers, to the point where she often jokes that he should adopt her. The second movie they did a commentary for was one of his (The Perfect Storm), even though it was decided by a wheel spin.
- Other appeals of hers include music (mostly indie and folk), Los Angeles (she hopes to move there one day) and indie/arthouse films (of which Watch This has done a few).
- Birthday Episode: Once a year, a panelist picks a movie in honor of their birthday. For her first birthday episode in 2022, Romi picked Summertime, an indie movie wrapping a plot around various Los Angeles teenagers' poetry. Later that year, Riley picked Jupiter Ascending, and Andrew picked Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
- Book Ends: The December programming (not counting the two bonus episodes uploaded at the end of the month) began its first episode with the Sesame Street cast singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", and ended its last episode with a reprise of the same song, both from the 1975 album Merry Christmas from Sesame Street.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: As with Rock Of Ages the panelists frequently refer to the fact that they're in a Discord chat.
- Christmas Episode: The entire month of December 2021 was devoted to holiday films: Fred Claus, Blizzard, Anna and the Apocalypse and The Muppet Christmas Carol, with a bonus episode tackling two holiday-themed short films from Wes Anderson and Luca Guadagnino.
- Comically Missing the Point: During Chungking Express, Romi expresses her hopes of Licorice Pizza securing at least a few Oscar nominations. Andrew replies that if that doesn't happen, then there's always next year. This causes Romi to snap: "There is no next year!"
- Epic Fail: As the Jetsons: The Movie episode reaches its close, Andrew notes that the character design supervisor is named Jack White, who isn't to be confused with the rock star Jack White. He jokes, "Jack White, isn't that the guy from Black Stripes?" Riley corrects his fatal error in saying it's actually The White Stripes.
- Genki Girl: Riley and Romi are quite perky.
- Halloween Episode: For Halloween 2021, the podcast did Muppets Haunted Mansion. The plan was to also do two horror films prior to this, but the Blues Brothers episode kept getting hit with
Schedule Slip as Romi was struggling to keep the podcast up and running. - Only One Finds It Fun: Sometimes Romi will bring out a movie, only for her to be the only one who's into it. Please Give being the most notable example.
- Poor Communication Kills: Everyone else somehow failed to get the message that O Night Divine was 43 minutes long.
- Pun: During The Perfect Storm Romi makes sure to note that a character mentioned the Grand Banks, and Andrew jokes that she meant the Banks family.
- Reference Overdosed: A lot of the gang's conversation includes reference humor (a good chunk of it obscure or comprised of inside jokes).
- Running Gag: Several, such as:
- Slandering James Corden (who appears in every thumbnail) and Chris Pratt, especially in regards to the latter's casting as Mario in the 2022 Super Mario Bros. movie.
- Making fun of Quentin Tarantino's foot fetish.
- Romi's admiration for John C. Reilly reaching the point where she sees him as a father figure and gives him the Affectionate Nickname "Papa John". This in turn spawned a counter-Running Gag referencing Papa John's Pizza and its founder's proposed "day of reckoning".
- A few lifted from Rock of Ages, such as ribbing on The Stooges' "LA Blues".
- Seinfeldian Conversation: As with Rock Of Ages, the panelists are incredibly prone to this.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: During The Muppet Movie, Riley brought up an incident where her friend's brother and his friend wore suits... to a screening of PAW Patrol: The Movie. Andrew then brings up Scott The Woz and his gang doing the same thing for Sonic the Hedgehog (2020).
- Special Guest:
- Citizen HAL, an acquaintance of the Schaffgang, appears during The Muppet Christmas Carol.
- Chris, another Schaffgang member, helps out for the bonus commentary for Ratatoing, having previously appeared during Schafrillas' review of it.
- True Companions: As with parent podcast Rock of Ages the panelists are shown to be thick as thieves. Best exemplified with The Mitchells vs. the Machines where Romi says everyone else on the podcast is her Katie Mitchell.
