The Toy Department – Episode 167

In Episode 167, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky get into Kolsky’s new full time job as father to a tiny human before getting silly with:

  • The series finale of Game of Thrones (5:25), how both guys are relatively pleased, some thoughts on the haters and critics, and what comes next in big-time pop culture…
  • HBO’s new Monday night entry Chernobyl (28:15) and whether the dramatic circumstances and excellent performance from Jared Harris and others overcome the deeply disturbing events…
  • The final season of Easy on Netflix (34:45), and the particular success of Joe Swanberg in creating movies and shows that feel very authentic…
  • Amazon’s Sneaky Pete (38:30) and whether it is holding the guys’ interest in its third season…
  • An attempt to start with homework before a digression into the in-progress finale of The Challenge: War of the Worlds (45:00) and how intense the final competition of the season appears to be…
  • Homework for next week (48:35), including: the aforementioned Challenge final, the return of Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It on Netflix, Season 2 of Fleabag on Amazon, the new Netflix thriller Perfection, the now-in-theaters action blockbuster John Wick 3: Parabellum and MORE NBA playoff action…

The Toy Department – Episode 78

In Episode 78, Matt Kolsky’s smoothie leads to a brief diet digression from Derek Madden before they dive into more interesting and relevant discussions of:

  • The self-inflicted death of Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington (5:00)…
  • The Season 7 premiere of Game of Thrones (12:35) and the general absurdity of the whiny complaints about it…
  • The new Netflix show Friends from College (29:10) and the strangely negative reaction from critics to what seems to be a very lovable show…
  • Hot dogs (39:40) — what goes on them, what they’re for, etc…
  • Kolsky’s inability to not become a weepy mess (45:00) during heartstring-tugging entertainment…
  • Homework for next week (49:25): including next week’s Game of Thrones episode and the rapper cupcakKe… plus whatever the guys tweet about during the week 🙂

By the way, if you like this podcast, TELL A FRIEND!! And if you want to subscribe via iTunes you can just click on the link below the player (and don’t forget to leave us a review!!)… Some other links down there as well… And if you want to contact the Toy Department, it’s easy — find us at ToyDepartmentPod (at) gmail.com… or tweet us: @MaddenOnAir & @thekolsky.

The Toy Department – Episode 27

In Episode 27, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky open with a quick NBA finals recap/react before some deep dives into the very latest in non-essential topics:

  • Sunday’s penultimate episode of Game of Thrones Season 6 (6:15) which, with its battle scenes and intriguing interpersonal interaction, was much more up Madden’s alley than the previous episode…
  • Team USA Men’s Soccer (24:35) and their ugly loss to top-ranked Argentina in the Copa America semifinal, plus some general discussion of the team’s future prospects…
  • ESPN’s OJ Simpson docu-series (53:55) and just how wonderful a job that it did in placing the remarkable OJ story in context…

Oh, and if you want to subscribe via iTunes you can just click on the link below the player… Some other links down there as well… And if you want to contact the Toy Department, it’s easy — find us at ToyDepartmentPod (at) gmail.com.