Tag Archives: Ben Davis

The Toy Department – Episode 433

  By toyAdmin | September 19, 2025 - 1:04 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 433, Madden and Kolsky literally discuss the weather before they finally get into it with:

  • The latest from The Challenge: Vets & New Threats (3:35) after the demise of the Justice for Leka movement…
  • The new Spike Lee joint Highest 2 Lowest (24:40) and whether Denzel is too old for this sh*t…
  • Prime Video’s new thriller The Girlfriend (35:50) and how (and why) it doesn’t quite rise to the level of must-watch…
  • The return of Gen V (43:20) and further thoughts on The Boys cinematic universe…
  • Homework for next week (we forgot to actually mention it in the episode 😬), including: the next episode of The Challenge: Vets & New Threats, Netflix’s new show Black Rabbit and Sterlin Harjo’s new series The Lowdown on FX…

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The Toy Department – Episode 432

  By toyAdmin | September 12, 2025 - 10:26 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 432, Madden and Kolsky discuss Derek’s imminent vacation to Vegas, and general Vegas strategy, before diving into:

  • The latest from The Challenge: Vets & New Threats (5:00) where, as so often happens, the rookies are flailing and failing at forming a working alliance to oppose the vets…
  • Peacock’s Office spin-off The Paper (22:00) and the potential pitfalls of trying to re-capture the magic…
  • Amazon Prime Video’s teen band dramedy The Runarounds (25:55) and how one of our hosts (bet you can guess which) is an instant Stan…
  • HBO’s new Sunday night offering Task (34:00) and the mysteries that abound in the first episode of the new show from the creator of Mare of Easttown…
  • Homework for next week (47:55), including: the next episode of The Challenge: Vets & New Threats, the new Spike Lee joint Highest 2 Lowest on Apple TV+, and two Amazon Prime Video shows: Season 2 of Gen V and the new show The Girlfriend…

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The Toy Department – Episode 431

  By toyAdmin | September 5, 2025 - 11:30 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 431, Madden and Kolsky discuss their IRL meet-up between podcasts before getting down to brass tacks on:

  • The last two weeks of The Challenge: Vets & New Threats (7:00) and the thrilling elimination that crowned the most recent episode…
  • The baffling and distinctly not funny comedy The Pickup (22:50) and how exactly we end up making things that make no sense…
  • The disappointing film The Phoenician Scheme (28:40) and whether the career of Wes Anderson has ceased to be a source of interest…
  • The excellent Freaky Tales (34:30) and its love affair with Oakland…
  • A revisiting of Apple TV+’s insane show Smoke (43:05) and how the not-especially-good-but-totally-ridiculous blueprint seems to be working for them…
  • Homework for next week (51:45), including: the next episode of The Challenge: Vets & New Threats, the Office spin-off The Paper, HBO’s new crime drama Task and the Amazon Prime teen band show The Runarounds…

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The Toy Department – Episode 429

  By toyAdmin | August 8, 2025 - 6:22 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 429, Madden and Kolsky get into their relative appreciation of getting pounded with heavy metal before they buckle down on:

  • The new FX show Welcome to Necaxa (3:20) and how the Eva Longoria project resembles but is also very different from the Rob & Ryan project in Wrexham…
  • Kolsky’s failure to watch Chief of War (15:00) thanks to a miscommunication on last pod (so maybe it’s homework now?)…
  • Netflix’s bat-guano insane The Hunting Wives (16:30) and the utter mediocrity of its nudity-heavy nonsense…
  • The five hours of Billy Joel documentary on HBO (22:05), whether he deserved that length and where his legacy lands…
  • Amazon Prime Video’s teen drama sensation The Summer I Turned Pretty (46:35) and whether our hosts should suffer through the first season or two to get to the apparently very good third season… or are we just very old and out of touch?
  • Another exciting episode of The Challenge 41: Vets & New Threats (54:45) and an absolute banger of an elimination between two small rookie women who left everything they had in the ring…
  • Homework for TWO weeks from now (1:09:35), including: the next two episodes of The Challenge: Vets & New Threats, perhaps revisiting the well-reviewed Chief of War, Noah Hawley’s new FX show Alien Earth, the John Grisham television adaptation The Rainmaker on USA/Peacock and the new Dallas Cowboys/Jerry Jones documentary on Netflix…

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The Toy Department – Episode 428

  By toyAdmin | August 1, 2025 - 11:43 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 428, Madden and Kolsky discuss Derek’s visit to Chicago and assign some extra homework that they forgot about before locking into:

  • The first episode of The Challenge: Vets & New Threats (5:55) and also the weird and mostly annoying 0th episode, with lots of excitement for the season to come…
  • The reasonably enjoyable Happy Gilmore 2 (30:55), how far you can fly on the wings of cameo appearances from terrible actors and Adam Sandler’s career choices…
  • Hulu’s new show Washington Black (39:50) and the relative usefulness of fantastical historical fiction…
  • Homework for next week (44:05), including: the next episode of The Challenge: Vets & New Threats, checking in on the apparently very popular The Summer I Turned Pretty on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix’s new series The Hunting Wives, Eva Longoria’s Wrexham spinoff Necaxa and the Billy Joel documentary And So It Goes on HBO Max…

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