The Toy Department – Episode 331

In Episode 331, Madden and Kolsky do a quick debrief on their long time apart before shifting into gear to discuss:

  • The latest from The Challenge: Ride or Dies (1:40) where we seem to be past the halfway point of TJ’s Final and there are LOTS of incidents and accidents to discuss…
  • A quick check-in on The Last of Us (33:40) to acknowledge the excellence of Episode 3…
  • Peacock’s new Natasha Lyonne vehicle Poker Face (35:10) and how her charm carries the viewer to an awful lot of fun…
  • Hulu’s superpower show Extraordinary (38:45) and how it really is extraordinarily enjoyable, with excellent writing and some delightful young unknown performers…
  • Apple TV+’s Bill Lawrence/Jason Segel joint Shrinking (44:05) and how the combination of its two creators makes for an oddly enjoyable cocktail, plus — Harrison Ford…
  • The Netflix rom-com You People (51:30) and how there’s not much Rom and Eddy Murphy is largely wasted but it’s not so terrible in the end…
  • A few thoughts on the upcoming Super Bowl LVII (1:00:55) and the recently passed NBA Trade Deadline (1:05:10)…
  • Homework for next week (1:16:25), including: four movies — TÁR (streaming on Peacock), Wakanda Forever (streaming on Disney+), Meet Me in the Bathroom (streaming on Showtime and Paramount+) and Somebody I Used to Know (streaming on Amazon)… and OF COURSE the last episode (we think) of The Challenge: Ride or Dies…

The Toy Department – Episode 302

In Episode 302, Madden and Kolsky discuss a new addition to the Kolsky family before switching over to their critical pop culture concerns:

  • The newest entry in the Star Wars canon, Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi (5:30) and how it just isn’t nearly as enjoyable (or original) as our hosts had hoped…
  • The insanely un-funny Rhys Darby standup special Mystic Time Bird (13:25) and both guys’ general confusion about what exactly happened here…
  • HBO Max’s Our Flag Means Death (17:40) and how Taika Waititi has once again produced a very funny television show that essentially harnesses the silliness of a workplace comedy into a ship full of (mediocre) pirates…
  • The absolutely spectacular finale of Top Chef: Houston (20:40), the beautiful dinners prepared by the three finalists and some thoughts on what was an elite season of the long-running reality series…
  • The latest from The Challenge: All-Stars 3 (31:05) and how Beth is an absolute piece of garbage who should never be invited back, plus strategy concerns for the high-level players that remain…
  • Reaction to Game 1 of the NBA Finals (1:01:25) and what it means for the rest of a series that will hopefully be long and entertaining…
  • Homework for next Friday (1:20:30), including: more of The Challenge: All-Stars 3, the new Danny Boyle-directed FX show Pistol (about the Sex Pistols), the new season of Amazon’s The Boys, Norm Macdonald’s posthumous-release stand-up special Nothing Special on Netflix and the new Adam Sandler film Hustle (also on Netflix)…

The Toy Department – Episode 301

In Episode 301, Madden and Kolsky are dealing with the world in their own ways and also by focusing on the toy department of life, specifically:

  • The return of the Kids in the Hall (2:25) and how their stuff is just as good and funny as it was the first time around…
  • A check-in on Better Call Saul (10:55), the guys’ reactions to the first half of the final season and expectations for the final six episodes…
  • The Hulu series Conversations with Friends (23:50) and how it is from the same vein as Lenny Abrahamson’s previous series Normal People, which is to say very deep and interesting…
  • The latest from The Challenge: All Stars 3 (35:30) after an epic elimination and an unwelcome addition to the cast…
  • The penultimate episode of Top Chef: Houston (51:00) and the incredibly high level of cookery that has characterized the last few weeks…
  • A few thoughts on the NBA (59:55) as we head towards a likely Finals matchup between the Celtics and Warriors…
  • Homework for next Friday (1:13:00), including: the finalé of Top Chef: Houston, more of The Challenge: All-Stars 3, the Rhys Darby stand-up special Mystic Time Bird on Amazon Prime, the HBO Max show Our Flag Means Death and Disney+’s new Obi-Wan Kenobi show…