The Toy Department – Episode 371

In Episode 371, Madden and Kolsky totally forget to wish each other (or you) a Happy New Year and instead discuss the elastic nature of time before getting into:

  • A more eventful episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion (3:10) that nevertheless failed to improve the entertainment value of an increasingly frustrating season…
  • The new Dave Chappelle special The Dreamer (23:20), his addiction to touching the third rail and enjoying a comedian without loving all of his jokes…
  • The utterly confounding film Saltburn (31:30) and the very specific (and wildly bizarre) visionn of Emerald Fennell…
  • The new Alexander Payne film The Holdovers (41:15) and how it’s just a really damn good movie and you should all watch it…
  • Season two of Dr. Death (44:50) and how one of our hosts is just a hard out on this type of show…
  • Homework for next week (55:20), including: another episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, finishing the Hulu series Murder at the End of the World, and two Netflix properties — the Zack Snyder movie Rebel Moon and the new Michelle Yeoh series The Brothers Sun…

The Toy Department – Episode 244

In Episode 244, Madden and Kolsky once again flirt with the concept of a short show before lengthy discussions about:

  • Sports!! Including some NFL postseason thoughts (1:15) and a brief chat about early-season NBA drama (4:20) after a big MLK Day of games…
  • The conclusion of HBO Max’s Tiger Woods documentary (9:00) and how fascinating the story of his rise and fall (and rise again) is…
  • The third film in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series, called Red, White and Blue (20:15), and why it may have been the least satisfying of the movies so far…
  • The Amazon Prime film One Night in Miami (26:25) and the impressive debut directorial outing of Regina King…
  • The exciting new film Promising Young Woman (34:10) and all the things that make it so fantastic and unique…
  • Homework for next Tuesday (53:50), including: the new HBO Max film Locked Down, the next Small Axe film (called Alex Wheatle) and the new Netflix movie White Tiger; plus the NFL Conference Championship games and more NBA basketball… and DON’T MISS our coverage of The Challenge: Double Agents on Thursday!!!