Tag Archives: Jay Starrett

The Toy Department – Episode 369

  By toyAdmin | December 7, 2023 - 12:05 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 369, Madden and Kolsky spend a few minutes on Derek’s immediate future, including a rock concert and programming a Christmas music station, before launching into:

  • A relatively lackluster week on The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion (7:25) and how the loss of one of our hosts’ favorite characters doesn’t necessarily project particularly well for the second half of the season (but there’s hope!)…
  • The Netflix series Obliterated (32:15) and how its lack of particular ambition or excellence does not stop it from being watchable…
  • The film May December (42:05) and how Netflix’s Oscar bait probably falls a little short despite some excellent acting performances…
  • The entirely adorable Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too? (52:30) and the joys of watching nerds talk about stuff…
  • Homework for TWO weeks from now (59:50), including: two episodes of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, the film Maestro (available on Netflix), the new season of Slow Horses on Apple TV+ and Eddie Murphy’s new Christmas movie Candy Cane Lane…

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The Toy Department – Episode 368

  By toyAdmin | November 30, 2023 - 3:41 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 368, Madden and Kolsky lament the existence of Daylight Savings Time and the depressing 4:30pm sundown in the Midwest before turning to:

  • The Peacock film Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain (2:50) and whether Derek owes Kolsky an apology for bringing it to his attention…
  • The Netflix documentary Beckham (12:10) and Fisher Stevens’ interesting directorial choices, plus the hitherto untold peculiarities of one of soccer’s greatest superstars…
  • The latest from The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion (28:40), where another champ showed up to embrace the chaos and break up a couple…
  • Homework for next week (59:15), including: another episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, the new Netflix show Obliterated, the film May December (also on Netflix) and the Paramount+ show Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too?…

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The Toy Department – Episode 367

  By toyAdmin | November 24, 2023 - 2:51 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 367, Madden and Kolsky discuss the arrival of really cold weather in the Midwest and lament their life choices before diving in to:

  • This week on The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion (2:50), a victorious Big T and the dangling mystery of the third pole in the draw…
  • Hulu’s Nathan Fielder/Emma Stone HGTV spoof The Curse (36:45) and whether it’s more than just an awkward parody…
  • The return of FX/Hulu’s Fargo for its fifth and final season (45:10) and the excitement brewing in both of our hosts after two great episodes to start things off…
  • The Brit Marling-created A Murder at the End of the World (50:45) and whether our hosts are on board for its Gen Z-amateur-sleuth vibe…
  • The biopic Rustin (57:00) and the incredible performance from leading man Colman Domingo that makes it go…
  • Homework for next week (1:02:00), including: another episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, the Fisher Stevens-directed Netflix documentary Beckham, and the movie Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain from SNL’s video short team…

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The Toy Department – Episode 366

  By toyAdmin | November 16, 2023 - 11:11 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 366, Madden and Kolsky discuss Derek’s propensity for failing to do his homework properly before getting into the things he DIDN’T screw up:

  • The latest episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion (2:30) and the arrival of CHAOS, aka Jordan Wiseley…
  • The new David Fincher Netflix film The Killer (38:55) and how it delivered on Fincher-ness but didn’t totally come together in the end…
  • The Australian show Colin From Accounts (55:25) and whether the new Paramount+ property is charming enough to keep our hosts coming back…
  • Homework for next week (1:02:20), including: another episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, the new Hulu show A Murder at the End of the World, the return of Fargo for its fifth and final season on FX, the new film Rustin on Netflix and picking up the forgotten Nathan Fielder/Emma Stone show The Curse on Showtime/Paramount+…

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The Toy Department – Episode 365

  By toyAdmin | November 10, 2023 - 3:43 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 365, Madden and Kolsky discuss Derek’s rock-and-roll travels before getting to today’s pod business:

  • The latest from a double-episode week of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion (3:20), including the impending chaos portion of the game and thoughts on the exciting crop of developing you lady contestants…
  • The Hulu movie Quiz Lady (43:05) and how it doesn’t make good enough use of its two leading ladies or its big-name guest star…
  • The new Apple TV+ film Fingernails (48:50) and yet another project that tragically fails to add up to the appropriate sum of its parts…
  • Netflix’s new Shea Serrano-created series Neon (57:15) and how he once again delivers a joyful series with clever writing and a deeply endearing heart…
  • Homework for next week (1:05:20), including: another episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, the new David Fincher movie The Killer on Netflix, the new Nathan Fielder/Emma Stone show The Curse on Showtime/Paramount+ and the Australian show Colin from Accounts on Paramount+…

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The Toy Department – Episode 364

  By toyAdmin | November 2, 2023 - 9:16 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 364, Madden and Kolsky exchange only brief pleasantries before diving into the week’s homework:

  • A head-spinning week of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion (1:20) and another remarkably terrible deliberation speech from the ultimately eliminated competitor…
  • Netflix’s new British thriller Bodies (30:45) and its unique time-jumping framework…
  • The Jennifer Lawrence-led Netflix comedy No Hard Feelings (41:45) and the charm of its leading lady…
  • Homework for next week (49:25), including: another episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, the movie Quiz Lady on Hulu, the Apple TV+ movie Fingernails and the new Netflix series Neon…

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The Toy Department – Episode 363

  By toyAdmin | October 26, 2023 - 12:22 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 363, Madden and Kolsky discuss Kolsky’s recent positive COVID test and its myriad of ripple effects before locking in to:

  • A quick sports chat (5:40) covering Chelsea v. Arsenal, the hosts’ relative interest in hockey and the debut of Victor Wembanyama…
  • The premiere episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion (12:40) and how a fun first episode and a classic game design set us up for the franchise’s 39th season to be a good one…
  • The Netflix series The Fall of the House of Usher (42:00) and how both hosts were impressed and entertained in their first experience with a Mike Flanagan show…
  • Homework for next week (49:10), including: another episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, the Jennifer Lawrence rom-com vehicle No Hard Feelings (available on Netflix) and Netflix’s new British thriller series Bodies…

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The Toy Department – Episode 323

  By toyAdmin | December 2, 2022 - 3:36 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 323, Madden and Kolsky discuss Kolsky’s upcoming vacation and the challenges of parenthood before locking into pop culture to cover:

  • The group stage round of the World Cup (5:00) and some thoughts on the USMNT’s overall performance…
  • The Netflix documentary series FIFA Uncovered (16:50) and the rampant corruption that has polluted the soccer world’s governing body…
  • The Netflix documentary film Stutz (30:45), which was a terrible experience for one of our hosts and an intriguing experience for the other…
  • Hulu’s new series Welcome to Chippendales (39:35) and how it takes a couple episodes but becomes an awful lot of fun with some excellent acting performances…
  • Tim Burton’s new Netflix series Wednesday (44:15), whether its charm is enough to carry it and some thoughts on Burton’s poor record with actors of color…
  • The last two episodes of The Challenge: Ride or Dies (50:05), what the guys think of this season’s format after hearing some criticism, the many bad decisions of Nelly T and a look forward to the coming twist…
  • Homework for TWO Friday’s from now (1:17:50), including: the new Paramount+ rom-com show The Flatshare, season two of Apple TV+’s Slow Horses, Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion Pinocchio on Netflix, Showtime’s George & Tammy series and OF COURSE the next TWO episodes of The Challenge: Ride or Dies…

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The Toy Department – Episode 322

  By toyAdmin | November 18, 2022 - 12:33 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 322, Madden and Kolsky discuss the Kolsky-family-induced pivot in their recording situation before transitioning seamlessly into:

  • The new Hulu/FX show Fleishman is in Trouble (2:15) and how engaging the story and acting performances are…
  • Sylvester Stallone’s new show Tulsa King (10:20) and what a surprising delight it turned out to be…
  • The Sam Rockwell film See How They Run (18:30) and how our hosts have VERY different views of the movie, plus thoughts on the recent trend of colorblind casting…
  • The definitely not good Don’t Worry Darling (33:05) and how it fails to do justice to an extremely talented cast…
  • The latest episode of The Challenge: Ride or Dies (40:40) including the incredible performance of Jordan and the emotional display from Laurel, plus the idiocy of Jay (and Michele)…
  • Homework for TWO Friday’s from now (1:04:05), including: the Netflix documentary Stutz, the new Hulu show Welcome to Chippendales, the Netflix show Wednesday from Tim Burton, the FIFA Uncovered documentary on Netflix and OF COURSE the next TWO episodes of The Challenge: Ride or Dies…

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The Toy Department – Episode 321

  By toyAdmin | November 11, 2022 - 10:28 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 321, Madden and Kolsky are fighting the clock again, this time thanks to Kolsky’s mediocre parental planning, so it’s straight to the important business of the day:

  • The latest from The Challenge: Ride or Dies (2:55) after a Laurel-heavy episode filled with embarrassingly bad strategy from many of the less-experienced players…
  • The new Apple TV+ movie Causeway (31:40) and whether Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry’s performances are enough to carry a very quiet, rather simple film…
  • Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (36:35) and how Daniel Radcliffe’s incredible commitment to the Weird Al role combined with a wildly silly but quite clever script makes for a heck of a fun time…
  • The new Netflix sitcom Blockbuster (43:40) and whether it’s even possible to make a sitcom that’s creative and original…
  • A few thoughts on the World Cup (47:25) with the tournament less than two weeks away and the US roster recently announced…
  • Homework for next Friday (53:35), including: the new Hulu/FX show Fleishman Is In Trouble, HBO Max’s new Sam Rockwell vehicle See How They Run, the new Sylvester Stallone show Tulsa King on Paramount+, the movie Don’t Worry Darling (now available on HBO Max) and OF COURSE the next episode of The Challenge: Ride or Dies…

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