Tag Archives: MTV

The Toy Department – Episode 317

  By toyAdmin | October 13, 2022 - 2:46 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 317, Madden and Kolsky have a new season of The Challenge to get to, so no time to waste before diving right in to:

  • The premiere of The Challenge: Ride or Dies (1:00), including thoughts on the Episode 1 surprises, the rookies, the quantity of absentee teams and all the intricacies of the complicated new game design…
  • The new Paramount+ film Significant Other (50:25), and whether its strange blend of thriller, comedy, sci-fi and horror hit home for our hosts…
  • Homework for next Friday (1:05:00), including: the new Apple TV+ show Shantaram, the start of a new season of Documentary Now!, a check-in on Welcome to Wrexham, the Netflix documentary The Redeem Team and OF COURSE the next episode of The Challenge: Ride or Dies…

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The Toy Department – Episode 316

  By toyAdmin | October 7, 2022 - 3:44 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 316, Madden and Kolsky briefly discuss the soon-to-be-ridiculously-busy sports schedule before moving on to:

  • Netflix’s new Ryan Murphy show Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2:30) and just what exactly is the goal of so close an examination of an admitted monster…
  • The new Interview with the Vampire series on AMC (13:30) and whether this version of the telling stands up to its historical counterparts…
  • The Sanaa Lathan-directed Paramount+ film On The Come Up (19:15) and whether it is interesting enough to stand out in a crowded streaming landscape…
  • The Greatest Beer Run Ever on Apple TV+ (23:50) and the merits of an entertaining and engaging lead actor…
  • The last two episodes of MTV’s The Challenge: Untold History (31:05) and final thoughts on the documentary series, plus some prep for the upcoming start of The Challenge: Ride or Dies…
  • Homework for next Friday (1:02:20), including: the first episode of The Challenge: Ride or Dies and the movie Significant Other on Paramount+…

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The Toy Department – Episode 280

  By toyAdmin | November 4, 2021 - 12:07 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 280, Madden and Kolsky discuss Derek’s exuberance in the afterglow of his Braves’ World Series Championship before moving into…

  • Netflix’s new show Colin in Black & White (6:05) from Colin Kaepernick and Ava Duvernay, and how it doesn’t quite live up to the expectations that collaboration might inspire…
  • HBO Max’s new season of Love Life (16:35) starring William Jackson Harper and how it compares to the original Anna Kendrick season…
  • The latest action and drama from The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies (21:30), how the Emerald Cell keeps avoiding infiltration and who’s in control of the game at this critical late-season juncture…
  • Homework for next Thursday (1:00:30), including: more of The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies, the new season of Netflix’s Big Mouth, the new Netflix western film The Harder They Fall and the new Apple TV+ film Finch (starring Tom Hanks)…

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The Toy Department – Episode 271

  By toyAdmin | August 19, 2021 - 11:55 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 271, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky reconvene after a week off with a MASSIVE list of pop culture topics, including:

  • The just-completed HBO Max series The White Lotus (3:25) and how the soundtrack and the acting were both tremendous, even if our hosts had different views of the series overall…
  • HBO Max’s dating series FBOY Island (17:25) and how Madden and Kolsky received the show in tremendously different ways, though they agree that saying “F Boy” over and over again is a terrible idea…
  • A couple brief thoughts on Apple TV+’s Mr. Corman (25:45) and how neither host has much to say about it yet, but both are in to see where Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes this thing…
  • James Gunn’s Suicide Squad (26:20) and how it succeeded in being largely entertaining, even if there aren’t a lot of meaningful takeaways…
  • THE RETURN of The Challenge (34:35), and all the intrigue from the first two episodes of Spies, Lies and Allies — from the eccentric Romanians Emy and Emanuel to Hurricane Ashley and everything in between…
  • Homework for next Thursday (1:17:10), including: more of The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies, plus the Netflix documentary Untold: Malice at the Palace, the new FX (on Hulu) show Reservation Dogs and the Sandra Oh show The Chair (also on Netflix)…

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The Toy Department – Episode 270

  By toyAdmin | August 3, 2021 - 11:06 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 270, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky talk a little about the crowded sports calendar before turning their focus to:

  • The return of Behind the Music (7:15) and whether the now-MTV property is doing enough with new content to be worth watching…
  • The new Iliza Schlesinger Netflix movie Good on Paper (17:40) and how it’s a relatively original twist on what is basically a romantic comedy format…
  • The new HBO Max comedy special Tig Notaro: Drawn (22:20) and whether the animation gimmick adds to Tig’s particular brand of stand-up…
  • The surprisingly compelling Peacock show Dr. Death (28:10) and how the lead actors and a shocking true story help create an engrossing experience…
  • Homework for next THURSDAY (37:15), including: the return of The Challenge!!! — Spies, Lies and Allies debuts on Wednesday and the guys will go deep on next week’s THURSDAY pod, plus HBO Max’s goofy new dating show FBOY Island, the new Suicide Squad movie (also on HBO Max) and hopefully an episode or two of Apple TV+’s Joseph-Gordon Levitt vehicle Mr. Corman…

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The Toy Department – The Challenge 36 – Episode 11

  By toyAdmin | February 25, 2021 - 10:34 am | Uncategorized
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A great episode of The Challenge: Double Agents begets a great episode of Challenge coverage from The Toy Department… Madden and Kolsky get into a big day for Big T, Lolo Jones being a whiny quitter and some highly questionable gameplay that leaves the Big Brother alliance with a choke hold on this game. Plus, as always, a Burn of the Week and episode MVP!!

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The Toy Department – The Challenge 36 – Episode 6

  By toyAdmin | January 21, 2021 - 9:15 am | Uncategorized
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Another exciting week of The Challenge: Double Agents is in the books, and Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky return to talk about Teresa’s tricks, Lolo’s lunacy and yet ANOTHER cast member departure-without-elimination, a suddenly common occurrence… That and MUCH MORE on this week’s Challenge coverage!!!

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The Toy Department – Episode 238

  By toyAdmin | December 8, 2020 - 11:26 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 238, Madden and Kolsky are debuting the new pod format/schedule and waste little time getting into:

  • HBO Max’s new Kaley Cuoco vehicle The Flight Attendant (1:50) and how the show and its star are both revelations…
  • The new Netflix film Mank (9:50) and whether David Fincher’s throwback to black-and-white movies has enough to draw in those who are not particularly interested in that time period…
  • The return of Big Mouth (24:05) and how Nick Kroll & Co. continue to execute at the highest possible level…
  • A few quick sports thoughts (34:30) touching on MLS and MLB…
  • Homework for of next Tuesday (39:35), including: HBO’s new special episodes of Euphoria, the new Soderbergh/Meryl Streep movie Let Them All Talk on HBO Max, the Riz Ahmed film The Sound of Metal and the Rachel Brosnahan action flick I’m Your Woman, both on Amazon Prime… PLUS, our first VERY SPECIAL CHALLENGE EPISODE coming on Thursday!!!

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The Toy Department – Episode 237

  By toyAdmin | December 4, 2020 - 11:23 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 237, Madden and Kolsky are back after a LOOOOONG Thanksgiving break with LOTS to talk about (after a brief recounting of Kolsky’s COVID test):

  • A preview of THE CHALLENGE: DOUBLE AGENTS (3:30) which premiere’s next week on MTV, and which this podcast will cover IN DEPTH…
  • The end of The Undoing on HBO (19:20) and how miserably, ridiculously bad it was…
  • Kevin Hart’s new Netflix stand-up special (24:40) and the difficulty of being funny while incredibly rich…
  • Showtime’s John Belushi documentary (26:50) and its exciting new insight into the personality and humanity of a complicated public figure…
  • Another new HBO Max series, I Hate Suzie (33:45) and its interesting genre-blending style…
  • The HBO Max series Two Weeks to Live (38:10) starring the irresistibly charming Maisie Williams…
  • The 2020 reboot of Saved By The Bell (41:20) and how impressive the execution is…
  • The bizarre intrigue of Netflix’s sword-making reality show Forged in Fire (46:05) and the fascinating question of WHERE DO THEY FIND THESE PEOPLE???…
  • Homework for TUESDAY of next week (53:05), including: the return of Big Mouth on Netflix, the new movie Mank on Netflix and HBO Max’s new Kaley Cuoco vehicle The Flight Attendant…
  • A few sports thoughts on the way out the door (55:20) with the NFL and college sports in full COVID swing and the NBA ready to start shortly…

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The Toy Department – Episode 222

  By toyAdmin | July 30, 2020 - 11:02 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 222, Madden and Kolsky start with a discussion of babies and zoos before getting into:

  • The second week of The Challenge: Total Madness Reunion (5:00) and the general let-down of this season’s end…
  • The return of HBO’s Room 104 (21:10) and just how delightful the first episode of this season was, even if it doesn’t make the show feel essential…
  • The new Amazon Prime film Radioactive (28:20) and some of the curious choices made by the filmmakers…
  • The return of sports (32:45) with MLB already underway (for now, at least), the NBA set to start and the NFL opening training camps…
  • Homework for next week (52:45), including: the new season of Umbrella Academy on Netflix, the fifth season of the Netflix docu-series Last Chance U, the new Go-Go’s documentary on Showtime, the end of HBO’s docu-series I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and revisiting HBO’s Perry Mason…
  • The new Taylor Swift record Folklore (57:15) and how it doesn’t quite resonate with either of our hosts…

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