Oakland – The Toy Department

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…

In Episode 223, Madden and Kolsky talk a bit about the busy return of sports before switching to pop culture for discussions on:

A quick revisiting of HBO’s Perry Mason (4:45) to set up a longer discussion after this coming Sunday’s finale…
The second season of Netflix’s Umbrella Academy (11:55) and why the second season is even better than the first…
The Go-Go’s documentary on Showtime (19:10) and how it is a little too cookie cutter to really stand out…
Season Five of the Netflix docu-series Last Chance U (27:10) and the fertile storytelling ground that is Oakland’s Laney College…
HBO’s docu-series I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (36:20) and how it deftly covers two converging storylines…
Beyoncé’s new visual album Black is King (44:10) and the greatness of the Queen…
Homework for next week (52:30), including: the season finale of HBO’s Perry Mason, the new HBO Max film An American Pickle and the return of Hard Knocks (also on HBO), plus LOTS of sports action and maybe a touch of Shark Week…

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