The Toy Department – Episode 269

In Episode 269, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky start by chatting about recent Olympic events and the recent trend of athletes stepping away to prioritize their mental health, then move through:

  • Season 2 of Ted Lasso on Apple TV+ (16:20) and how the show remains tremendously charming but the release schedule is an unanticipated annoyance…
  • Another Apple TV+ original, Schmigadoon! (22:35) and whether it is a parody musical or just a mediocre musical…
  • The new documentary Woodstock ’99: Peace, Love and Rage (28:05) from the Music Box series, a very well-made doc that tells a story about the past but ties directly to our present…
  • The new season of TBS’ Miracle Workers (48:35) and how the show retains a lot of its charm but definitely has some diminishing returns…
  • Hulu’s docu-series McCartney 3, 2, 1 (54:10) and how much mileage each of our hosts get out of old men telling stories — spoiler alert, it varies…
  • Homework for next Tuesday (1:04:05), including: Tig Notaro: Drawn on HBO Max, the Behind the Music revival on Paramount+, the Iliza Schlesinger Netflix rom-com Good on Paper and Dr. Death on Peacock; plus, LOTS of sports content between the Olympics, the NBA Draft and the MLB trade deadline…

The Toy Department – Episode 176

In Episode 176, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky have a quick chat about Madden’s concert-going exploits before delving into:

  • The premiere of the final season of Netflix’s Orange is the New Black (2:10), which Madden enjoyed more than Kolsky but also maybe Kolsky just needs to stick with it a little longer…
  • Amazon’s new Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg production The Boys (10:15) and how it is different than any superhero show you’ve seen and pretty damn good…
  • The Showtime documentary Shangri-LA (16:20) and its fascinating subject Rick Rubin…
  • Chance the Rapper’s new album The Big Day (31:45) and how it is long but really quite good throughout…
  • Homework for next week (40:50), including: the premiere of Bachelor in Paradise (for real this time), the return of Dear White People on Netflix, the new season of HBO’s Hard Knocks (featuring the Oakland Raiders), a new HBO show – A Black Lady Sketch Show (from Issa Rae), Whitney Cummings’ new comedy special on Netflix and the new Tarantino film Once Upon A Time in Hollywood…