Tag Archives: Sean Penn

The Toy Department – Episode 437

  By toyAdmin | October 31, 2025 - 11:53 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 437, Madden and Kolsky hurry through an intro after Derek applies the dreaded short-show curse, so they can get to:

  • This week’s action from The Challenge: Vets & New Threats (2:35) and how bizarre it is to see the vets panic over gameplay when the rookies are handling it reasonably well…
  • The second season of Netflix’s Nobody Wants This (26:20) and how it remains compulsively watchable and driven by excellent characters…
  • Netflix’s new Kathryn Bigelow film A House of Dynamite (33:05) and how it’s a dynamite mood piece that doesn’t totally come together as a narrative film…
  • DEREK FINALLY SAW One Battle After Another (41:10) and both our hosts loved it, so that’s the conversation…
  • Homework for next week (53:10), including: another episode of The Challenge: Vets & New Threats, the new HBO Max comedy I Love LA, Tracy Morgan’s new sitcom Crutch on Paramount+ and the new Netflix movie Ballad of a Small Player…

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The Toy Department – Episode 293

  By toyAdmin | March 18, 2022 - 11:47 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 293, Madden and Kolsky touch a little bit on a thrilling Day 1 of the college basketball tournament before moving on to:

  • This week’s episode of Top Chef (2:50), Sam Kang’s potato problems and just how competitive this season is after just three episodes…
  • Apple TV+’s Ben Stiller-directed show Severance (21:15) and how fascinating it is, both in concept and in execution…
  • Another Apple show, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (28:00) and how it comes together over the first two episodes with an interesting premise and some really good performances from Samuel L. Jackson and Dominique Fishback in particular…
  • Showtime’s based-on-reality SuperPumped (35:55) and how Kolsky’s disgust with the people this show is based on makes it tough for him to enjoy it…
  • The new Paul Thomas Anderson joint Licorice Pizza (47:50), how much fun it was, and why it is so much better than some of the over-celebrated Oscar movies we’ve talked about on past shows…
  • Some Oscars thoughts (58:40) about the nominees and also the changes to the television show, which somehow leads us to Derek’s dissatisfaction with the Atlanta Braves…
  • Homework for next Friday (1:08:35), including: more Top Chef: Houston, along with the Oscar-nominated film CODA on Apple TV+, the new Jake Johnson show Minx on HBO/HBO Max, the new Big Mouth spinoff Human Resources on Netflix, the new erotic thriller Deep Water on Hulu and the new Hulu show The Dropout about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos…

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The Toy Department – Episode 134

  By toyAdmin | September 18, 2018 - 11:08 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 134, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky belabor their show introduction before jumping headlong into:

  • Amazon’s new streaming show Forever (2:15) and why they guys’ views on it differ so extremely…
  • Hulu’s new Sean Penn vehicle The First (27:05), where Penn plays a very muscular (former?) astronaut and brings a dramatic weight that is not necessarily enjoyable…
  • Some thoughts on (probably) bad new shows (34:15) including A Million Little Things and Rel, plus plenty of re-made “classics”…
  • A check-in on Derek’s active-ish (40:00) NFL boycott and the league’s many problems, starting with its commissioner…
  • Season 2 of Netflix’s American Vandal (49:20) and how the mock-umentary is still immensely enjoyable despite somewhat diminishing returns on the concept…
  • A quick check-in on Season 2 of Ozark (54:55) and how both guys are having a blast with it despite a less glowing critical reception than Season 1…
  • Homework for next week (1:02:05), including: finishing the aforementioned season of Ozark, the premiere of Maniac on Netflix, the album Master Volume by The Dirty Nil and an attempt to get to the theater for the new Predator movie…

By the way, if you like this podcast, TELL A FRIEND!! And if you want to subscribe via iTunes/Stitcher/Google Play/etc. you can just click on the link below the player (and don’t forget to leave us a review!!)… And if you want to contact the Toy Department, it’s easy — find us at ToyDepartmentPod (at) gmail.com… or tweet us: @MaddenOnAir & @thekolsky.

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The Toy Department – Episode 6

  By toyAdmin | January 15, 2016 - 12:33 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 6, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky open with a brief discussion of football’s move to Los Angeles, before transitioning into a discussion of the life of the great David Bowie (6:30). Then transition into a long movie talk based around today’s announcement of Oscar nominations (14:45) that addresses the lack of diversity in nominees, among other things. Then it’s back to sports (32:30) for a discussion of the Bengals’ meltdown (or was it a meltdown??) at the end of their playoff loss to Pittsburgh and other postseason football issues. Then a minute or two on Sean Penn’s El Chapo interview ties things up at the end.

Oh, and if you want to subscribe via iTunes (and you really should), just CLICK HERE!! 

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