Tag Archives: soccer

The Toy Department – Episode 457

  By toyAdmin | June 3, 2026 - 2:27 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 457, Madden and Kolsky missed a week, so no time is wasted before discussions of:

  • An eventful two weeks on Top Chef (1:00), which sets us up for a humdinger of a finalé next week…
  • Tatiana Maslany’s new Apple TV+ show Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (30:50) and how her magnetism is at the center of an entertaining experience…
  • Netflix’s new Duffer Brothers-produced series The Boroughs (35:00) and how there are some pretty good pieces but neither host is particularly interested in the central storyline…
  • Netflix’s new crime thriller Nemesis (39:05) and how it’s a good version of a broad, good v. evil sort of populist TV show…
  • A look at the world of sports (45:45) with the NBA set for a Spurs-Knicks Finals, Arsenal winning the Premier League (but not the Champions League!) and the World Cup on deck…
  • Homework for some time next week (1:04:20), including: the finalé of Top Chef, the new Apple TV+ series Cape Fear and Kolsky catching up on the series finalés of Hacks, Euphoria and The Boys…

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The Toy Department – Episode 456

  By toyAdmin | May 20, 2026 - 11:28 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 456, Madden and Kolsky discuss their mutual inability to drink alcohol like in the good ole days before snapping their focus to:

  • Netflix’s documentary Untold UK: Jamie Vardy (4:10) and the absolutely incredible story of his rise to the Premier League and eventual league title with Leicester City FC…
  • Amazon Prime’s heist thriller Crime 101 (15:20) and how it’s a fun and pretty great version of a certain sort of movie…
  • A quick show detour to discuss the totality of HBO’s DTF St. Louis (20:55) and how it was a long journey to get there, but it ended up in a pretty solid place…
  • Netflix’s Martin Short documentary Marty: Life is Short (29:35) and how it does a great job of covering the public life of a venerated comedy entertainer…
  • This week’s relatively underwhelming episode of Top Chef (37:15), the ascension of Sherry and Seiger, and wondering whether we’ll ever leave the Carolinas…
  • Homework for next week (48:35), including: the next episode of Top Chef, Apple TV+’s new Tatiana Maslany show Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, the new Netflix show The Boroughs and the new hit Nemesis (also on Netflix)…

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The Toy Department – Episode 442

  By toyAdmin | January 16, 2026 - 12:23 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 442, Madden and Kolsky are FINALLY back after a LOOOOONG winter break to bring you the best in pop culture conversation, specifically regarding:

  • A couple minutes on the Toy Department Derby—Chelsea v Arsenal—that happened shortly before our return (2:30) and how nobody left satisfied…
  • The HBO documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley (6:50) and Kolsky’s bizarre cultural blind spot when it comes to this particular musician…
  • HBO’s other music documentary from the holidays, Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately (15:15) and how the film was less impactful despite a greater love for the band…
  • The movie F1 (30:10) and how it is essentially a classic sports film with plenty of good-looking and entertaining actors and also pretty predictable and not particularly memorable…
  • Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film Bugonia (36:10), how it differs from some of his previous work, and how much both of our hosts enjoyed it…
  • Dave Chappelle’s new special (43:40) and how he still has his fastball but he’s also still making some frustrating and disappointing choices…
  • Homework for next week (53:45), including: getting into The Night Manager (ten years late but on time for Season 2, on Amazon Prime Video), Netflix’s thriller series His & Hers, HBO’s latest Game of Thrones spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and the new 70’s spy thriller show PONIES on Peacock…

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The Toy Department – Episode 440

  By toyAdmin | December 5, 2025 - 12:00 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 440, Madden and Kolsky have a lot to discuss and very little time, so it’s right into:

  • The two episodes of TJ’s Final on The Challenge: Vets & New Threats (1:00), wrapping up an excellent 41st season with some high drama…
  • Netflix’s surprisingly delightful historical drama Death By Lightning (28:35) and the bizarre nature of history and legacy…
  • The second season of A Man on the Inside (34:50) which picks up right where the lovable first season left off…
  • The new Netflix thriller The Beast in Me (36:35) and how Claire Danes’ character (along with most of the others, frankly) is pretty unpleasant to be around…
  • Peacock’s missing child drama All Her Fault (40:15) and how it’s All Just Bad…
  • The Benedict Cumberbatch/Olivia Coleman rom/hate-com The Roses (45:05) and why one of our hosts liked it more than the other…
  • A few thoughts on last weekend’s Toy Department Derby (52:10) where Chelsea managed to fight to a draw despite going a man down in the first half…
  • Homework for TWO weeks from now (1:00:10) including: Noah Baumbach’s new Netflix movie Jay Kelly, the new Darren Aronofsky film Caught Stealing (also on Netflix), Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (yes, it’s on Netflix too), the HBO Music Box documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley and the 50 Cent-produced docu-series Sean Combs: The Reckoning (say it with me—IT’S ON NETFLIX)…

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The Toy Department – Episode 429

  By toyAdmin | August 8, 2025 - 6:22 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 429, Madden and Kolsky get into their relative appreciation of getting pounded with heavy metal before they buckle down on:

  • The new FX show Welcome to Necaxa (3:20) and how the Eva Longoria project resembles but is also very different from the Rob & Ryan project in Wrexham…
  • Kolsky’s failure to watch Chief of War (15:00) thanks to a miscommunication on last pod (so maybe it’s homework now?)…
  • Netflix’s bat-guano insane The Hunting Wives (16:30) and the utter mediocrity of its nudity-heavy nonsense…
  • The five hours of Billy Joel documentary on HBO (22:05), whether he deserved that length and where his legacy lands…
  • Amazon Prime Video’s teen drama sensation The Summer I Turned Pretty (46:35) and whether our hosts should suffer through the first season or two to get to the apparently very good third season… or are we just very old and out of touch?
  • Another exciting episode of The Challenge 41: Vets & New Threats (54:45) and an absolute banger of an elimination between two small rookie women who left everything they had in the ring…
  • Homework for TWO weeks from now (1:09:35), including: the next two episodes of The Challenge: Vets & New Threats, perhaps revisiting the well-reviewed Chief of War, Noah Hawley’s new FX show Alien Earth, the John Grisham television adaptation The Rainmaker on USA/Peacock and the new Dallas Cowboys/Jerry Jones documentary on Netflix…

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The Toy Department – Episode 426

  By toyAdmin | July 11, 2025 - 10:57 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 426, Madden and Kolsky spend entirely too long on Kolsky’s new cold brew coffee formula before shaking it off to discuss:

  • The police-procedural-style crime drama Dept. Q on Netflix (4:30) and why one of our hosts loved it and the other turned it off…
  • Apple TV+’s fire-crime-drama Smoke (10:05) and how, again, one of our hosts loved it and the other turned it off…
  • Some love for the newest season of The Bear (18:00) and what it looks like to make essentially perfect television…
  • Some soccer transfer talk (31:20) as the Club World Cup Final against PSG looms for Chelsea…
  • Homework for TWO weeks from now (44:00), including: the return of Michael C. Hall in Dexter: Resurrection, the new Charlize Theron action movie The Old Guard 2, Lena Dunham’s new show Too Much on Netflix and the Bosch spinoff Ballard on Amazon Prime Video…

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The Toy Department – Episode 406

  By toyAdmin | November 15, 2024 - 10:14 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 406, Madden and Kolsky spend a few minutes discussing mixtapes with an air of nostalgia before they lock into:

  • Another drama-filled episode of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras (5:10), a lot of main character energy from Johnny Bananas and the exploits of the surprisingly persistent EliMichele…
  • The exceedingly weird and bizarrely sparse film Janet Planet (26:15) from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker…
  • The much-ballyhooed Netflix film His Three Daughters (31:00) and the powerhouse performances from the three women at its center…
  • Peacock’s new action-thriller The Day of the Jackal (37:20) and whether it might be trying to do too much at once…
  • A few thoughts on the world of soccer (44:05) from the Chelsea-Arsenal draw to the USMNT’s uninspiring victory in Jamaica…
  • Homework for next time, three weeks from now (56:00), including: WHO THE HELL KNOWS, but surely a lot of Challenge talk…

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The Toy Department – Episode 403

  By toyAdmin | October 25, 2024 - 11:45 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 403, Madden and Kolsky briefly address their respective levels of exhaustion before jumping right into:

  • A big-time Bananas episode of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras (1:10) and what the “activation” of the ‘Nanaman means for the game moving forward…
  • Ali Wong’s new stand-up special Single Lady (31:30) and the talent to turn a divorce into an hour of comedy…
  • The return of Apple TV+ pod favorite Shrinking (37:40) and where season two seems to be taking our beloved cast of characters…
  • A smorgasbord of sports as the WNBA season ends (46:10), the NBA season begins (54:05) and the inevitable clash of Madden & Kolsky’s Premier League teams draws closer (57:50)…
  • Homework for next week (59:30), including: another episode of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras, Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut Woman of the Hour, Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara on Hulu and the new Billy Crystal drama Before on Apple TV+…

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The Toy Department – Episode 395

  By toyAdmin | August 8, 2024 - 9:12 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 395, Madden and Kolsky talk a little Lollapalooza before homing in on:

  • Apple TV+’s comedic entry Time Bandits (7:10) and Derek Madden’s distaste for the rather specific Monty Python vibe…
  • The new Apple TV+ drama Lady in the Lake (14:15) and whether it qualifies as a “gourmet cheeseburger…”
  • A few thoughts on the idea of the gourmet cheeseburger (22:10) and shows enjoying second life via the algorithm…
  • The Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black (24:40) and how and where it falls flat…
  • A brief Olympics discussion (31:50) as the games have dominated our hosts’ attention for the last couple weeks…
  • Homework for next week (40:25), including: the return of The Challenge for a (hopefully) epic Season 40, the Matt Damon/Casey Affleck movie The Instigators (on Apple TV+) and the Steph Curry mockumentary Mr. Throwback on Peacock…

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The Toy Department – Episode 393

  By toyAdmin | July 12, 2024 - 1:38 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 393, Madden and Kolsky discuss their canned-champagne problems (including Kolsky’s urgent need of a plumber) before conversations about:

  • The third season of Hulu’s flagship dramedy The Bear (4:35) and whether it stands up to the incredibly high standard set by its first two seasons…
  • The Dakota Johnson film Am I Ok? (19:15) and the text message Derek sent to Kolsky while he was watching it…
  • The sickle-cell-superhero show Supacell on Netflix (33:15) and the cultural value of message-driven shows in this particular genre…
  • The stand-up comedy of Ali Siddiq (39:50) and his recent four-special series about his life…
  • A few thoughts on the state of USA Men’s soccer (48:25) as they seek to replace Gregg Berhalter…
  • Homework for next week (1:13:05), including: the Rashida Jones show Sunny on Apple TV+, the new film Problemista on Max, Eddie Murphy’s return in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F on Netflix and the new Sausage Party show on Amazon Prime Video…

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