Tag Archives: Apple TV+

The Toy Department – Episode 287

  By toyAdmin | January 18, 2022 - 12:00 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 287, Madden and Kolsky are BACK (at long last!) to cover a MYRIAD of pop culture topics… and don’t worry, we cut out most of the COVID conversation so it’s basically straight into:

  • Aaron Sorkin’s Amazon Prime film Being the Ricardos (4:35) and how it’s a poorly cast, oddly framed and ultimately kind of pointless look at Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz…
  • The Matrix Resurrections on HBO Max (8:35) and how it was a pretty enjoyable action flick but not really anything special or mind-blowing…
  • Disney+’s The Book of Boba Fett (13:10) and how it doesn’t live up to The Mandalorian’s high standard in the first couple episodes, but it probably deserves some time to achieve that level…
  • The Apple TV+ film Swan Song (15:00) and how tremendous performances from Mahershala Ali, Glenn Close and Awkwafina bring an incredibly subtle but deeply moving film to life…
  • The HBO Max post-apocalyptic series Station 11 (21:30) and how it really came together beautifully and is, in the end, a hopeful and uplifting version of the world…
  • The return of HBO’s Euphoria (33:25) and how it delivers the same beautiful cinematography and fascinating storytelling that you may remember from its first season…
  • The end of Season 1 of Showtime’s Yellowjackets (40:50) and how thrilling and entertaining and well-acted it was, plus some excitement over the potential for Season 2…
  • The end of The Challenge All-Stars 2 (50:10) and the new level we expect the Challenge’s senior circuit to hit with the quickly-coming Season 3…
  • A few thoughts on the NFL Playoffs (1:10:00) after a largely boring “Super” Wild Card Weekend…
  • Homework for next Tuesday (1:16:40), including: Abbott Elementary on ABC/Hulu, Pivoting on Fox/Hulu, How I Met Your Father on JUST Hulu and HBO’s new Duplass show Somebody Somewhere, plus the new season of Netflix’s Ozark… (and don’t miss the post-show out-take, we say the F word a lot 🙂

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The Toy Department – Episode 284

  By toyAdmin | December 3, 2021 - 12:49 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 284, Madden and Kolsky spend a few minutes talking about a musician Kolsky just discovered before getting to:

  • Kevin Hart’s new Netflix series True Story (4:55) and how a lot of good acting is not really enough to save a mediocre plot…
  • The absolutely insane conclusion to Season 2 of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show (20:05) and how this sort of soapy silliness happens on the watch of so many great actors…
  • The new film King Richard (30:45) and how good Will Smith is in Venus and Serena Williams’ tribute to their incredibly unique father…
  • The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies (43:55) and just what the major elimination twist will be, plus the unbelievable career of CT and some informal player power rankings as we head into the final…
  • The latest from The Challenge All-Stars 2 (1:02:00), from the lovable insanity of Ayanna to the strange decision-making of Steve after an entertaining trivia challenge…
  • Homework for next Thursday (1:17:55), including: more of The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies, AND more Challenge All-Stars, the new Beatles docu-series Get Back, the new Amazon Prime show Harlem, the new HBO show Landscapers and the musician Jacob Collier…

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The Toy Department – Episode 278

  By toyAdmin | October 22, 2021 - 1:28 pm | Uncategorized
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In Episode 278, Madden and Kolsky talk about Derek’s continuing music-based travels before moving on to…

  • The Todd Haynes documentary Velvet Underground on Apple TV+ (2:20) and how it’s not so good that it demands the attention of non-Velvet Underground fans…
  • The return of HBO’s Succession (8:05) and how the show remains impeccable and utterly unique…
  • The new Paramount Plus film Queenpins (11:40) and how it doesn’t quite deliver on its comedic promise…
  • The latest on The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies (16:30) and the moves by Ed and Kyle that defined this week’s episode of the game…
  • A few quick sports thoughts with the return of the NBA (35:10) and the continuing MLB Playoffs…
  • Homework for next Thursday (38:10), including: more of The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies, the new film Dune on HBO Max, the return of Issa Rae’s Insecure for its final season, AND the MLB Playoffs AND AND the early NBA season…

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The Toy Department – Episode 276

  By toyAdmin | October 7, 2021 - 11:17 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 276, Madden and Kolsky get into a little Austin City Limits story time before diving into:

  • HBO’s The Many Saints of Newark (7:20), how much THIS show enjoyed it and how far it goes beyond fan service…
  • Jon Stewart’s new Apple TV+ show (19:15) and how the format it seems to be going with is somewhat exhausting…
  • A turning point episode on The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies (25:35) and how the game will change moving into the second half of the season…
  • Homework for next Thursday (49:20), including: more of The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies, plus checking out the Netflix sensation Squid Game and the new Dave Chappelle standup special The Closer (also on Netflix) AND the many exciting sporting events that will happen before we next meet…

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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 269

  By toyAdmin | July 27, 2021 - 11:28 am | Uncategorized
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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…

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The Toy Department – Episode 264

  By toyAdmin | June 22, 2021 - 11:20 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 264, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky get into some NBA Playoffs issues before jumping out of the sports world and into some television to move through:

  • The latest from Top Chef: Portland (11:40), and how it took a miscarriage of justice to get us to the final three we probably wanted all along…
  • A comparison between the two new shows Physical (on Apple TV+) and AMC’s Kevin Cann F*** Himself (22:30) and how neither is entirely successful but each of our hosts has a preference for one over the other…
  • A comparison between two returning pod favorites in FX’s Dave and HBO’s Betty (34:15) and how both are wildly enjoyable and have very specific (and endearing) vibes…
  • A thorough breakdown of Entertainment Weekly’s (often misguided) list of the best Challenge contestants of all time (48:15) and where and how they went wrong in their rankings…
  • Homework for next Tuesday (1:03:25), including: more Top Chef in Portland, more NBA Playoffs action, a Netflix documentary called This Is Pop, HBO’s new special episode of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and The Choe Show on FX/Hulu…

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The Toy Department – Episode 252

  By toyAdmin | March 16, 2021 - 10:58 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 252, Madden tries to waylay Kolsky with a “fuck Woody Allen” message to open the show, but they quickly move on to:

  • The new season of Last Chance U (3:00) covering the East LA College basketball team, what moving to basketball does for the series and some of the best characters from the first couple episodes…
  • The new Netflix film Moxie! (22:05), how original and uniquely delightful it turned out to be, and the impending superstardom of Alycia Pascua-Peña…
  • Apple TV+’s signature series The Morning Show (33:40) and how — while certainly imperfect — it’s a very watchable show with a lot of good acting…
  • Homework for next Tuesday (45:20), including: Marvel’s new TV series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+, Netflix’s new documentary Operation Varsity Blues about Hollywood’s college admissions scandal, the Oscar-nominated Mads Mikkelsen movie Another Round and the Oscar-nominated Steven Yeun film Minari… and DON’T MISS our coverage of The Challenge: Double Agents on Thursday!!!

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The Toy Department – Episode 243

  By toyAdmin | January 12, 2021 - 11:03 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 243, Madden and Kolsky are (unsuccessfully, again) aiming for a short episode, so they dive right into:

  • The new Tiger Woods documentary on HBO (2:40) and how it spins a fascinating story around a rather uninteresting personality…
  • The too-widely-acclaimed How To with John Wilson (20:05) and how the odd but unexceptional HBO Max show fails to live up to its billing…
  • The Apple TV+ original Mythic Quest (27:00), where Kolsky stopped watching and why Madden thinks it’s worth sticking with it…
  • The Netflix docu-series History of Swear Words (33:25) and the enjoyable comedy of filthy language…
  • Some quick sports thoughts — on the NBA’s COVID issues (39:50) and the NFL’s first Super Wild Card Weekend (49:25)…
  • Homework for of next Tuesday (1:02:45), including: the second part of HBO’s Tiger documentary, the new film Promising Young Woman (available on VOD), the Amazon Prime film One Night in Miami (directed by Regina King) and the third film in the Small Axe Series — Red, White and Blue; plus MORE NFL playoffs and NBA basketball… and DON’T MISS our coverage of The Challenge: Double Agents on Thursday!!!

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The Toy Department – Episode 232

  By toyAdmin | October 21, 2020 - 11:20 am | Uncategorized
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In Episode 232, Madden and Kolsky make the mistake of getting into a Toobin conversational car crash (which was cut for your listening pleasure) before focusing on less disturbing fare:

  • The Showtime docu-series The Comedy Store (2:40) and the place that room holds in stand-up comedy history and lore…
  • Aaron Sorkin’s Netflix film The Trial of the Chicago 7 (13:30) and how both hosts found it enjoyable and informative…
  • The Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso (21:00) and its irresistible charm…
  • David Byrne’s American Utopia (26:55) and the general brilliance of one of our greatest musical and artistic minds…
  • The conclusion of HBO’s Lovecraft Country (36:35) and how it didn’t totally satisfy either host, though they’d both tune in for a second season…
  • A few quick NFL thoughts (42:40) about how nobody stands out as a great team through six games…
  • Homework for next week (46:40), including: the Sofia Coppola/Bill Murray movie On the Rocks (on Apple TV+), the new HBO show The Undoing, the Netflix mini-series The Queen’s Gambit, the West Wing reunion special on HBO Max and the Netflix movie The Boys in the Band… plus Week 7 of the NFL season…

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