The Toy Department – Episode 264

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…

The Toy Department – Episode 212

In Episode 212, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky dive right into:

  • This week’s restaurant wars episode of Top Chef (1:40) and the unsuspenseful upset that it delivered…
  • This week’s episode of The Challenge (17:10) and the many dangers of Total Madness…
  • Two more episodes of The Last Dance (34:50) and the singular maniacal drive of Michael Jordan…
  • The return of Showtime’s Billions (52:40) and whether there’s enough growth to keep the show’s momentum going…
  • HBO’s new skater show Betty (56:15) and whether a pilot episode with no pilot can grab your interest…
  • Upload on Amazon Prime (1:00:40), where it falls short and why it remains a reasonably enjoyable watch…
  • Hulu’s new show Normal People (1:04:20) and its unique, perhaps novelistic style…
  • Homework for next week (1:08:10), including: new episodes of Top Chef & The Challenge, two more episodes of The Last Dance, finishing this season of Brockmire, the second season of Dead to Me and Jerry Seinfeld’s new stand-up special (plus HBO’s new show I Know This Much is True, which was not mentioned)…