The Toy Department – Episode 182

In Episode 182, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky share an awkward moment over who loves the podcast most before getting to it with:

  • The new Bill Burr special on Netflix (1:50) and how the guys vary in their reception of his complaints about modern society…
  • The new Amazon Prime comedy Late Night (28:30) and how Mindy Kaling wrote a good, funny movie that was executed well…
  • The premiere of the final season of HBO’s The Deuce (36:25) and David Simon’s particularly incredible TV career…
  • Hulu’s new show Wu-Tang: An American Saga (45:30) and the overwhelming quantity of Wu-Tang content in the world right now…
  • Homework for next week (54:15), including: the Dennis Rodman 30 for 30 documentary, Good Talk with Anthony Jeselnik on Comedy Central, a check-in on MTV’s The Challenge and probably other stuff too…

The Toy Department – Episode 104

In a special, extra-long Episode 104 (hang in there, it’s totally worth your time) Derek Madden somehow earns another incomplete on his homework assignment, but he and Matt Kolsky still manage to dive DEEP into:

  • HBO’s Crashing (3:00) and the performance of Bill Burr on the excellent most recent episode…
  • The new Starz show Counterpart (9:15) featuring JK Simmons, and whether it’s compelling enough to convince people to pay for the network, which leads to a discussion of the modern TV landscape…
  • A check-in on Kolsky’s binge-watching of Parks & Rec (27:25) which is going swimmingly…
  • The Oscar-nominated film I, Tonya (33:15) and how its relationship with the facts and with real-life Tonya Harding might complicate a viewing of the film…
  • The new Paul Thomas Anderson film Phantom Thread (41:05) and all the things about it that are incredible, plus working through some thoughts and feelings about things that were confusing…
  • Super Bowl LII (1:13:35), specifically some of the delightful prop bets for this Sunday’s game, plus a fun bet on the game between Madden and Kolsky…
  • Homework for next week (1:39:05) including: Derek hopefully finally watching Mudbound and Darkest Hour, plus new albums from Justin Timberlake and Ty Segall and the new Netflix film A Futile & Stupid Gesture, about the early years of National Lampoon…

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.