The Toy Department – Episode 415

In Episode 415, Madden and Kolsky briefly recount Derek’s London experience before diving into:

  • The last two weeks of The Challenge All-Stars: Rivals (5:50) featuring plenty of drama and the elimination of a major favorite…
  • A trio of Netflix content:
    • The new basketball comedy Running Point (20:45), the Mindy-ness of it all and whether it passes muster with its basketball knowledge…
    • Olympic basketball docu-series Court of Gold (25:40) and the wonderful world of basketball’s many stars…
    • The new limited series Zero Day (30:30) and whether the content stands up to the massively talented cast…
  • Homework for next week (38:50), including: another episode of The Challenge All-Stars: Rivals, the return of Top Chef (this time in Canada), Bill Simmons’ documentary series Celtics City on Max and the new Hulu comedy series Deli Boys…

The Toy Department – Episode 323

In Episode 323, Madden and Kolsky discuss Kolsky’s upcoming vacation and the challenges of parenthood before locking into pop culture to cover:

  • The group stage round of the World Cup (5:00) and some thoughts on the USMNT’s overall performance…
  • The Netflix documentary series FIFA Uncovered (16:50) and the rampant corruption that has polluted the soccer world’s governing body…
  • The Netflix documentary film Stutz (30:45), which was a terrible experience for one of our hosts and an intriguing experience for the other…
  • Hulu’s new series Welcome to Chippendales (39:35) and how it takes a couple episodes but becomes an awful lot of fun with some excellent acting performances…
  • Tim Burton’s new Netflix series Wednesday (44:15), whether its charm is enough to carry it and some thoughts on Burton’s poor record with actors of color…
  • The last two episodes of The Challenge: Ride or Dies (50:05), what the guys think of this season’s format after hearing some criticism, the many bad decisions of Nelly T and a look forward to the coming twist…
  • Homework for TWO Friday’s from now (1:17:50), including: the new Paramount+ rom-com show The Flatshare, season two of Apple TV+’s Slow Horses, Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion Pinocchio on Netflix, Showtime’s George & Tammy series and OF COURSE the next TWO episodes of The Challenge: Ride or Dies…