Jessie Buckley – The Toy Department

The Toy Department – Episode 365

In Episode 365, Madden and Kolsky discuss Derek’s rock-and-roll travels before getting to today’s pod business:

The latest from a double-episode week of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion (3:20), including the impending chaos portion of the game and thoughts on the exciting crop of developing you lady contestants…
The Hulu movie Quiz Lady (43:05) and how it doesn’t make good enough use of its two leading ladies or its big-name guest star…
The new Apple TV+ film Fingernails (48:50) and yet another project that tragically fails to add up to the appropriate sum of its parts…
Netflix’s new Shea Serrano-created series Neon (57:15) and how he once again delivers a joyful series with clever writing and a deeply endearing heart…
Homework for next week (1:05:20), including: another episode of The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion, the new David Fincher movie The Killer on Netflix, the new Nathan Fielder/Emma Stone show The Curse on Showtime/Paramount+ and the Australian show Colin from Accounts on Paramount+…

In Episode 236, Madden and Kolsky do some show housekeeping and discuss Netflix’s shiftiness before diving into:

The madness of this season of The Bachelorette (8:35) and how it compares to other love reality shows…
A check-in on pod favorite Fargo (30:30) and the beautiful oddities of Noah Hawley’s work throughout the show…
The start of Season 4 of The Crown (37:30) and whether the British royal family is worth engaging with for entertainment…
A wrap-up of The Good Lord Bird (44:20) and the hosts’ differing opinions on the strange John Brown bio-series…
A final chat about everyone’s new favorite Netflix show, The Queen’s Gambit (51:25), and the allure of lead actress Anya Taylor-Joy…
Some NBA thoughts (59:30) with the draft and free agency on our doorstep specifically on what Minnesota and Golden State are likely to do with the first two picks…
Homework for TWO weeks from now (1:12:45), including: I Hate Suzie and Two Weeks To Live (both on HBO Max), Showtime’s John Belushi documentary, the resurrected Saved By The Bell, Kevin Hart’s new Netflix comedy special and the sword-making reality show Forged in Fire… plus Weeks 11 & 12 of the NFL season and the NBA offseason…

In Episode 230, Madden and Kolsky compare themselves to playoff baseball before moving into the realm of popular fiction to cover:

The new Netflix show Sneakerheads (4:10) and how it just fails to distinguish itself in any way…
Showtime’s two-part movie The Comey Rule (9:40) and the hosts’ drastically differing opinions on it…
The start of Season 4 of Fargo on FX (31:40) and how the show retains its signature charms…
Amazon’s new show Utopia (54:10) and what a creative and original project it seems to be…
A few thoughts on the NBA Finals (1:02:15) and the last couple weeks of NFL football (1:05:10)…
Homework for next week (1:13:45), including: Showtime’s new series The Good Lord Bird (starring Ethan Hawke), HBO Max’s original movie Charm City Kings (starring Meek Mill), AMC’s new series Soulmates, the new Netflix movie 40-Year-Old Version and the first couple episodes of The Comedy Store docu-series on Showtime… plus the potential end of the NBA Finals and Week 5 of the NFL season…

In Episode 228, Madden and Kolsky steel themselves to work through arguably the weirdest content week in Toy Department history, featuring:

The exceedingly weird Netflix film I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2:05) from the mind of Charlie Kaufman…
The new HBO series We Are Who We Are (25:20) and what the guys make of some weird vibes and a lack of background or explication in the first episode…
The new HBO mini-series The Third Day (36:25) and what exactly is happening with both the airing of the show and the content…
Hulu’s new Lamorne Morris-starring show Woke (46:25) and how it’s a nice place to spend some time…
The topsy-turvy NBA Playoffs (52:10) and what the Nuggets’ big upset of the Clippers means…
A few thoughts on Week One of NFL action (1:19:35), featuring the San Francisco 49ers’ somewhat surprising loss to Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals…
Homework for next week (1:25:55), including: the probably terrible new Fox show LA’s Finest, the new season of PEN15 on Hulu and the new Netflix/Ryan Murphy show Ratched… plus MOAR NBA Playoffs and Week 2 of the NFL season…