The Toy Department – Episode 383

In Episode 383, Madden and Kolsky bicker about who bears more responsibility for their bizarre technical difficulties before jumping into:

  • This week on The Challenge All-Stars 4 (2:10) and old heads showing their muscles…
  • The latest from Top Chef Wisconsin (24:35) with a rough week for some good chefs and some badly cooked meat…
  • Michael Douglas’s turn as Ben Franklin for Apple TV+ (45:10) and whether the resulting Franklin makes enough of statecraft to have a worthwhile show…
  • Colin Farrell’s turn as a noir-style private detective (52:40) and what exactly seems to be going on in a broader sense on the Apple TV+ show Sugar…
  • The documentary Steve! (57:15) and the wild and crazy (and suddenly serene) life of Steve Martin…
  • Netflix’s new film Scoop (1:04:45) and the choice to tell a story the Prince Andrew story through the lens of “journalism”…
  • Homework for next week (1:10:20), including: more Top Chef Wisconsin, more of The Challenge All-Stars 4, HBO’s new Sunday night centerpiece The Sympathizer and Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout adaptation…

The Toy Department – Episode 20

In Episode 20, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky begin by lamenting their physical fitness – as all aging men are wont to do – before things get serious with Madden’s Beyoncé mea culpa (3:45). The conversation heads deeper into the music world with some discussion of Radiohead’s new single (17:10), which leads them into music release strategies for the modern world. Sports talk takes over  (30:10) with some breakdown of the wild final sequence of Game 2 between the Spurs and Thunder in the NBA Playoffs, and some resulting chatter about referees in general, before Madden and Kolsky address Fox’s hiring of sports “journalist” Skip Bayless (41:35). The show wraps with a little homework assignment from Madden (55:40) and a shout-out to our outgoing President.

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