The Toy Department – Episode 403

In Episode 403, Madden and Kolsky briefly address their respective levels of exhaustion before jumping right into:

  • A big-time Bananas episode of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras (1:10) and what the “activation” of the ‘Nanaman means for the game moving forward…
  • Ali Wong’s new stand-up special Single Lady (31:30) and the talent to turn a divorce into an hour of comedy…
  • The return of Apple TV+ pod favorite Shrinking (37:40) and where season two seems to be taking our beloved cast of characters…
  • A smorgasbord of sports as the WNBA season ends (46:10), the NBA season begins (54:05) and the inevitable clash of Madden & Kolsky’s Premier League teams draws closer (57:50)…
  • Homework for next week (59:30), including: another episode of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras, Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut Woman of the Hour, Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara on Hulu and the new Billy Crystal drama Before on Apple TV+…

The Toy Department – Episode 402

In Episode 402, Madden and Kolsky discuss their great lost episode, and attempt to recreate some of the magic you missed last week as they cover:

  • The last two episodes of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras (2:00), including the gladiatorial greatness of Derrick Kosinski and the age-defying dominance of Rachel Robinson…
  • A sprint through the un-aired conversations from last week about: the Pitt/Clooney film Wolfs (26:05), the new HBO comedy The Franchise (27:10) and Mark Duplass’ quietly impactful Penelope (30:15)…
  • The Netflix documentary Will & Harper (32:25) and how it walks a fine line between laughs and love to produce a tremendous study of America and friendship…
  • The NBA-focused docu-series Starting 5 on Netflix (38:55) and how it delivers watchability and entertainment even if it doesn’t deliver much basketball…
  • Apple TV+’s new big-ticket drama Disclaimer (54:50) and how it’s all twisted around and structured in a way that makes it difficult to process…
  • Homework for next week (1:05:30), including: another episode of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras, the second season of Shrinking on Apple TV+, the new Ali Wong stand-up special Single Lady on Netflix and watching Game 4 of the WNBA Finals so you can try to find Derek Madden in the crowd…