Sarah Welch – The Toy Department

The Toy Department – Episode 302

In Episode 302, Madden and Kolsky discuss a new addition to the Kolsky family before switching over to their critical pop culture concerns:

The newest entry in the Star Wars canon, Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi (5:30) and how it just isn’t nearly as enjoyable (or original) as our hosts had hoped…
The insanely un-funny Rhys Darby standup special Mystic Time Bird (13:25) and both guys’ general confusion about what exactly happened here…
HBO Max’s Our Flag Means Death (17:40) and how Taika Waititi has once again produced a very funny television show that essentially harnesses the silliness of a workplace comedy into a ship full of (mediocre) pirates…
The absolutely spectacular finale of Top Chef: Houston (20:40), the beautiful dinners prepared by the three finalists and some thoughts on what was an elite season of the long-running reality series…
The latest from The Challenge: All-Stars 3 (31:05) and how Beth is an absolute piece of garbage who should never be invited back, plus strategy concerns for the high-level players that remain…
Reaction to Game 1 of the NBA Finals (1:01:25) and what it means for the rest of a series that will hopefully be long and entertaining…
Homework for next Friday (1:20:30), including: more of The Challenge: All-Stars 3, the new Danny Boyle-directed FX show Pistol (about the Sex Pistols), the new season of Amazon’s The Boys, Norm Macdonald’s posthumous-release stand-up special Nothing Special on Netflix and the new Adam Sandler film Hustle (also on Netflix)…

In Episode 294, Madden and Kolsky briefly address Derek’s disappointment with US Soccer before moving through:

Reaction to last night’s Top Chef: Houston episode (2:30), the remarkable technical skills needed for the doppelgänger challenge and who’s in the driver’s seat moving forward…
The absurdity of the psycho-erotic thriller Deep Water (25:25) and just how little sense the whole messy mess made…
The wonderful and rightfully Oscar-nominated CODA (32:15) and how this little movie charmed it’s way to big success…
HBO Max’s new Jake Johnson showcase Minx (41:50) and what a fun ride it is…
The Big Mouth spinoff Human Resources (46:40) and how it’s funny enough to watch but missing a lot of the original’s best features…
The latest in real-life-entrepreneur-gone-bad television, Hulu’s The Dropout (49:35), and how Amanda Seyfried’s phenomenal work is not enough to suck in one of our hosts…
Homework for next Friday (1:02:30), including: more Top Chef: Houston, along with the return of Donald Glover’s Atlanta on FX, the new Hulu show Life and Beth (starring Amy Schumer and Michael Cera), and HBO Max’s new limited series DMZ (starring Rosario Dawson and Benjamin Bratt)…

In Episode 293, Madden and Kolsky touch a little bit on a thrilling Day 1 of the college basketball tournament before moving on to:

This week’s episode of Top Chef (2:50), Sam Kang’s potato problems and just how competitive this season is after just three episodes…
Apple TV+’s Ben Stiller-directed show Severance (21:15) and how fascinating it is, both in concept and in execution…
Another Apple show, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (28:00) and how it comes together over the first two episodes with an interesting premise and some really good performances from Samuel L. Jackson and Dominique Fishback in particular…
Showtime’s based-on-reality SuperPumped (35:55) and how Kolsky’s disgust with the people this show is based on makes it tough for him to enjoy it…
The new Paul Thomas Anderson joint Licorice Pizza (47:50), how much fun it was, and why it is so much better than some of the over-celebrated Oscar movies we’ve talked about on past shows…
Some Oscars thoughts (58:40) about the nominees and also the changes to the television show, which somehow leads us to Derek’s dissatisfaction with the Atlanta Braves…
Homework for next Friday (1:08:35), including: more Top Chef: Houston, along with the Oscar-nominated film CODA on Apple TV+, the new Jake Johnson show Minx on HBO/HBO Max, the new Big Mouth spinoff Human Resources on Netflix, the new erotic thriller Deep Water on Hulu and the new Hulu show The Dropout about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos…

In Episode 292, Madden and Kolsky briefly address the sad news of the passing of Derek’s dog before brightening everyone’s spirits with:

This week’s episode of Top Chef: Houston (1:50) and just how high the level of execution appears to be in the early part of the season…
HBO’s new Lakers-focused show Winning Time (22:20), how much fun it is and some of the excellent performances in the first episode…
The Oscar-nominated Guillermo Del Toro film Nightmare Alley (33:50) and how it sucked both hosts in with a gripping and visually striking noir story…
The return of the original Law & Order (41:35) and what makes the OG the best version of the now widely spun-off concept…
The new cartoon short series The Boys: Diabolical (49:00) and how it’s more or less exactly what you’d expect and not particularly important for any reason…
Homework for next Friday (51:25), including: more Top Chef: Houston, along with the Apple TV+ series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (starring Sam Jackson) and Severance (directed by Ben Stiller), the Oscar-nominated Paul Thomas Anderson film Licorice Pizza and the Showtime show SuperPumped about the battle for Uber…