The Challenge Reunion – The Toy Department

The Toy Department – Episode 334

In Episode 334, Madden and Kolsky toy with the concept of a baseball discussion they are not yet ready to have before getting into today’s business:

The conclusion of The Challenge: Ride or Dies Reunion (2:50) and a look ahead to next week’s debut of The Challenge: World Championship…
The return of Party Down on Starz (18:40) and how it is just as laugh-out-loud funny as it ever was, with some exciting new guest appearances to boot…
The Oscar-nominated film The Woman King (23:00) and how — like most of this year’s nominees — it left our hosts wanting more and wondering if there was a standout film to be had in the bunch…
Amazon Prime’s incomprehensible thriller-comedy The Consultant (27:00) and whether anything has ever made less sense…
Homework for next week (34:55), including: the Oscar-nominated Women Talking (rentable for streaming), Hulu’s The History of the World Part II from Mel Brooks and company, and the fake-band bio-series Daisy Jones and the Six… PLUS the premiere of The Challenge: World Championship on Paramount+ AND the premiere of Top Chef Season 20 (World All-Stars) on Bravo…

In Episode 333, Madden and Kolsky are on a deadline, so they jump straight into:

Part 1 of The Challenge: Ride or Dies Reunion (1:20) and all the many dramatic spats therein…
Netflix’s new teen crime series Fakes (18:25) and how it’s going for a quirky-and-lovable style that it simply doesn’t execute as well as some recent British comedies of a similar ilk…
Marc Maron’s new HBO stand-up special From Bleak to Dark (25:30) and how he is operating at an incredibly high level as a comedian…
Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical film The Fabelmans (30:00) and how it is exceptionally well-executed but not particularly ambitious or interesting beyond it being the story of a very famous filmmaker…
Homework for next week (36:20), including: Oscar-nominated The Woman King (now on Netflix), Amazon Prime’s new thriller-comedy The Consultant and the return of Party Down on Starz… PLUS the second reunion episode of The Challenge: Ride or Dies…

In Episode 222, Madden and Kolsky start with a discussion of babies and zoos before getting into:

The second week of The Challenge: Total Madness Reunion (5:00) and the general let-down of this season’s end…
The return of HBO’s Room 104 (21:10) and just how delightful the first episode of this season was, even if it doesn’t make the show feel essential…
The new Amazon Prime film Radioactive (28:20) and some of the curious choices made by the filmmakers…
The return of sports (32:45) with MLB already underway (for now, at least), the NBA set to start and the NFL opening training camps…
Homework for next week (52:45), including: the new season of Umbrella Academy on Netflix, the fifth season of the Netflix docu-series Last Chance U, the new Go-Go’s documentary on Showtime, the end of HBO’s docu-series I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and revisiting HBO’s Perry Mason…
The new Taylor Swift record Folklore (57:15) and how it doesn’t quite resonate with either of our hosts…

In Episode 194, Derek Madden and Matt Kolsky went with a second straight Toy Department After Dark (and a day late), with focus on:

The season (and potentially series) finale of Watchmen on HBO (3:25), and how its slow build to the end rewarded viewers with another great Damon Lindelof show…
The new Netflix film Marriage Story (12:35) and the guys’ differing views on its success as a story of divorce…
The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2 Reunion special (27:35) and the assorted dramatics that took place there…
19 for 19 (40:55)… Also known as year-end BEST OF lists from each of your hosts…
Homework for after the holidays (1:21:05), including: the Netflix cartoon Tuca and Bertie, four movies — the Amazon film The Report, Parasite, the new Star Wars film and the new Adam Sandler vehicle Uncut Gems– and trying the show Unbelievable on Netflix…