My wife walked through our living room after making herself a bowl of yogurt and granola Saturday night, and upon seeing me watch the 6-Man Ladder Match from NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, offered an astute observation. "I've never seen you watch so much wrestling." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLn_ghXfkbo Now, I wouldn't say I am a bigger wrestling fan…
Category: TV
The Americans on FX Intersected Hockey and The Cold War
There’s not a lot to criticize when it comes to The Americans, whose final season debuts Wednesday on FX. It's technically brilliant and emotionally engaging with an unsurpassed attention to detail. Several critics have called it the best show on TV, and it's hard to argue. But, in a show featuring Soviet spies embedded in…
I Emailed Cobra Kai, and What Followed Made My Day
Perhaps you have seen advertisements for YouTube's exclusive series Cobra Kai, a follow-up to the 1984 film Karate Kid. Now, I have railed previously in this space against Hollywood's creatively empty reliance on reboots and adaptations, but I will admit Cobra Kai piqued my interest. Comedic spins on old properties produced hilarious results with 2004's…
Q&A: NCAA Basketball Scandal; TV Reboots
The Open Man Q&A is here for you, playing your requests. Just call me The DJ from The Warriors, my babies. Can you dig it? This week's edition features the ongoing NCAA basketball "scandal," which isn't all that scandalous, but has overshadowed the upcoming Tournament. With the Dance tipping off two weeks from today, The…
Reboots, Sequels and the Killing of Creativity
CBS plans to reboot Murphy Brown, a popular television series that began its initial run 30 years ago and ended 20 years ago. This decision follows NBC relaunching Will & Grace, Netflix picking up the misadventures of the Tanners on Fuller House, the Disney Channel introducing Girl Meets World and ABC planning a Roseanne reboot…
Q&A: 2018 Pac-12 Football; Scott Frost Shaking Up The Big Ten
Welcome to The Open Man Q&A! To submit your questions on sports, movies, literature, TV, music or life, tweet @kensing45 or @the_open_man. You can also email kyle@theopenman.com. While FBS had just one game in the last two weeks, the period could not accurately be referred to as a dormancy. Hardly. College football is a beehive…
All I Want For Christmas is Joel Embiid on Always Sunny
If you’re a fan of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and who isn’t, there’s a decent chance you’re in the midst of re-binging the series that’s masterfully combined the best elements of Seinfeld and South Park to become TV’s best sitcom. A licensing agreement between 20th Century Fox and Netflix is coming to an end, which…
Bad Shows That Lasted Longer Than Barstool Van Talk
After just one episode, ESPN cancelled Barstool Van Talk, thus ending a controversial and short run in which Barstool Sports and ESPN collaborated to try to capitalize on the success and popularity of the acclaimed Pardon My Take podcast. Barstool Van Talk's short run brought up the question: Which awful shows lasted longer? Friend…
The 10 Greatest Sports Comedy Sketches
Saturday Night Live returns this week for the premier of its 43rd season, and two topics the legendary sketch comedy show have never shied away from lampooning are politics and sports. Given the week we've just had, with those two parts of our society intersecting in an almost unprecedented way, you can just about bank…
How I Would Script: A Left Behind Limited Series
How I Would Script is a weekly column at The Open Man by Joseph Nardone. In it, our favorite, most handsome Internet Scribbler maps out how he would recreate whatever TV show or movie that is on his mind. Have a suggestion? Hit him on Twitter @JosephNardone. This is probably our strangest How I Would Script yet, as we're…
How I Would Script: A Law & Order Soft Reset
How I Would Script is a weekly column at The Open Man by Joseph Nardone. In it, our favorite, most handsome Internet Scribbler maps out how he would recreate whatever TV show or movie that is on his mind. Have a suggestion? Hit him on Twitter @JosephNardone. Law & Order is a monster of a franchise. From the original,…
Friday Q&A: Best Sunny Episodes; Sleeping on Washington Football?
The Open Man weekly* Q&A isn't just a forum for your college football and basketball questions. In fact, some of the best reader-submitted material deviates, as this week's question on the best Sunny episodes of all-time demonstrates. For those who don't know -- and really, why would you? -- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ranks…
Friday Q&A: Silicon Valley Takes on Pac-12 Football
A key component of the Pac-12's branding emphasizes its regional ties to Silicon Valley and Hollywood. The conference spotlights these ties at the beginning of each football season with media days at a major film studio lot, and at the end with the Championship Game held in Santa Clara. Ahead of the 2017 college football…
Tour De Pharmacy Shows Why We Need More Mockumentaries
Tour De Pharmacy, the latest mockumentary from Andy Samberg, Murray Miller and Jake Szmanski, debuted Saturday night on HBO. And like it's predecessor 7 Days In Hell, a Wimbledon spoof, this look at doping in the world of cycling was hilariously ridiculous and raunchy. It's the second installment of their Legends of Sport series and…
Cody Bellinger doesn’t know Seinfeld, but Seinfeld knows baseball
Pretty much every American older than 30 was in for a sad shock over the weekend when Los Angeles Dodgers phenom Cody Bellinger was on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt and admitted he didn't really know who Jerry Seinfeld was. That stings for those of us old enough to have enjoyed the classic sitcom Seinfeld…