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Alan Sepinwall (born October 19, 1973) is an American television reviewer and writer. He spent 14 years as a columnist with ''
The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' was the largest circulation newspaper in New Jersey. It is based in Newark, New Jersey. The newspaper ceased print publication on February 2, 2025, but continues to publish a digital edition. In 2007, ''The Star-Ledger''s ...
'' in Newark until leaving the newspaper in 2010 to work for the entertainment news website HitFix. He then wrote for ''
Uproxx Uproxx Studios (stylized as ''UPROXX'') is an American music, entertainment and popular culture website and content studio. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater. The website was acquired in 2014 by Woven Digital (which later ...
'', where he worked for two years. Since 2018, he has been the chief TV critic for ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
''. Sepinwall began writing about television with reviews of ''
NYPD Blue ''NYPD Blue'' is an American police procedural television series set in New York City, exploring the struggles of the fictional 15th Precinct detective squad in Manhattan. Each episode typically intertwines several plots involving an ensemble ca ...
'' while attending the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
, which led to his job at ''The Star-Ledger''. In 2007, immediately after ''
The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey American Mafia, Mafia boss who suffers from panic attacks. He reluct ...
'' ended, series creator
David Chase David Henry Chase (born August 22, 1945) is an American writer, producer, and director. He is best known for being the creator, head writer, and executive producer of the HBO drama ''The Sopranos'', which aired for six seasons between 1999 and 2 ...
granted his sole interview to Sepinwall. In 2009, Sepinwall openly urged NBC to renew the action-comedy series ''
Chuck Chuck () is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to: People Arts and entertainment * Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet * Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV produce ...
'', and NBC Entertainment co-president Ben Silverman sarcastically credited Sepinwall for the show's revival. Slate.com said Sepinwall "changed the nature of television criticism" and called him the "acknowledged king of the form" with regard to weekly episode recaps and reviews. Sepinwall and television critic Dan Fienberg hosted a podcast at HitFix called ''Firewall & Iceberg'', in which they discussed and reviewed television until October 2015. During his time at Uproxx, Sepinwall hosted a podcast called ''TV Avalanche'' with fellow television critic Brian Grubb.


Early life and education

Sepinwall grew up in Pine Brook,
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
. His father, Jerry, was a psychopharmacologist, and his mother, Harriet, is a former professor of social studies education at the College of St. Elizabeth in
Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a Town (New Jersey), town in and the county seat of Morris County, New Jersey, Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
. Sepinwall attended Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex in Caldwell, New Jersey. He studied at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
, where he began writing television reviews during his sophomore year in 1993. Sepinwall was later critical of his writings from this period, describing it as full of "misspellings, bad grammar and, even worse, observations that make me cringe".


Career

In the 1990s, Sepinwall was a particular fan of the ABC police drama ''
NYPD Blue ''NYPD Blue'' is an American police procedural television series set in New York City, exploring the struggles of the fictional 15th Precinct detective squad in Manhattan. Each episode typically intertwines several plots involving an ensemble ca ...
'' and wrote reviews of the show on
Usenet newsgroup A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are not only discussion groups or conversations, but also a repository to publish articles, start ...
s. Those reviews helped lead Sepinwall to begin a career in television journalism at ''
The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' was the largest circulation newspaper in New Jersey. It is based in Newark, New Jersey. The newspaper ceased print publication on February 2, 2025, but continues to publish a digital edition. In 2007, ''The Star-Ledger''s ...
'' in Newark; in 2004, Sepinwall said "without ''Blue'', I wouldn't have the career or the life that I currently do". However, after the 2020
murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...
by a Minneapolis police officer, Sepinwall wrote a long piece in ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' detailing his mixed feelings about ''NYPD Blue'' and cop shows in general, and concluding that shows in the police drama genre had to massively change in the new reality, or no longer be made at all.


''The Star-Ledger''

Sepinwall began working as ''The Star-Ledger'''s television columnist in 1996. He is a member of the Television Critics Association. Slate.com writer
Josh Levin Joshua Benjamin Levin (born March 15, 1980) is an American writer and the national editor at ''Slate'' magazine. Levin also hosts the magazine's sports podcast, '' Hang Up and Listen.'' Biography Early life Levin was born and raised in New O ...
described Sepinwall's week-to-week, post-episode reviews of ''
The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey American Mafia, Mafia boss who suffers from panic attacks. He reluct ...
'' as "a new form" that combined episode recaps with analyses of the show's subtexts and hidden meanings. Sepinwall has said his writing style was partially inspired by newsgroup reviews of ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...
'' television episodes written by Timothy W. Lynch, as well as the episode recaps and discussions generated on the website Television Without Pity. Around 2005, in addition to his newspaper columns, Sepinwall began
blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
ging for ''The Star-Ledger'' on the website "All TV". Around that time, he also began maintaining his own private blog, "What's Alan Watching", in which he posted reviews and interacted directly with readers.


''HitFix'' and ''Uproxx''

After 14 years with ''The Star-Ledger'', Sepinwall left the newspaper in 2010 for a job at the entertainment journalism website HitFix, where he would review as many as 15 television shows each week. On that site, he also did a podcast with television critic Dan Fienberg called ''Firewall & Iceberg''. In 2010, Slate.com writer Josh Levin said Sepinwall "changed the nature of television criticism" and called him the "acknowledged king of the form" with regard to weekly episode recaps and reviews. '' The A.V. Club'' writer Steve Heisler called Sepinwall "an inspiration to TV critics throughout the country". Sepinwall made a cameo appearance as an extra in an
episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a serial (radio and television), series intended for radio, television or Streaming media, streaming consumption. Etymology The noun ''episode'' is ...
of the NBC comedy ''
Community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...
'', a show which he strongly praised. He later wrote that, in hindsight, he regretted appearing on the show due to "the extreme blurring of the line etween reviewer and fanit caused". In 2016, Sepinwall began writing for
Uproxx Uproxx Studios (stylized as ''UPROXX'') is an American music, entertainment and popular culture website and content studio. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater. The website was acquired in 2014 by Woven Digital (which later ...
. From 2017 to 2018, Sepinwall hosted a podcast called ''TV Avalanche'' with fellow Uproxx television critic Brian Grubb.


''Rolling Stone''

In May 2018, Sepinwall announced he was leaving Uproxx because he had accepted a job offer from ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
''. During his appearance in a charity fundraiser on ''
The George Lucas Talk Show ''The George Lucas Talk Show'' is an improvised talk show in New York City hosted by comedian Connor Ratliff, who appears as George Lucas, the creator of ''Star Wars'', and he interviews real guests as themselves in a panel format. He is jo ...
,'' Sepinwall agreed to review '' The Star Wars Holiday Special,'' which he had never seen. The review, in which Sepinwall detailed what a complete disaster and bad idea the special was, was later published in ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
''.


Interviews

Sepinwall has interviewed such television figures as ''
The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...
'' creator David Simon, ''
Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American historical drama, period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on cable network AMC (TV channel), AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, with seven seasons ...
'' creator
Matthew Weiner Matthew Hoffman Weiner (; born June 29, 1965) is an American television writer, producer, and director best known as the creator and showrunner of the television series ''Mad Men'', and as a writer and executive producer on ''The Sopranos''. ...
, '' The O.C.'' creator
Josh Schwartz Joshua Ian Schwartz (born August 6, 1976) is an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for creating and executive producing the Fox teen drama series '' The O.C.'' which ran for 4 seasons. Schwartz is also known for dev ...
, and ''
Breaking Bad ''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan for AMC (TV channel), AMC. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Breaking Bad), Walter White (Bryan Cran ...
'' creator Vince Gilligan. He also wrote a book about the Fox teen drama series ''The O.C.'' called ''Stop Being a Hater and Learn to Love The O.C.'', which was published and released in 2004. In 2007, immediately after ''
The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey American Mafia, Mafia boss who suffers from panic attacks. He reluct ...
'' ended, series creator
David Chase David Henry Chase (born August 22, 1945) is an American writer, producer, and director. He is best known for being the creator, head writer, and executive producer of the HBO drama ''The Sopranos'', which aired for six seasons between 1999 and 2 ...
gave Sepinwall the sole interview he granted to any journalist at the end of the show. In 2009, when NBC was contemplating canceling the action-comedy ''
Chuck Chuck () is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to: People Arts and entertainment * Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet * Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV produce ...
'', of which Sepinwall was a strong proponent, he wrote an open letter to NBC executives urging them to renew the show and encouraging them to seek revenue by expanding existing
product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of t ...
marketing deals. The show was ultimately renewed, and NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman partially credited Sepinwall for the show's revival, which reportedly helped increase Sepinwall's prestige. Sepinwall has been a particularly strong advocate for such shows as '' Lost'', '' The Shield'', ''Breaking Bad'', and ''The Wire''.


Personal life

Sepinwall lives in Scotch Plains, New Jersey,"The College Club welcomes Alan Sepinwall on Oct. 23"
,''Community Bulletin'', September 17, 2017. Accessed December 25, 2022. "The College Club of Fanwood-Scotch Plains welcomes Scotch Plains resident Alan Sepinwall for the program at its Oct. 23 meeting. The title of his presentation is ''What's Alan Watching?''."
with his wife, daughter and son.


Published works

* * * * * * * *


References


External links

* *, Sepinwall's Rolling Stone articles *, Sepinwall's Uproxx blog *, Sepinwall's older writing *, Sepinwall and Fienberg's podcast *, Sepinwall and Grubb's podcast
''The Guardian''
'Self-published book makes New York Times books of the year list,' Alison Flood, 19 December 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sepinwall, Alan American columnists American male non-fiction writers American television critics Living people Place of birth missing (living people) People from Montville, New Jersey People from Scotch Plains, New Jersey University of Pennsylvania alumni Jewish American non-fiction writers 1973 births 21st-century American Jews