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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'' in Newark until leaving the newspaper in 2010 to work for the entertainment news website HitFix. He then wrote for Uproxx, where he worked for two years. Since 2018, he has been the chief TV critic for '' Rolling Stone''. 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 c ...
'' while attending the University of Pennsylvania, which led to his job at ''The Star-Ledger''. In 2007, immediately after '' The Sopranos'' ended, series creator David Chase granted his sole interview to Sepinwall. In 2009, Sepinwall openly urged NBC to renew the action-comedy series '' Chuck'', and NBC Entertainment co-president
Ben Silverman Benjamin Noah Silverman (born August 15, 1970) is an American media executive. He is the co-CEO and chairman of the entertainment production company Propagate. From 2007–2009, Silverman served as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universa ...
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

Sepinwall grew up in Pine Brook, New Jersey. His father, Jerry, was a psychopharmacologist, and his mother, Harriet, is a former professor of social studies education at the
College of St. Elizabeth Saint Elizabeth University (SEU) (formerly College of Saint Elizabeth) is a private Catholic, coeducational, four-year, liberal arts university in Morris Township, New Jersey. Portions of the campus are also in Florham Park. SEU has 25 underg ...
in
Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...
. Sepinwall attended Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex in
Caldwell, New Jersey Caldwell is a borough located in northwestern Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, about west of New York City and north-west of Newark, the state's most populous city. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population ...
. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania, 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 c ...
'' and wrote reviews of the show on Usenet newsgroups. Those reviews helped lead Sepinwall to begin a career in television journalism at '' The Star-Ledger'' 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 by a Minneapolis police officer, Sepinwall wrote a long piece in '' Rolling Stone'' 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 described Sepinwall's week-to-week, post-episode reviews of '' The Sopranos'' 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 eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' 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 blogging 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 October 2010 episode of the NBC comedy '' Community'', a show which he has 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. 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 and was moving to '' Rolling Stone''. As a stretch goal for charity fundraising during '' The George Lucas Talk Show,'' Sepinwall agreed to review ''
The Star Wars Holiday Special The ''Star Wars Holiday Special'' is a 1978 American television special that originally aired on November 17, 1978, on CBS. It is set in the universe of the sci-fi-based ''Star Wars'' media franchise. Directed by Steve Binder, it was the first ' ...
,'' 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''.


Interviews

Sepinwall has interviewed such television figures as '' The Wire'' creator David Simon, '' Mad Men'' creator Matthew Weiner, '' The O.C.'' creator Josh Schwartz, and ''
Breaking Bad ''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), an underpaid, overqualified, and dispirited hig ...
'' creator Vince Gilligan. He also wrote a book about the
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...
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'' ended, series creator David Chase 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'', 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 th ...
marketing deals. The show was ultimately renewed, and NBC Entertainment co-chairman
Ben Silverman Benjamin Noah Silverman (born August 15, 1970) is an American media executive. He is the co-CEO and chairman of the entertainment production company Propagate. From 2007–2009, Silverman served as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universa ...
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 Scotch Plains is a township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. The township is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 201 ...
,"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 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 writers 1973 births 21st-century American Jews