Alan Sepinwall | |
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| Born | (1973-10-19)October 19, 1973 (age 52) |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania |
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| Years active | 1994–present |
| Employer |
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| Children | 2 |
Alan Sepinwall (born October 19, 1973) is an American television reviewer and writer. He spent 14 years as a columnist withThe Star-Ledger inNewark until leaving the newspaper in 2010 to work for the entertainment news websiteHitFix. He then wrote forUproxx, where he worked for two years. From 2018 to 2025, he was the chief TV critic forRolling Stone.[2]
He now has a newsletter on the platformGhost calledWhat's Alan Watching?.[1]
Sepinwall began writing about television with reviews ofNYPD Blue while attending theUniversity of Pennsylvania, which led to his job atThe Star-Ledger. In 2007, immediately afterThe Sopranos ended, series creatorDavid Chase granted his sole interview to Sepinwall. In 2009, Sepinwall openly urgedNBC to renew[3] the action-comedy seriesChuck, and NBC Entertainment co-presidentBen 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 calledFirewall & Iceberg, in which they discussed and reviewed television until October 2015. During his time at Uproxx, Sepinwall hosted a podcast calledTV Avalanche with fellow television critic Brian Grubb.
Sepinwall grew up inPine Brook,New Jersey. His father, Jerry, was apsychopharmacologist,[4] and his mother, Harriet, is a former professor of social studies education at theCollege of St. Elizabeth inMorristown, New Jersey. Sepinwall attended Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex inCaldwell, New Jersey.[5] He studied at theUniversity 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".[6]
In the 1990s, Sepinwall was a particular fan of theABC police dramaNYPD Blue and wrote reviews of the show onUsenet newsgroups. Those reviews helped lead Sepinwall to begin a career in television journalism atThe Star-Ledger inNewark; in 2004, Sepinwall said "withoutBlue, I wouldn't have the career or the life that I currently do".[6] However, after the 2020murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Sepinwall wrote a long piece inRolling Stone detailing his mixed feelings aboutNYPD 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.[7]
Sepinwall began working asThe Star-Ledger's television columnist in 1996.[8] He is a member of theTelevision Critics Association.[9]Slate.com writerJosh Levin described Sepinwall's week-to-week, post-episode reviews ofThe Sopranos as "a new form" that combined episode recaps with analyses of the show's subtexts and hidden meanings.[6] Sepinwall has said his writing style was partially inspired by newsgroup reviews ofStar Trek television episodes written by Timothy W. Lynch, as well as the episode recaps and discussions generated on the websiteTelevision Without Pity.[10] Around 2005, in addition to his newspaper columns, Sepinwall beganblogging forThe Star-Ledger on the website "All TV".[5] 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.[11]
After 14 years withThe 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.[6] On that site, he also did a podcast with television critic Dan Fienberg calledFirewall & Iceberg.[12]
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.[6]The A.V. Club writer Steve Heisler called Sepinwall "an inspiration to TV critics throughout the country".[13] Sepinwall made a cameo appearance as an extra in anepisode of theNBC comedyCommunity, a show which he strongly praised.[6][14] He later wrote that, in hindsight, he regretted appearing on the show due to "the extreme blurring of the line [between reviewer and fan] it caused".[10]
In 2016, Sepinwall began writing forUproxx. From 2017 to 2018, Sepinwall hosted a podcast calledTV Avalanche with fellow Uproxx television critic Brian Grubb.
In May 2018, Sepinwall announced he was leaving Uproxx because he had accepted a job offer fromRolling Stone.[15]
During his appearance in a charity fundraiser onThe George Lucas Talk Show, Sepinwall agreed to reviewThe 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 inRolling Stone.[16]
On September 15, 2025, Sepinwall was among several high-profile staffers laid off byRolling Stone.[17]
Sepinwall has interviewed such television figures asThe Wire creatorDavid Simon,Mad Men creatorMatthew Weiner,The O.C. creatorJosh Schwartz, andBreaking Bad creatorVince Gilligan. He also wrote a book about theFox teen drama seriesThe O.C. calledStop Being a Hater and Learn to Love The O.C., which was published and released in 2004. In 2007, immediately afterThe Sopranos ended, series creatorDavid Chase gave Sepinwall the sole interview he granted to any journalist at the end of the show.[9] In 2009, when NBC was contemplating canceling the action-comedyChuck, 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 existingproduct placement marketing deals. The show was ultimately renewed, and NBC Entertainment co-chairmanBen Silverman partially credited Sepinwall for the show's revival, which reportedly helped increase Sepinwall's prestige.[6][13] Sepinwall has been a particularly strong advocate for such shows asLost,The Shield,Breaking Bad, andThe Wire.[9]
Sepinwall lives inScotch Plains, New Jersey,[18] with his wife, daughter[5] and son.
