When I started this new version of What's Alan Watching? in the fall of 2022, it was as a way to promote my work at Rolling Stone, and as an outlet for shorter or sillier ideas that didn't make sense in my day job. A year ago today, though, this became my day job. I exited Rolling Stone and immediately set about turning What's Alan Watching? into a full-time business with a paid subscription model.
Alan Sepinwall
This was the first time in my adult life where I was working entirely for myself. I had no idea if I would be able to make enough money on my own to support myself and my family. Lots of people had read me for free at various stops, maybe buying a book now and then, but would they pay me directly to read the majority of what I wrote?
As it turns out, they did exactly that. As I celebrate the first anniversary of this incarnation of the newsletter/site, I couldn't be more grateful to the paid subscribers who decided my writing was worth their hard-earned money. I've been able to keep doing the work I love, watching and writing about the shows I feel passionately about — and that many of you do, too. To my surprise, I've been writing even more than I was at Rolling Stone, while launching a new podcast, finishing up work my both my Rod Serling book and one about The Wire, and feeling like I'm still relatively on top of the wildness of post-Peak TV.
I continue to publish at least one free newsletter a week, and everything about Serling and the book will be free over the next month (and beyond). The podcast main feed is also free. I appreciate everyone who reads what they can, even if they can't pay.
But (apologies in advance) it's the paywall that pays the Sepinwall. So for those of you who have thought about becoming a paid subscriber, or have paid in the past and then gone back to free, I wanted to tell you a bit about what you'll be getting for your money, and then offer a deal for signing up.
Alan Sepinwall
I ran through some of what's to come in the fall preview I published last month, but to sum up:
- Reviews of as many notable new and returning series as I can find time and interest for.
- Recaps of series that are interesting enough to merit weekly discussion. As Lanterns, Ted Lasso, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds wind down their current seasons, I'll be adding in the new seasons of Slow Horses (tomorrow at noon, in fact) and The Lowdown, and we'll play it by ear after that.
Alan Sepinwall
- More tributes and other historical looks back. Last week, I celebrated 60 years of Star Trek, and yesterday I wrote about Fleabag, a decade after the debut of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's serio-comic masterpiece. (If I can toot my own horn, I think it's one of the best things I've written.) In the weeks and months to come, keep an eye out for pieces on the likes of Friday Night Lights, Dexter, and the fall season when NBC premiered two different shows (30 Rock and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) set backstage at fictional versions of SNL, among many other topics.
- Response to major bits of TV news, whether the death of a giant like Rob Reiner, or thoughts on the Emmys.
But wait! There's more!
If you poke through the archives, you'll see a huge gap from mid-2010 until late 2022. Eight of those years cover the time I spent writing for HitFix and then Uproxx (which acquired HitFix in 2016). Uproxx recently unpublished a lot of old written content, including everything from the period when I worked for those two companies. I'm currently talking with them about republishing all of that material here.
This would include many seasons' worth (sometimes the majority of) of my reviews and recaps and interviews tied to, among others:
- Mad Men
- Breaking Bad
- Parks and Recreation
- Game of Thrones
- Community
- Better Call Saul
- 30 Rock
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine
- The Good Place
It would include everything I ever wrote about 2010s shows like:
- The Americans
- The Leftovers
- Justified
- Hannibal
- Boardwalk Empire
- Halt and Catch Fire
- Girls
- The Walking Dead
Plus lots of interviews and other random things from that golden era when we transitioned from the cable revolution into the streaming era.
It's a massive amount of archival material, which will take some time to sort out the details of, and then to import in here. But my hope is that this will be completed before the end of this calendar year.
If you want to get extra-nerdy — or if you have enough disposable income to want to send a bit more my way — a subscription to the What Else Is Alan Watching? bonus tier gets you access to the Discord, where you can chat around the clock with your fellow TV obsessives. You also get 2-3 bonus posts every month, including at least one Ask Alan mailbag, and at least one other deep dive into the esoterica of TV and/or TV criticism. (I'm already working on the latest installment of my "If they swapped roles" series, and I have many more stories about the weirdness of life on the TV criticism beat.)
Again, I appreciate your reading me in any way. I know it's harder to keep track of lots of individual subscriptions versus just reading a handful of sites, in the same way the streaming era meant you had to keep signing up for new services to check out all the shows that were most exciting. And I know that disposable income is at a premium in these tumultuous economic times. But if any or all of the above sounds exciting to you, I'm going to offer you a literal deal: 20% off an annual subscription, either for the regular What's Alan Writing? tier or the What Else Is Alan Watching? bonus tier.
In honor of the first full year of What's Alan Watching?, get 20% off an annual subscription to the What's Alan Writing? main paid tier, for all my reviews and recaps.
Without any discounts, if you pay monthly for the main tier, it will cost you $84 a year, and the normal annual rate is $70 a year. With the discount, it's only $56 for the next year. Paying monthly for the bonus tier is $120 a year, $100 at the normal annual rate. With the discount, it's $80 for the first year.
In honor of the first full year of What's Alan Watching?, get 20% off an annual subscription to the What Else Is Alan Watching? tier, which gives you access to everything on the main tier, plus bonus content and access to the What's Alan Watching? Discord
I hope you'll consider taking the leap with me. This was a great first year on my own. The next 12 months are going to be even bigger and better.
