Time for another installment of Ask Alan, as I take your questions about the past, present, and future of TV.
I don’t want these videos to turn into a weekly discourse on Hollywood’s latest sexual harasser, but we’re following an episode about Kevin Spacey with one about Louis CK — specifically about the possibility of continuing to watch shows he’s worked on. It’s a thorny issue, and one I wrote about at length in last night’s Better Things season finale recap, and we’re in these times where we have to talk these ugly issues out until things start to change.
From there, last week’s superb episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend — particularly the dark final scene — inspired a question about the best TV shows at dealing with mental illness. I realized after recording this that I never mentioned The Leftovers as a candidate, and in hindsight I wonder if that was my subconscious answer to the question of whether Kevin and his father were touched by madness or the divine.
And we close things out with an evergreen question that I feel becomes more complicated with each passing year and iteration of the media business: what advice would I give to someone who wants to become a professional critic?
As always, you can email me questions at askalan@uproxx.com, or tweet at me with the hashtag #AskAlanDay.