Directors’ responses to harsh reviews aren’t always so graceful, but Fogelman seems accepting of the fact that not everyone is going to love Life Itself.
That can be soul-crushing, and plenty of directors and actors have had to deal with this blowback in the past.
Another way of reading that is the age-old “I didn’t make this for critics” defense.
Dan Fogelman, who both wrote and directed Life Itself, now has to come to terms with this situation, and he told the LA Times that he thinks it boils down to him having a different “creative palette” than the critics who roasted the drama.