TV Review: "The Studio" (Season 1)
The new Apple TV+ series is a hilarious and insightful look at the dysfunctional state of Hollywood today.
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Warning: Spoilers for the series follow.
The Studio is another one of those series that I’ve been meaning to watch for a while–I’m a sucker for a backstage studio movie or show–and I do not regret watching it. From the first episode to the last, this is the kind of show that will have you in stitches, even as it makes you think long and hard about the state of Hollywood today. And, let’s be real, it’s a pretty bleak landscape, particularly if you’re someone who actually cares about cinema as a form of popular art.
The show hits the ground running, as Seth Rogen’s Matt Remick is tasked with being the new head of Continental Studios by Bryan Cranston’s Griffin Mill. While this is a dream come true for the cinephilic Matt, it’s soon clear that this is a very heavy undertaking, especially since Mill wants him to make a movie based on the studio’s most valuable piece of IP: Kool-Aid. This serves as a narrative throughline for most of the season, though there are numerous departures as Matt navigates the growing pains of his new role, even as he also has to juggle the egos and ambitions of the members of his team: Catherine O’Hara’s Patty Leigh (his predecessor, who was fired but has now become a producer), Kathryn Hahn’s Maya Mason (the marketing head), Ike Barinholtz’s Sal Saperstein (vice president of production), and Chase Sui Wonders’ Quinn Hackett (a newly-minuted junior executive).
The entire Kool-Aid storyline is, of course, a skewering of current Hollywood’s ongoing love affair with IP, and its desperate efforts to turn any iconic figure, even the Kool-Aid man, into something that can be further exploited. Griffin Mill, like so many other executives, cares far more about dollars and cents than he does art. Matt, on the other hand, really does want Continental The scene in which he manages to wrangle no less a cinematic luminary than Martin Scorsese to direct it–though Scorsese originally wants the film to focus on the Jonestown massacre–as well as his subsequent ditching of the director is a highlight of the early part of the season, and I give a lot of credit to Scorsese for being willing to be in on the joke.
Seth Rogen is perfectly cast to play Matt. He easily slides into the role of a man who truly loves movies but constantly finds that he has to sacrifice his principles in order to keep his corporate overlords happy. It doesn’t help that he’s surrounded by a team that, while somewhat competent, tend to get in their own way, and his, far too often. To make matters even worse for Matt, it’s precisely his love of movies that often causes a headache, as when he visits the set of Sarah Polley’s newest film. At this point, Matt still hasn’t really accepted that he’s no longer just an executive working with the talent but instead one of the most powerful people at the studio, and he ends up causing chaos with every move that he makes and word that he speaks. Rogen makes the most out of his skills in unbridled physical comedy in the episode, and it’s hilarious and also excruciating from the first moment to the last.
Matt’s angst over the contradictory nature of his status–so powerful yet also denied almost all recognition from the general public or awards bodies–reaches its apotheosis when one of the films that he greenlit is nominated for a Golden Globe. The catch? Even if it wins he won’t be able to go up on the stage. It’s at this moment that Matt really seems to realize that his dream of making movies is very much at odds with his position as a studio head, and while he now can support the kinds of films he loves, he may never be recognized for it (this episode also features Rhea Perlman as the nagging voice of Matt’s mother, who is similarly dismayed at the fact that her son isn’t going to get the thanks he deserves). Thus is the nature of contemporary Hollywood, where the suits wield a lot of power but are nearly invisible to the general public.
While it has many important and insightful things to say about contemporary Hollywood and its increasing intellectual and artistic bankruptcy, The Studio is also outrageously funny. There are some moments throughout the first season that had me nearly rolling on the floor, including a particularly delightful moment in which the in-universe Olivia Wilde, in a desperate attempt to secure a reshoot, steals the film from her own production, leading to a madcap chase that ultimately sees her destroying it. Watching the reel of film roll off down the highway is both a remarkably potent cinematic image but also a hilarious one.
For me, by far the funniest episode was the one in which Matt has the unenviable task of telling Ron Howard that he has to cut out a major part of his new film, because what starts out as a hard-hitting action film starring Anthony Mackie devolves into maudlin nonsense in the film’s third act. The episode features some truly outstanding work from Mackie and Ron Howard, both of whom are playing versions of themselves. Howard in particular seems to be having the time of his life pretending to be a much harder-edged person than his public persona would suggest. Watching him throw his hat while hurling the f-bomb is truly a delight.
While Matt is the heart and soul of the show, the rest of the cast is uniformly excellent. Every character gets their own arc and development and, while I would have loved to see more of O’Hara and Hahn–both of whom are a bit underutilized, particularly given how enormously talented and charismatic they are–this just means that there’s plenty of room for the show to grow and develop in the second season. Likewise some of the issues that the season raises, such as race in casting and the use of AI, don’t get their full pay-off. However, I have faith that these issues will get their full due in the second season, which has already been announced.
As I love to say so often, I’ll certainly be watching!