The new Apple TV+ series The Studio makes its thesis statement pretty clear in its first episode, as newly minted studio head Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) freaks out about his new job, and all the crap it involves. Says Patty Leigh (Catherine O’Hara), the woman whose job Matt just took, “but when it all comes together and you make a good movie… it’s good forever.”
What it takes to actually create a good movie, though, is the comedy engine powering the 10-episode first season, a star-soaked tribute to the best and worst instincts of Hollywood. Created by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez, with episodes directed by Rogen and Goldberg, there’s a level of surrealism to what happens as Matt and his crack team attempt to juggle the chaos of movie production and marketing, the nightmare that is the Hollywood dream factory.
Yet while some scenarios might feel slightly exaggerated for the sake of the story, it’s hard to accuse The Studio of being unrealistic when one of its major ongoing plotlines is making a big-budget four-quadrant family movie built around a famous drink brand. (Post-Emoji Movie, after all, it’s pretty much impossible to say any idea is too ridiculous.)
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The fake movies being made by “Continental Studios” are just fake enough in concept to keep things feeling fictional, while still being pretty believable. (Shout-out to Matt for hiring at least two women to direct large-scale feature films, though the POC representation in his slate is pretty minimal.) That said, when watching The Studio, know that anytime you see someone on screen who looks like a famous person — it is that famous person, and they’re playing themselves, and depending on who they are, they might be totally blowing up their own image.
The short list of announced guest stars is: Aaron Sorkin, Adam Scott, Anthony Mackie, Antony Starr, Bryan Cranston, Charlize Theron, Dave Franco, Dewayne Perkins, Greta Lee, Ice Cube, Jean Smart, Johnny Knoxville, Josh Hutcherson, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Lil Rel Howery, Lucia Aniello, Martin Scorsese, Nick Stoller, Olivia Wilde, Paul Dano, Paul W. Downs, Pete Berg, Quinta Brunson, Ramy Youssef, Ron Howard, Sarah Polley, Steve Buscemi, Zac Efron, Zack Snyder, Ziwe, and Zoë Kravitz. Again, that’s the short list of people who maybe owed Rogen a favor — or who wanted the chance to play.
As Matt, Rogen doesn’t exactly disappear into the role, yet the character still feels well-defined — specifically his desperate need to be liked by the celebrities whose careers he now has a modicum of power over, which exists in direct conflict with a certain lack of moral courage. Matt wants to be a friend to the artist, a savior of great cinema… and he also wants to keep his job.
The Studio (Apple TV+)
Meanwhile, as Matt’s number two man, Ike Barenholtz is the white guy you love to hate, an exec more focused on winning than on art — though he’s still Matt’s best friend at the end of the day, a sad state of affairs for both of them. Chase Sui Wonders tears into her corner of the spotlight as a recently promoted creative exec who has no patience for being called a “D-girl” (even if it is a reference to The Sopranos), while O’Hara brings some wonderful grit to her role as Patty. And Kathryn Hahn is unhinged magic as marketing head Maya — just tracking her ever-changing fashion and beverage choices is incredible.
All of these characters are bound together by a collective obsession with movies on some level — because there is such love for the movies imbued in this series, along with a healthy sense of skepticism. One of its more subtle references is Continental Studios head Griffin Mill, a character name fans of Robert Altman’s brilliant showbiz satire The Player will recognize. While the character played by Bryan Cranston in this series is very different on a number of levels from the cool studio exec played by Tim Robbins, the homage is a clear one.
Most of the episodes function as stand-alones, with the sort of specific focus that really speaks to the benefits of the episodic format: We get an ode to the power of the one shot/long take filmmaking technique with an episode about shooting a oner that is also a oner — it’s the second episode, entitled “The Oner.” An episode pays homage to the film noir genre in both obvious and non-obvious ways. There’s a war over a parking place, and a trip to the Golden Globes. All of it going to places you’d never expect.
Throughout it all, the creators maintain real perspective on how much all of this actually means in the grand scheme of things, with one of the season’s most cringe-inducing (but also hilarious) episodes focusing on Matt attending a fundraiser with his new doctor girlfriend (Rebecca Hall, a rare example of a known actor not playing themselves on screen). Matt just wants the other doctors present to acknowledge that what he does is as important as what they do. The actual doctors… have their doubts.
Everyone on this show is stressed and obsessed and teetering on the brink of madness. Everyone would probably be happier working at a Target and going home to a loving family. And yet, there’s no place they’d rather be. It’s a show that, at its core, understands Hollywood’s inner workings better than almost every other project made about Hollywood — because it understands the immortality made possible by big screen success, and more importantly, the minor miracles required to ever make anything good.
The first two episodes of The Studio are streaming now on Apple TV+. New episodes will debut weekly on Wednesdays. Check out the trailer below.