‘The Studio’ Season 1 Review: Self Referential Irreverence 

Seth Rogen has long been hailed as one of the modern day kings of comedy. Despite having huge hits like Superbad, Pineapple Express, and This Is The End, I never fully agreed with that, instead choosing to focus more on his misdeeds (looking at you Sausage Party). But now, with the release of The Studio, which serves both as an industry satire and a love letter to Hollywood, I’m beginning to become a fan.

The Studio follows Matt Remmick (Rogen), a passionate studio executive with a deep love for film, as he is appointed the head of Continental Studios by company boss Griffin Mill (Bryan Cranston). Over the course of the season, Remmick and his team of executives (Kathryn Hahn, Catherine O’Hara, Chase Sui Wonder, and Ike Barinholtz) navigate the treacherous bowels of Hollywood and meet some incredibly familiar faces.

Lionsgate and Apple TV+ partnered for this show, created by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who reunite as a duo for yet another collaborative effort. 

This series releasing following HBO’s The Franchise worried me a little, given that it felt like a cash grab from Apple to capitalize on the concept of HBO’s satirical filmmaking series. That quickly dissipated when I got past the first episode of the series, learning how wide spanning the plot is. It is structured like an anthology, focusing on different aspects of the film executive’s life, but coming together with interconnected jokes and the production process of these fictional films. 

Part of how this show works so well is the worldbuilding, which is technically non-existent as the series relies on the audience ’s concept of Hollywood, including its actors, to drive some of the appeal of the series. The show is cameos galore, and whilst that would be out of place in a more fictional narrative approach, this show comes off feeling like a mockumentary, with Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Zack Snyder, Zoë Kravitz, Dave Franco and even Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos making cameos. 

This, of course, would be meaningless without the jokes behind the comedy, as what really drives the show is the humour. Seth Rogen plays it cool here, coming across as a very well meaning person, but his passion often causes heavy issues with his relationships, productions, and more. But where the humour really shines is with some of the character dynamics. In the Golden Globes episode, Rogen’s Remmick is desperate for a “thanks” in a Globes acceptance speech only to find that his lowly executive buddy Sal Saperstein (Barinholtz) becomes the running joke of the night, with everyone thanking him.  

The Studio is largely a fantastic show, usually hitting with its humor, its plot, and its portrayal of Hollywood. It does flail at times with uninteresting episodes resulting in uninteresting humour, but its hard to describe any one episode as bad here.

The Studio Season 1 stars Seth Rogen, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn, Chase Sui Wonder, Ike Barinholtz, Dave Franco, David Krumholtz, Zoë Kravitz, Devon Bostick, Rhea Perlman, and Rebecca Hall.

The Studio’s first season is now streaming in full on Apple TV+.

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