The Studio: Review

Once again, Hollywood eats itself in the new series about making movies.

Seth Rogen, who co-created the show with Evan Goldberg) is Matt Remick, a long-suffering studio executive who's elevated to the head of his dream workplace - and thrust into an identity crisis as he battles moguls, the box office machine and his desire to make commercially successful art and films - something he believes shouldn't be compromised, but bigger powers that be are more concerned with returns.

Across ten episodes, Remick deals with disasters (a few of which are instigated chiefly by him) and egos as well.

Essentially a kind of cross between The Player and Entourage, with some big name cameos (Scorsese! Buscemi, Ron Howard!) scattered throughout. The brief run time of the episodes (just 30 minutes long) allows it to feel like it's just enough fun without becoming too self-indulgent.

While Rogen is fine as Remick and Ike Barinholtz is solid enough as his pal and number two, it's Kathryn Hahn and Catherine O'Hara's marketing manager and former studio head that give the best putdowns and deliver some of the most memorable dialogue.

It's fair to say that movie fans themselves will get more out of the show itself with Easter eggs and nods to iconic Hollywood moments and places, but in truth, the show's got a broad enough appeal to ensure fans of Rogen's stoner antics in previous films will be happy to go along for the ride.

There's a degree of screwball comedy at play here, and while many are willing to debase themselves in places, bingeing the show proves to be a detriment with many episodes feeling a touch repetitive in their set up and denouement.

But the writing ensures that you care enough about these crusades through Hollywood and these cronies as they negotiate their way through the pop culture heavy cinephilia. 

It's stirring enough stuff - and enjoyable enough fare, but any future iterations of The Studio will have to decide whether it wants to abandon its Love-Hate relationship with the machine and what else novel it could spew out.

The Studio is streaming now on Apple TV+