Summary
A sharp, star-studded satire of the modern film industry that’s as self-aware as it is entertaining.
If there’s one thing Hollywood loves, it’s exploring itself. From the earliest days of cinema—recreated in everything from Singin’ in the Rain to Babylon—the city of stars is often at its best when dissecting its excessive worst.
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are already well-versed in self-parody, but with THE STUDIO, they’re at their most mature and restrained—leaning closer to Robert Altman’s The Player than their own This Is The End. Set at the fictional Continental Studios, an amalgam of several legacy majors, it follows Matt Remick (Rogen), who rises to studio head following the ousting of exec Patty Leigh (Catherine O’Hara).
The show is reportedly inspired by their experiences during The Interview debacle, which unfolded amid the high-profile Sony Pictures hack. O’Hara’s brilliant character is said to be loosely based on former Sony chairperson Amy Pascal. Rogen’s Matt, alongside his friend and fellow exec Sal Saperstein (Ike Barinholtz), must balance his cinephile idealism with the relentless commercial demands of the modern industry.
Case in point: the excellent season opener, ‘The Promotion’, in which Matt’s appointment hinges on greenlighting a film based on the Kool-Aid Man. While Sal takes the obvious route—approaching Nicholas Stoller (playing himself)—Matt tries to shoehorn Martin Scorsese’s long-gestating Jonestown Massacre project into the same package. If you know how people died at Jonestown, you can probably guess where this is headed: Marty in tears at Charlize Theron’s party.
And that’s something else worth noting: this show has everyone. One standout episode, ‘The Oner’, finds Matt repeatedly ruining a single-take shot on a Sarah Polley film starring Greta Lee. In ‘The Note’, Ron Howard somehow becomes menacing when Matt is tasked with giving him negative feedback on an indulgent sequence in an Anthony Mackie vehicle. When the show leans into this kind of sharp self-awareness, THE STUDIO is at its very best.
It’s less successful when it strays from its core strengths or drifts too far from satire into broad parody. Take ‘The Missing Reel’, an episode that mimics noir stylings—most notably Chinatown—as Matt becomes convinced Zac Efron has stolen a reel from Olivia Wilde’s latest film. Similarly, ‘The War’ explores the personal lives of Sal and of Matt’s assistant and junior exec Quinn Hackett (Chase Sui Wonders), but it feels like the sort of character-deepening episode better saved for a second season, once the ensemble is more firmly established.
After all, with Rogen cast as a studio head, the show naturally gravitates back toward him. The neurotic humour drawn from Matt’s imposter syndrome might feel like a bit of art imitating life. ‘The Pediatric Oncologist’ sees him dating a doctor and trying to prove his work is meaningful—cut with glimpses of the in-progress Duhpocalypse!, a scatological Johnny Knoxville vehicle that isn’t far removed from Rogen’s own stoner-era output. In ‘The Golden Globes’, his cringey desperation to be name-checked in Zoë Kravitz’s acceptance speech plays like vintage Curb Your Enthusiasm. But as writer, director, executive producer and star of the series, Rogen deserves large amounts of the praise.
The first season of THE STUDIO is a little like the industry itself right now: at a crossroads, hyper self-aware, and best when it sticks to what it knows. It may not be the sharpest satire on Hollywood, but with its rapid-fire pacing and excellent cast, it’s one of the more entertaining ones in recent memory—and as it heads into a second season, it’s not like it’ll run out of material to skewer.
2025 | US | DIRECTORS: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg | CREATORS/WRITERS: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, Frida Perez CAST: Seth Rogen, Catherine O’Hara, Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, Kathryn Hahn | DISTRIBUTOR: Apple TV+ | EPISODES: 10
