THE STUDIO – Season One

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) finds all his dreams have come true when he gets promoted as the new head of Continental, a film studio with over a century of history in Hollywood. After replacing Patti (an underused Catherine O’Hara), cinephile Matt learns that being a studio head has very little to do with loving cinema.

Over 10 episodes, Apple TV+ comedy The Studio explores the few highs and many, many lows of bringing films to life as a studio executive. It’s a biting satire of the industry and how modern studios prioritise profit over creative vision. It’s a no-holds-barred takedown of the worrying direction filmmaking appears to be going in, directly making fun of the star-studded roster of famous cameos. Yet, despite sharp screenplays, The Studio is clearly made by people who live for filmmaking and want to see it thrive. It never feels mean-spirited about the industry, the filmgoers, and those trying to make a name for themselves in Hollywood.

Alongside Matt, the team at Continental Studios includes sleazy Sal Saperstein (Ike Barinholtz), who can’t hide his bitterness at losing out to his colleague for the promotion and young but eager Quinn Hackett (Chase Sui Wonders). The pair bicker throughout the season, with the generational differences towards film watching and making frequently causing the two to come to blows. Despite the team being smug, drug-taking sleazeballs, they are still likeable, and you’re still rooting for them.

The marketing team is led by Maya Mason (Kathryn Hahn) with the assistance of Tyler (Dewayne Perkins). Maya is one of the weaker written and one-dimensional characters on the comedy. The show wants her to speak in online buzz words and slang and dress like every TikTok trend in one, yet she has to be grounded enough to feel real enough to work at Continental. Hahn’s performance just about keeps Maya from being out of place, she starts at a 10, and the actress struggles to find anywhere else to take the character.

In the opening episode, “The Promotion,” Continental before CEO Griffin Mill (Bryan Cranston) assigns Matt the task of making a movie based on The Kool-Aid Man. The choice of director comes down to Nicholas Stoller, with whom they could try to replicate the success of Barbie (2023), or Martin Scorsese, who wants to make a project about Jonestown (where Jim Jones gave his followers cyanide-laced Kool-Aid).

Both directors appear as themselves, happy for their appearances to make a point about the lack of creativity in Hollywood. Stoller is a figurehead for the safe choice for studios, someone who will go along with the suits’ ideas and not try to input their own creativity. Scorsese appears delighted to represent the older creative who would rather sell their film to a stream than dilute the vision in favour of making more money.

Over the episodes, the show follows every part of filmmaking, from Matt’s eagerness messing up the set of Sarah Polley’s new film with Greta Lee, to the studio struggling to give Ron Howard feedback after a disastrous early test screening of his new film. The season highlight is “Casting,” which sees the central team of Continental trying to work out if a certain casting choice is problematic. It’s a stomach-achingly funny satire on Hollywood trying so hard to be non-problematic that it ends up coming across as tone-deaf.

The Studio struggles when it gets a little more experimental. The comedy sends up the film noir genre in episode 4’s “The Missing Reel,” where a film reel goes missing on the set of Olivia Wilde’s new film (starring Zac Efron). It’s the weakest episode but the change in pace is appreciated. “The Pediatric Oncologist” plays dangerously with crossing the line of acceptability as Matt argues with doctors about the importance of his job in comparison with those who help sick children. Luckily, the episode manages to just about avoid being too dark as the charity event descends into a farce of physical comedy, but it sure plays with danger.

There are almost too many guest stars to mention, playing themselves on-set, on the promotion tour or pitching in the studio. Incorporating these huge Hollywood stars, who sometimes appear very briefly, makes this world feel very real and very tangible. These star appearances make watching The Studio feel like a genuine fly-on-the-wall look behind the scenes. So much so, it can be confusing when actors don’t play themselves and actually act (like Rebecca Hall’s fictional doctor).

Celebrities like Olivia Wilde, Ron Howard and Dave Franco are good sports, allowing the series to not show them in entirely the best light. Many of the guest stars are written as overgrown toddlers, throwing tantrums when they don’t get their own way or aren’t treated like creative Messiahs. Sometimes, the plot relies too much on their star power, focusing more on shoving cameos into the plot than delivering a smoothly written narrative. Those not tuned 100% in the minute details of pop culture may struggle to keep up with some of the more obscure faces, names and references.

A latter-season episode centred around the Golden Globes is a who’s who of guest stars, yet it spends more time focusing on the cameos than it does the plot. Matt wants to get mentioned in a winner’s speech (preferably Zoe Kravitz’s), but instead, Sal finds himself enjoying all the attention. This joke could have been pushed further for laughs, but instead, the episode goes on tangents to showcase star appearances from the cast of The Boys, Abbott Elementary, and Severance.

Whatever situation Matt gets himself into, the camera follows him around with long tracking shots. Reminiscent of Birdman, these chaotic shots are usually joined by the sound of skittering jazz drums. Long shots follow Matt through iconic Los Angeles locations, across soundstages and down red carpets. It’s like Matt is the audience’s personal tour guide through Hollywood, breaking down the idea that the world is glamorous and worth the adoration.

By stepping off the set and following characters through the grimy backstage and into the trailers, The Studio wants to ground the world in its reality. Because this look behind the curtain of Hollywood is so much fun, the show struggles when it follows Matt and Sal outside of work and into their personal lives. The scenes where Matt is with his family, and Sal tries to bond with his children are significantly less interesting than the moments where they are destroying film sets and cursing out A-listers.

The Studio, as cutthroat and brutal as the writing is, is clearly written by cinephiles for cinephiles. While it’ll still amuse those who aren’t constantly updating Letterboxd, it’s made for those who know the ins and outs of cinema and the people who make it. Some of the jokes will struggle to land with people who couldn’t tell you the difference between Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds.

As sharp as The Studio is, never missing a beat or talking down to audiences, the writers (Rogen, Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, Frida Perez) can’t help but add a toilet joke. For anyone worried that the team that brought audiences Superbad have grown up too much fear not, there is still an abundance of gross comedy and slapstick gags. Only this time, the writing team are fully aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it.

The Studio is a wild, anxiety-inducing comedy that will be compared to Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-2024). The writing is tight, never forgetting a loose end and often smartly getting back to the point. It never takes the easy route out, taking audiences in wilder and more shocking directions rather than hitting the low-hanging fruit. It’s farcical but so believable it could be like you were watching a documentary. No matter how silly the writing gets, it’s hard not to believe that Hollywood could get this ridiculous.

Creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg don’t just have their funniest project on their hands with The Studio… they might have made the funniest show of the year.

USA | 2025 | 10 EPISODES | 16:9 HD | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

writers: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory & Frida Perez.
directors: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg.
starring: Seth Rogen, Catherine O’Hara, Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, Kathryn Hahn, Bryan Cranston, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Dewayne Perkins, Rebecca Hall, Paul Dano, Zac Efron, Ron Howard, Zoë Kravitz, Ramy Youssef, Anthony Mackie, Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Sarah Polley, Steve Buscemi, Oliva Wilde, Adam Scott, Peter Beg, Johnny Knoxville, Josh Hutcherson, David Krumholtz, Greta Lee, Matthew Belloni & Ted Sarandos.