If you haven’t heard of Apple TV+’s The Studio, take this as your sign that you should check it out.
Co-created by longtime partners Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, The Studio takes you on a tumultuous, hilarious, and oftentimes downright cringy ride into the life of Matt Remick (Rogen) as he tackles his biggest job yet: his promotion to president of Continental Studios.
For Matt, it’s a dream come true. He’s been working towards this role his whole life. He loves film, he likes to say. The old-school kind, like a true cinephile. And while that is not inherently a bad vision, especially as it’s one more studio execs should have, Matt tends to have the right idea wrapped up in a wrong execution.
Though he helped to make his name by championing MK Ultra, a superhero franchise, that isn’t what he wants to keep doing. For Matt, there is nothing better than making a real film, not a movie. The two cannot be mutually exclusive to him like they are for CEO Griffin Mill (Bryan Cranston). But Matt, as timid as he is ambitious, is too afraid to go against the wishes of his superiors.
The Studio has the kind of fast-paced frenzied momentum I have come to expect and love from a Goldberg/Rogen production. Each episode follows a different issue, and usually, it’s an issue Matt gets himself into. Like many bosses who try too hard, Matt oftentimes pushes a little too far into the “I’m just like you!” persona for the actors or the film crew.
However, Matt is still charming in a way that only Rogen can pull off, which is a good thing for his character. If anybody else had played him, I don’t know if he would be anywhere near as likeable. Rogen has this earnestness to him no matter what role he plays, and though more than once I found myself wanting to shake some sense into Matt, I also understood him.
With the industry in such a state of flux right now, and with studios leaning more into IP and tentpoles rather than auteur-driven film, The Studio comes at a prescient time. It isn’t hard to imagine every single one of the conversations Matt has with his team (Kathryn Hahn, Chase Sui Wonders, Ike Barinholtz, Dewayne Perkins) actually happening in studios across Hollywood as we speak.
Apple TV+
You can also feel, however, that this is also a love letter to the industry. It’s imperfect, yes, but at the end of the day you still love it, and you want to invest your time in it. The episodes are stuffed with guest stars playing hyper-realised versions of themselves, some you’d expect from a Rogen/Goldberg story and some you wouldn’t. It’s a little on-the-nose at times, but that’s what also makes it charming.
It’s still too early to see if The Studio will be able to appeal to the broader masses (like Severance), or if it will fall into a more niche area, where people are familiar with the terms and the cameos and the industry and chuckle and point and say ‘Yeah, that’s exactly it’. For now, give it a shot, and support the arts. The Studio is a fun watch, and one of the more structured streaming shows available right now.
The Studio is rolling out episodes every Wednesday on Apple TV+. Right now, you can sign up for just £2.99/$2.99 per month for the first three months.
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Author: Rachel Tolleson, Contributor, Tech Advisor
Rachel Tolleson is a freelance entertainment critic whose work can be found at The Mary Sue and That Hashtag Show. She covers a little bit of everything with a focus on horror and queer media. When not writing reviews and opinion pieces she can be found working on screenplays and short fiction.