Art and commerce collide in The Studio, Seth Rogen’s chaotic love letter to the movies. Or, more accurately, the business of the movies.
In the comedy series, which has just started streaming on Apple TV+, Rogen stars as the constantly frazzled movie studio executive Matt Remick,a cinemaphile, in love with the movies and a true believer that films should be art.
These beliefs, however, are in polar opposition to his job description. As the newly-appointed head of the legacy movie studio Continental, he has been tasked with one thing, and one thing only: make Continental a truckload of money. The Studio revolves around his well-intentioned, but woefully misguided, attempt to do both.
And while he is the studio head, he’s not the boss. He answers to Griffin Mill, played with a ruthless charisma by the always-brilliant Bryan Cranston, who has tasked Remick with turning the American cordial mascot the Kool-Aid Man into a billion-dollar movie. If Remick fails, he’s out.
Remick quickly realises that he’s been asked to sell his soul. It had been his lifelong dream to be the head of the once-proud Continental Studios. But that dream involved making films that would become classics and collecting a trophy cabinet full of Oscars, not turning America’s version of Raro into a blockbuster movie franchise.
Remick realises that he’s been asked to sell his soul. Photo / Apple TV+
His first attempt to thread this impossible needle involves famed director Martin Scorsese and some good old-fashioned duplicity. But Remick’s beliefs and morals very quickly bump into his corporate reality to hilarious and frequently disastrous results. His initial plan to skirt around Mill’s expectations of a family blockbuster and instead fund a big-budget, Scorsese-directed Kool-Aid movie is absolutely brilliant and very obviously doomed from the start.
The series comes out swinging right from the start and doesn’t let up. Rogen and his long-term creative partner Evan Goldberg have filled every minute with insider gags about Hollywood and the Hollywood system. Indeed, in interviews, Rogen has said many moments in the show are based on their real-life experiences dealing with studio execs over their long career.
The jokes here will delight movie fans who will have already clocked that Mill is a returning character from Robert Altman’s ultimate “inside Hollywood” 1992 movie The Player. But, you don’t have to get all the nodding winks and references to enjoy the show. There’s also oodles of Rogen’s distinctly irreverent and crude R-18 humour.
One early exchange between Remick, who is still harbouring his dream of making art, and a Hollywood agent more attuned to the commercial reality of the Kool-Aid project is a fine example of this duality.
“You want Wes Anderson to direct the f***ing Kool-Aid Movie?” the agent spits. “He’s gonna think I’m crazy, man. He’s gonna fire me from ... Liechtenstein or wherever the f*** he is.”
“Barbie’s 10 million times a better IP than Kool-Aid,” the agent shoots back, before amusingly explaining why Barbie was such a box office success in an extremely crude fashion.
The Studio boasts a laundry list of cameos from Tinseltown’s A-List. Photo / Apple TV+
Like other Hollywood satires, The Studio boasts a laundry list of cameos from Tinseltown’s A-list. Directors like the aforementioned Scorsese, Zack Snyder and Ron Howard all make cameos as themselves, as do actors like Charlize Theron, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Adam Scott and Zac Efron.
Fittingly for a show about the movies told from the perspective of someone who loves movies and written by a pair who make movies, The Studio is beautifully shot and filled with cinematic references. It’s a joy to watch and demonstrates how good a TV show can look.
It’s easily one of the best shows to come out so far this year, and you can expect to see it near the top of critics’ “Best of 2025″ lists in December.
While The Studio isn’t doing much new here, it is doing its thing extremely well. Rogen’s natural charisma translates surprisingly well from his usual laidback character into a stressed-out fellow flailing around in bumbling desperation in his attempts to not only get the movie made but also have it be a financial success.
The show isn’t the first to satirise Hollywood and its craven attitude to art. On the big screen, there’s everything from Ben Stiller’s absurd parody Tropic Thunder to Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy’s wacky Bowfinger right through to David Lynch’s surreal nightmareMulholland Drive. And on the telly shows like noughties bromedy Entourage, the cringe comedy of Extras and the biting satire of The Larry Sanders Show have all pulled the curtain back on scenes of movies and TV productions.
But the difference here is that they all viewed Hollywood from the artist’s perspective. The Studio, on the other hand, flips the script and asks you to sympathise with the moneymen.
It’s a big ask. The show brilliantly skewers Hollywood, is extremely funny and very clever, but consider this: how much warmth do you feel towards the CEO of the company you work for?
Karl Puschmann is the Culture Editor and an Entertainment Columnist for New Zealand’s Herald. His fascination lies in finding out what drives and inspires creative people.
