The Studio, the new AppleTV+ comedy from Seth Rogen (who also stars as the new head of the fictional Continental Studios, Matt Remick), Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez (who all also share writing credits on various episodes throughout), is absolutely stacked in terms of cast and creative minds. Hell, the main cast line-up is a dream: Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn, Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, and Rogen, with Bryan Cranston recurring in a particularly unhinged performance (which is one of the funniest things in the series). And it’s skewering Hollywood’s inner-circles, always an easy target (Hollywood loves to poke fun at Hollywood). But despite all of that, much of the series left me cold.
The premise of the series is a good one, albeit one that might be a bit too inside baseball to really catch a broad audience. When O’Hara’s Amy is fired as the head of Continental after a few too many bombs, Rogen’s Matt is placed in the head honcho position – a role he believes himself to be fully suited for. Of course, once in that position, Matt learns just how complex it is to be the head of a studio – from dealing with high-strung creatives, trying to balance artistic integrity with the constant need to shelve “art” in favor of a huge box office draw, and dealing with everyone below you on the totem pole trying to bite at your heels to gain their own brass ring – and it sends him on more than one tailspin trying to keep all the plates in the air (while still being convinced that he deserves this position and the power that comes with it). So, much of the season consists of episodes where Matt (and sometimes Barinholtz’s Sal Seperstein) encounter an issue with a project and then desperately try to fix it, only for his ego or his own idiocy to get in the way creating more and more issues. Which is fun. And great once or twice. But when the season is made up almost entirely of episodes like this, well, it gets a bit old.
There are some very high wattage guest star turns throughout the season – all very game to poke fun at themselves and their reputations, all clearly happy to do Rogen a favor (which left me very impressed at how many folks in Hollywood seem to like and respect Rogen, which is a lovely thing to see). And there are a couple of episodes that do, in fact, work incredibly well (the one that has stayed with me the most is “Casting,” wherein our main characters desperately try to cast a film in such a way so as to not offend anyone, which turns into an almost screw-ball comedy of errors and the final joke lands beautifully). But there’s not much in the way of character development or plot beyond “Matt tries to do something and ends up screwing things up royally in the process.”
And if you’re into cringe comedy and don’t get second-hand embarrassment easily, I suspect you’ll be charmed by the series. Rogen makes an affable leading man – he’s just charming enough for us to understand how he got to this level in the studio, but still just enough of a short-sighted idiot for us to recognize that he’s probably not the best person for the gig. And whenever O’Hara, Hahn, or Barinholtz are given the reins, the consummate comedy pros crush it. This isn’t a show lacking for more than capable actors to handle the comedy. Rather, it’s a series where the writing, while funny and biting when it needs to be, rehashes a lot of the same beats when it could be stretching itself out and really pushing the series, the characters, and the cast to higher heights.
The Studio premieres on March 26 on AppleTV+. All ten episodes were provided for critics.
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