The Studio is a comedic love letter to filmmaking in Hollywood as the Point Grey team uses the satire to show audiences what happens behind the scenes.

To say that The Studio takes us where no studio tour goes is an understatement. I had high expectations going into the series not only because it’s from the Point Grey team but the mere fact that it was an Opening Night selection of the SXSW Film & TV Festival. Suffice it to say, that it was as hysterical as I hoped it would be. The first episode runs about 45 minutes but everything else is closer to 30 minutes in length, give or take a few.

When ComWorld CEO Griffin Mill (Bryan Cranston) fires Patty Leigh (Catherine O’Hara) from her role at Continental Studios, Matt Remnick (Seth Rogen) is soon promoted to take her position as President and Chief Creative Officer of the Motion Picture Group. It was either him or best friend and fellow executive Sal Saperstein (Ike Barinholtz). Among Remick’s first decisions is promoting Quinn Hackett (Chase Sui Wonders) to creative executive. Is he ready for this moment after working some 20-plus years working in Hollywood and can he survive in the job?

Matt and his executive team, including marketing head Maya Mason (Kathryn Hahn), cannot screw any of this up. The Studio is well aware of the fact that movies are struggling right now. It doesn’t take any of this lightly. As an executive, Matt knows what the studio needs and it feeds into the blockbuster vs. art house discourse. An auteur director can direct a billion-dollar movie but only with the right property. Is Kool-Aid the right property to bring in the money? That’s something that will have to be answered if we get a second season of the series.

This is a series that shows just about every facet of the filmmaking process and this sometimes come by way of a particular genre. There’s an episode that utilizes the noir. Another one focuses on the use of a scene being filmed as oner. There are parties, set visits, casting decisions, marketing meetings, Anaheim Comic Con, CinemaCon, and an awards show. In using the Golden Globe Awards as the ceremony, they manage to ignore the fact that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was rebranded to the Golden Globe Foundation. If you’re able to ignore this while watching, great. But anyway, all these moments lead to wins or disasters.

One thing that I especially enjoyed about The Studio is that they bring in real actors and filmmakers to play themselves. But even then, they have leeway in how they present themselves. Martin Scorsese, Sarah Polley, Ron Howard, and Olivia Wilde are some of the big-name filmmakers making cameos as themselves. Having A-list actors like Anthony Mackie, Zac Efron, Paul Dano, Greta Lee, etc. making appearances also lends a sense of authenticity to the show. The only fictional characters are basically the employees of Continental Studios or people working at restaurants, bars, attorneys, etc.

Continental is seen as a legacy studio in the same vein as Paramount Pictures, Universal, Warner Bros., and MGM. They don’t have a streaming service and they only produce feature films. Their bench isn’t deep as others when it comes to owning IP. Can they survive going forward into the 21st century? This is a good question especially with companies merging or acquiring other studios in every which direction. Here’s to hoping a second season of The Studio answering the question at hand.

The writing team certainly knows how to pick some of the hot-button issues heavily weighing on the minds of cinephiles. One such issue is the use of AI and how its taking away jobs from working artists. They wisely use it as an issue to distract from another potentially explosive issue: casting. Speaking of casting, The Studio acknowledges in its casting discussion that Judaism is both a race and religion. There are lots of Jewish jokes–for better or worse–in the interactions between Remnick and Mitch White (David Krumholtz). Such dialogue would be seen as derogatory if neither actor were Jewish!

At a time when filmmaking in Hollywood appears to be at a low in recent years, The Studio is filmed on location in Los Angeles. It wouldn’t be an insider show if it were filmed in Vancouver or Toronto. You could only make this show by filming in Los Angeles. If you’ve ever taken a Warner Brothers studio tour, you’ll recognize the Smoke House Restaurant when it pops up on screen. The restaurant’s name inspired George Clooney and Grant Heslov to name their production company Smokehouse Pictures.

Drawing on the experiences of its creators, The Studio is sure to be a hit for Apple TV+. It’s already a contender for the best comedy series of the year!

CREATORS: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, Frida Perez
SHOWRUNNERS: Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck
DIRECTORS: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg
WRITERS: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg & Peter Huyck & Alex Gregory & Frida Perez (Eps. 1, 10), Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg (Ep. 2), Alex Gregory (Eps. 3, 6-7, 9), Peter Huyck (Eps. 4, 8), Frida Perez (Ep. 5)
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck, Alex McAtee, Josh Fagen
CAST: Seth Rogen, Catherine O’Hara, Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, and Kathryn Hahn
GUEST STARS: Dewayne Perkins, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Bryan Cranston

Apple TV+ premieres the first two episodes of The Studio on March 26, 2025. New episodes will premiere weekly through May 21. Grade: 5/5

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