"The Studio" should be a series that's right up my alley. It's a Hollywood spoof that focuses on the executives who are in charge of greenlighting and putting together the deals that get movies made. The fictional Continental Studios is run by newly promoted Matt Remick (Seth Rogen), a film lover who wants to make great art but also has to deliver profits. The cast is full of funny actors - Catherine O'Hara plays Matt's mentor, Chase Sui Wonders and Ike Barinholtz play film executives, and Kathryn Hahn plays the head of marketing. But more importantly, there's the cavalcade of guest stars, including Martin Scorsese and Charlize Theron, who show up to play versions of themselves. I love movies and stories about moviemaking, so I should love "The Studio," right?
Well… it's fun to watch smart, informed, movie-obsessed people have conversations and debates about all the things that I get obsessed with, like directors shooting on film, actors discussing press tour schedules, and how blatant the remakes are getting. The episode about shooting a single-take "oner" actually being shot as a single-take oner itself is geeky in the best way. Sometimes following the production drama and dealmaking going on behind the scenes of a movie can be more fun than watching the movie itself. So, even if all the projects being put together are fictional, "The Studio" has plenty of juicy material to work with. However, the show doesn't have much of an interest in actually depicting movies getting made. Instead, "The Studio" seems determined to showcase the absolute worst aspects of working in Hollywood in every episode.
To put it bluntly, "The Studio" is a pitch-black comedy that relies almost entirely on cringe humor and anxiety-inducing scenarios where things go very wrong, similar to "Veep." All the characters are awful in their own ways, with Matt usually being the worst. He's under soul-crushing pressure, hates making people unhappy, and frequently lets his selfish fanboy tendencies get the better of him. This means he'll get himself into awful situations like in the pilot, where he agrees to make a Kool-Aid movie, even though he doesn't want to, and sets up a deal to make an expensive Martin Scorsese film, without really thinking through the consequences. Initially it seems like Matt has some talent as an executive, but we only ever see him at his worst in subsequent episodes.
The actors are great and the writing is pretty sharp, but I found the constant negativity about working in Hollywood depressing. Frankly, this isn't the kind of humor I respond to, because the anxiety overwhelms the absurdity for me, and I can't enjoy it. After five episodes, the only one I really liked was "The Note," because it allowed guest stars Anthony Mackie and Ron Howard to play really ridiculous versions of themselves, and the core cast were all being stupid in very relatable ways. I understand why people working in the industry like "The Studio," because it does away with all the mythologizing about show business, and reveals all the pettiness and egomania underneath. I'm sure that creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have been in many similar situations, and are taking the chance to work through some frustrations. I, however, don't have much patience for this when the frustration is all there all there seems to be.
Hanging around other film fans, it can be fun to criticize the movie execs and second guess what projects got greenlit, and who got attached to which project. I do appreciate "The Studio" for humanizing the people who actually make these calls, and reminding us all that nobody sets out to make a bad movie. However, as someone who does love movies, I can't help feeling that Rogen and Goldberg are leaning way too hard on the cringe, excoriating Hollywood to the point where it gets kinda dull. I also think that they're sabotaging themselves by not letting their characters display any depth, or get any wins whatsoever. The more we learn about the main characters, the more miserable everyone seems, and I just don't find this entertaining.
So, with full acknowledgement that this is an extremely good version of this kind of cringe comedy, I'm bowing out after five episodes of "The Studio." I may be back in the future for certain guest stars, but I know when a show is definitely not for me.
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