Season 1 - 10 episodes (2025)
Rent The Studio on Amazon Video (paid link)
Created by: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, Frida Perez
Starring: Seth Rogen, Catherine O'Hara, Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, Kathryn Hahn
Rated: TV-MA
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Plot
A legacy Hollywood movie studio strives to survive in a world where it is increasingly difficult for art and business to live together.
Verdict
It's a fun show that indeed loves cinema while looking at the monumental task of actual creating movies by balancing talent and budget. We go behind the scenes and sets of Hollywood through insecure studio head Matt Remick. Creating a film is challenging, comedic, and frustrating. Matt juggles projects and stars, often feeling like creation isn't far from destruction. This has frequent cameos with celebrities playing an over the top version of themselves which adds humor while grounding the show in reality. While the season is good, the final two episodes take this over the top.
Watch It.
Review
The show takes us behind the screen to Hollywood, showing us how movies are made. Art and business often conflict. Studios want to make money. They want to make art too, but money first. It's a satire of the industry, and it feels like it's quite close to the truth.
Film executive Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) loves movies and gets a promotion to studio head, providing direct creative control. The first episode proves this is a comedic take, while also showing us how out of touch and reactionary executives are. The studio needs a tent pole branded movie and a Kool-Aid movie is the answer. Matt wants to make an auteur version, balancing art and money to create a movie he'd enjoy. Matt attempts to funnel a Scorsese Jonestown script into a branded Kool-Aid movie. Name dropping celebrities really helps ground the movie.
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| Seth Rogen plays Matt Remick |
The first episode proves that there's no way for Matt to win. He has to choose a Kool-Aid movie he doesn't like to please his boss, renegotiating the Scorsese deal and losing money. He loves movies, but he feels like his new job is to destroy them.
Episode two is an ode to the continuous take. The episode is a single shot as Matt visits a set to watch a continuous take. By visiting the set Matt creates several issues that show how difficult it is to create and execute the shot. The more the director tries, the more that goes wrong. While Matt is there to support the film, he couldn't sabotage it more if he wanted to. As the studio head, he can no longer be friends with the directors and actors.
Ron Howard appears in episode three, compressing an entire movie into a few minutes. Everyone is afraid to give Ron notes that his movie is too long. They want to pass the buck to no avail. Howard does a great job in his appearance.
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| Seth Rogen, Bryan Cranston play Matt Remick, Griffin Mill |
Episode four is a film noir spoof focusing on a film noir movie with a missing reel. Matt tries to track the reel down, following clues that lead him nowhere. Every episode seems to be an ode to film making. Episode five has two executives pitching a horror movie to Matt, sabotaging each other to get their movie made. Matt argues that all film is art with a bunch of doctors but doesn't win them over in episode six.
The Kool-Aid movie returns in episode seven with Matt and his team having to consider the implications of casting choices. They're concerned about the racial implications of casting Kool-Aid Man. They end up changing the entire cast and the writers only to discover they've gone too far. Ice Cube appears as himself cast to play Kool-Aid.
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| Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders, Seth Rogen, Bryan Cranston, Kathryn Hahn, Catherine O'Hara, Dewayne Perkins, play Sal, Quinn, Matt, Griffin, Maya, Patty, Tyler |
Despite his promotion, Matt is so insecure. He hopes Zoë Kravitz will think him in a speech, going to great lengths to ensure it happens. You'd think being head of the studio is enough. His neuroses makes him endearing and comedic as he battles imposter syndrome.
Episodes nine and ten encapsulate everything great about the show. Matt wants to impress with a Las Vegas party while also hoping to have a good showing at CinemaCon. He of course inadvertently screws up with his "old school Hollywood buffet." Whenever Matt tries to be cool, he fails. The Zoë Kravitz and Dave Franco cameos are a lot of fun. Dave keeps getting better. I already liked this show, but this episode puts it over the top. Episode ten continues the fun as Matt and coworkers rush to save their jobs and the studio while dropping movie references left and right. It's a great cap to the season.
This manages to idolize and make fun of Hollywood. At times this isn't far from a workplace comedy, it just has oversized Hollywood personalities. Even then, it provides insight into the Hollywood machine and what it takes to produce movies.
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