Seth Rogen’s warm, Emmy-winning comedy about a Hollywood movie company is exquisitely excruciating – and more fun than anything else on TV
• The 50 best TV shows of 2025
• More on the best culture of 2025
Oh, The Studio – how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Or at least allow me to gaze, rapt, from behind an ornamental palm tree as your vintage convertible hurtles towards yet another catastrophic Hollywood assignation.
The Emmy-winning creation of Seth Rogen and long-term writing partner Evan Goldberg, The Studio follows Matt Remick, an idealistic film executive who finds himself unexpectedly promoted to head of Continental Studios. “This could be my time!” he gasps, cock-a-hoop to find himself in charge of the company to which he has devoted the last 22 years of his life. He is, unfortunately, correct. “Film is my life,” he splutters during his tearfully grateful acceptance speech to CEO Griffin Mill (Bryan Cranston). Mill – an oleaginous sod with a spray tan the colour of a 70s ski lodge – smiles thinly. “At Continental, we don’t make films. We make movies. MOOOOVIEEEEES that people wanna PAY to see,” he explains, tightly, and Matt’s face proceeds to sink like a souffle. And it continues to sink over 10 exquisitely excruciating episodes, as his hopes for a new era of intelligent, auteur-helmed blockbusters are repeatedly marmalised by a system both frightened and angered by anything that can’t be deposited in a Swiss bank account.
Continue reading...
