Apple TV+ just keeps getting it right. The streaming service has delivered hit series after hit series, from The Morning Show to Ted Lasso, Silo, and Severance. The Studio is one of the latest, another collaboration with Seth Rogen (he also stars in Apple TV+ series Platonic) for which the actor is both creator and star.
A satire about the inner workings of Hollywood life, The Studio, which premieres with its first two episodes on March 26, 2025 (new episodes stream weekly through May 21, 2025 for a total of 10), has a star-studded cast and a laundry list of guest stars playing exaggerated versions of themselves.
Rogen has cemented himself as something of a comedy writing genius. While his content usually skews to raunchy humor, that’s not the case with The Studio. There’s a rawness to this series that proves he can put on a less crude hat sometimes, too, and deliver a satisfying, hilarious story that’s a meta dose of art imitating life.
What is The Studio About?
Set in present-day Hollywood, The Studio begins when Matt Remick (Rogen), a long-time executive at fictional Continental Studios, gets the news he has been waiting his entire career for: he’s being promoted to studio head. It’s his dream job but Matt quickly realizes that being the head honcho might not be all it’s cracked up to be. The job comes with the necessity to juggle a lot of balls in the air and make tough decisions he’s not comfortable making.
Matt has an idealized view of Hollywood and movie making, wanting to make complex, thought-provoking films. He regales in the authenticity of film over digital, even though it’s more of a headache for everyone involved and can lead to tragic circumstances. He immerses himself in classics like Goodfellas, wishing the industry would harken back to the days of fantastic filmmaking. The powers that be, however, would rather focus on corny popcorn flicks that make box office bank.
He also has an insecure, almost obsessive, desire to be liked by directors and actors. That isn’t isn’t easy when he’s carrying the tightening purse strings and has to throw down business decisions that threaten their creative visions or shed light on the fact that they’re being irrational or viewing their project as being much better than it actually is. He’s also blissfully ignorant at times to the fact that people are just being nice to him because, quite frankly, they have to be.
The Studio follows Matt and his team as they work to keep corporate happy, avoid insulting directors, and get on the good sides of actors, all while backing movies that will actually make the studio money. Closest to him are his friend and fellow executive Sal Seperstein (Ike Barinholtz), former studio head Amy (Catherine O’Hara), former assistant turned creative director Quinn (Chase Sui Wonders), and marketing executive Maya (Kathryn Hahn). Another can’t-miss role is Bryan Cranston as the big studio boss Griffin Mill.
The Studio Review
What makes The Studio so incredibly addictive is that you feel like you’re seeing what really goes on behind the scenes in Hollywood, and feeling Matt’s tensions, and those of everyone else around him, along with them. It’s delivered in a way that isn’t indulgent and elitist, but raw and real, flashy movie-making with warts and all. Celebrities aren’t all nice. Directors can be exacting, demanding, even obsessive. There’s a lot of fakeness and sucking up. And studios are more concerned about making movies that will yield the best returns, not necessarily ones that are actually good. Quite frankly, there’s probably a lot of truth behind events depicted in The Studio. It shows a sense of fearlessness in that Rogen, and the long list of guest stars who lend their talents, are effectively biting the very hands that feed them in a cleverly satirical way.
Matt’s first dilemma, for example, involves the concept for a movie that’s as ridiculous as The Emoji Movie. His rose-coloured glasses convince him he can find a way to turn it into a cinematic masterpiece. You’d think having been in the business for so long, Matt would understand how it works. But it tracks that a young talent who finally gets to sit in the hot seat believes he can be the one to finally make things better. How long is it, viewers will ask themselves, until he realizes that, like everyone before him, Matt will probably give in and bend to what truly helps the bottom line?
It’s Matt’s blissful ignorance and desperation to make a difference, however, that drives The Studio forward in every episode. He often finds himself in uncomfortable situations, whether he’s delivering bad news or showing up on a set where he isn’t wanted, but no one dare tell him that. Heck, even while watching, I was screaming at the TV for him to leave, already, and just let them do their jobs! Telling directors, actors, and other talent what they don’t want to hear is literally Matt’s job. Yet ironically, not being liked is his worst fear, and he’s seemingly unaware that he isn’t.
The Studio is like a love letter to studio heads and other movie executives: they can either be well liked or they can do their job well. It can rarely be both. In fact, anyone in a position that requires making tough decisions and juggling many balls in the air while trying to placate every side will relate to Matt’s plight, if not his ignorance to his own insecurities.
The list of cameos in the show is tremendous, each one bringing their own flavour to the role. Ron Howard, for example, reminds us that he was an actor before he was a director, and that he knows how to dominate a scene. Anthony Mackie proves why he’s one of the biggest rising stars. Martin Scorsese hits it out of the park in a storyline that will make you both wince and wonder how many time ones like it have really happened in Hollywood. (Answer: probably a lot).
Rogen delivers what might be one of his best performances. The chemistry among the cast is wonderful, with Rogen and Barinholtz a sweet on-screen duo. The show is cleverly crafted to weave in popular movie tropes and satire with a dose of art imitating life. In one scene, for example, Matt talks about bookends in films, only to wind up in one of his own self-reflective book-end moments at the end of the episode. It’s brilliantly written, likely the byproduct of the fact that the people writing it have lived these moments, or ones like them, themselves.
The Studio pokes fun at stereotypical movie business personalities, from the uptight executive to the eccentric writer and director, and the loud and unfiltered marketing executive. But at its heart is the studio head doing his best to accomplish the impossible task of making everyone happy and being genuinely liked while achieving box office success and feeling a sense of fulfillment from the job. It’s not such a tall order, is it? What Matt discovers as he navigates one challenging situation to the next is that it is. Try as you might, even with all the glitz and glamor, managing movie-makers is still, at the end of the day, a job and a business.