Seth Rogen has come up with a real winner in The Studio, a show that provides a great premise and a wealth of material that could keep him stocked in good episode scripts for years to come.
Rogen plays Matt Remick, a newly anointed studio head who wants to make prestige pictures—but finds himself, in the first episode, required to produce a movie about Kool-Aid. Yes, the sugary drink Kool-Aid. The studio wants their Barbie, and this creates a crisis of creative conscience for Matt, who wants to make true art, but also wants to keep his job.
The ingenious setup of The Studio not only allows for a wealth of entertainment-based material, but for countless cameos by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Steve Buscemi and Charlize Theron—in the first episode alone.
A supporting cast including Ike Barinholtz and Catherine O’Hara adds to the enjoyment, making The Studio one of the breeziest shows to hit TV in a long while.
It’s great to see Sarah Polley onscreen again after a 15-year absence. Polley has graduated to directing movies and has seemingly put aside her acting career, but here, she has a fun turn playing herself, a director trying to get a take in before the sun goes down, with Rogen disrupting her set. Like everybody around her in this show, she’s hilarious. Two episodes in, and I’m hooked.
Rogen had been flailing a little bit lately, but The Studio is the sort of project may just get him and creative partner Evan Goldberg back into Pineapple Express golden entertainment mode.
The Studio is now streaming on Apple TV+, with new episodes released on Wednesdays through May 21.