The Studio

Many weeks back I heard this show discussed on a TV segment of my local radio network (ABC Local in Australia, on the Nightlife programme) and that featured an audio clip of a scene from the series concerning the making of a film about zombies with an ‘interesting’ method of spreading their contagion. Oddly, once I started watching the series, that episode wouldn’t drop until many weeks later, so I’m not sure how the radio show got such an advanced, unaired episode. Anyway, the show seemed like it would be fun and I somehow got a free trial of Apple TV for a few months (maybe via spending a certain amount on an Apple gift card or something...$30, say), so I made a point of watching it.

From the first episode, the series has the feel of an old style screwball comedy (not really a genre that I’m familiar with and looking up that term, it only partially matches what I’m thinking of here, things like a highly stylised manner of speaking between characters). Seth Rogen plays Matt Remick, a senior figure in the fictional Hollywood film corporation Continental Studios...who also happens to be a man-child. He is about to become the head of this studio and discover that the reality of his promotion won’t meet his expectation of how he imagines it will be. It seems he will be internally conflicted between his love of cinema as an art form and the pressure to make a tonne of money for the corporation.

The main cast really only serve to illuminate different facets of Remick, as in they don’t seem fully formed characters with personalities of their own, as happens in such great sitcoms as Seinfeld, Cheers, Yes Minister or Fawlty Towers, to name some of the best. Perhaps that could be construed as a reflection of the 'type' that populate these positions in this industry...or the show's writing isn't as sharp when it comes to characters other than Remick? They are perky and hyper but lack depth. Like Gervais’ The Office, this is very much cringe comedy, with Remick being the focus of that. It works. In my notes I did write some quotes from the show which I liked, such as Remick saying “I got into all this ‘cause, you know, I love movies but now I have this fear that my job is to ruin them” (episode 1). Episode 2 has one character illuminate a facet of Remick by saying of him “His film boner is at full mast”. The language does get stronger in this series, so if such language offends you, it would be best to give this series a miss (there is also one raunchy sex scene in the first series). In the same episode, I got a laugh when Remick says “I’m trying to support women”. Of course, the humour here derives from his weird way of demonstrating that.

A feature of this series is that famous industry figures have roles here. Now, some names I was familiar with but would struggle to identify them in a police lineup...I’d have better luck if I had a multiple choice option to pick them...for example, someone like Martin Scorsese. However, there were many industry figures that I was not familiar with, as I haven’t lived and breathed films for a while now. Personally, it would have been funny to me if the joke was that the series used actors to play actual industry figures, as I wouldn’t have known that in any case...or that the person really existed anyway. In any case, I had no trouble recognising Ron Howard when he appeared. All these famous/’famous’ people play versions of themselves, for comedic effect, obviously.

Going on my notes for the series, here are some comments about the episodes that prompted me to write something down:

Episode 1, “The promotion” – very well constructed with a nice payoff. It has Martin Scorsese in it. Remick digs holes for himself and tries digging his way out of them. It would be interesting to know how much the series draws on actual practice in the industry versus drawing on real world events. For instance, a part of this episode reminded me of the news story where people with damaging claims against Donald Trump had their story bought by magazines like the National Enquirer and the US Weekly in order to ‘bury’ them...the term “catch-and-kill” was used in that case. In other words, the magazines did Trump a favour in order to help him get elected as president.

Episode 2, “The oner” – I’ve already included a couple of quotes from this one but I did note that a figure of $800,000 was mentioned as the price to use a Rolling Stones song in a film. Is that about right?

Episode 3, “The note” – I was amused when one character says of Ron Howard’s film “He should not be burdening audiences with his catharsis. Go to therapy, save us 45 minutes of fucking runtime”. The scene where Howard has an outburst at the poster art for the film meeting...I thought that was a ruse by him to get the film to Patty instead of Continental. In any case, tongue planted firmly in cheek, perhaps, I’d say that the episode should have ended at that scene!

Episode 4, “The missing reel” – Shot in a film noir style. At the time I felt that this was the weakest episode. It became funnier once the mystery had been resolved.

Episode 6, “The paediatric oncologist” – I think that this is the worst episode of the first series. The portrayal of the doctors as that petty didn’t strike me as being plausible...they’re sitcom doctors...and I wasn’t having much fun with them.

Episode 8, “The Golden Globes” – I started cringing when Zöe Kravitz’ character (herself) approached Remick when he was behind the scenes, trying to get credit for her film. However, they managed to turn things around quickly and it became an amusing scene (I have a low cringe tolerance or something). This moment isn’t unlike Gervais’ sitcom/mockumentary The office.

Episodes 9 and 10 – I couldn’t get past how the supposedly stoned characters didn’t really strike me as being stoned...that might just be a good thing...was I expecting them to go all ‘method’ for their roles?

Anyway, this is my first experience, really, of “streaming” TV, from memory. One thing which REALLY annoyed me was how the closing credits were shrunk and moved to a corner to make way for a promotion for something else on Apple TV. I’d repeatedly fight the screen to leave the closing credits on full screen so that I could read them! The start of each episode also starts with a promotion for another programme on Apple TV, which you can skip, it seems, thankfully.

Paying to watch TV isn’t really my thing so no doubt I’ll cancel my subscription just before my free trial expires. Can’t say that I’m desperate to continue further series of The studio. Hopefully it’s not one of those traditional TV network type of shows where they just keep it going and going...and going and going...until it just dies a belated death...like the US Office? Gervais’ had the better concept of how long to keep a series going.

For my score for this first series, I was thinking of giving it 75+%, which would mean giving it 8/10 stars here. Think I’ll drop the + in my score, which means, since I don’t round up, a score of 7/10 stars here. I was entertained by this series and if you closely follow the Hollywood scene you will no doubt get a lot more from this series, as you see real people that you follow play strange versions of themselves.