Following the conclusion of one of the most talked-about TV shows of the year, Severance, Apple TV+ once again launches a power house of a show, The Studio, in part led by and starring Seth Rogen. It premiered in March 26 with its first two episodes ready for streaming and has since been coming with weekly episode releases on Wednesdays.
Not including the star-studded and hilarious main cast, each show has at least one cameo of a Hollywood A-lister, whether it be Olivia Wilde or Martin Scorcese. Each episode is slapsticky in words and littered with actual slapstick, and can be contained as a stand-alone situational comedy.
The Studio follows Matt Remick (Seth Rogen), the newly-promoted head of Continental Studios, a studio known for formulaic IP-grab movies ala the recent A Minecraft Movie. Matt tries to seize this opportunity to turn the reputation of the studio around into one that makes meaningful media, while facing the trials and tribulations of celebrity personalities, relationships, criticism, and straight up bureaucracy. The Studio is an accessible lesson in production for the casual viewer or a nudge to a twenty-something LA transplant film nerd.
One of the biggest kickers for any viewer is the amount of A-list talent that make the show as a guest star. There’s at least one for every episode and they either make the smallest appearance or are the plot device for the episode. The first episode starts off strong, spoiling the audience with Paul Dano, who is actually only there for the first couple minutes and never to be seen again, then with Bryan Cranston, who plays Griffin Mill, Continental Studio’s CEO, and Steve Buscemi and Martin Scorsese playing themselves.
Each episode is a microcosm on its own and addresses a different reality of mainstream media. There are also a couple of easter eggs in the form of a different gimmicks in film. In episode 4, “The Missing Reel”, Matt and Sal Saperstein (Ike Barinholtz) address the use of voice-over by the main character in classic detectives movies, and even employs that device through the course of the episode.
To move the plot along and make sure that each episode keeps you on the edge of your seat, The Studio‘s writers use the classic reintroduction of a new conflict once one conflict resolves (or does it?), and the stakes are higher for every new conflict. Episode 2, “The Oner” in a perfect example of this, where Matt shows up unannounced to a shoot and finds new ways of impeding a crucial shot for the film’s final shoot day.
The crucial shot in question for this episode was a singular, continuous shot, that once again, constitutes the final shot for the episode itself. The microcosmic retrospect reflects the bigger issue of Apple TV+ and its allure to critics and loyal subscribers: Apple is spending upwards of 1 billion dollars on producing their library, while providing next-to-no advertising for the majority of its IP. Government Cheese is another comedy that premiered recently, yet all the ad space for season 2 of Severance went to The Studio or The Gorge.
While CGI, animation, hefty production stunts, inevitably stand for numbers with many zeros, there is no better symbol for luxury and frugality of time and money other than the privilege of celebrity, of which The Studio has many. So the question we’re left with is simply, what the heck is Apple TV playing at?