TV Talk: Seth Rogen satirizes movie biz with bite in ‘The Studio’

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

Shows set behind the scenes in Hollywood have a decidedly mixed track record.

For every creatively successful effort (“30 Rock,” “Hacks,” “Episodes,” “Beggars Choosers”), there are a string of duds (“Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “Good News,” “UnReal” after season one).

The latest attempt, Apple TV+’s “The Studio,” most closely resembles the critically acclaimed, short-lived 1999 Fox comedy “Action,” which starred Jay Mohr as a sleazy Hollywood movie studio executive.

Seth Rogen stars in “The Studio” as Matt Remick, the newly appointed head of Continental Studios. Streaming its first two (of 10) episodes March 26 (new episodes debut weekly Wednesdays through May 21), “The Studio” does not put its funniest foot forward.

The first episode is the weakest as it introduces the characters and sets up relationships and conflicts among Matt and his colleagues, including squabbling junior executives Sal (Ike Barinholtz) and Quinn (Chase Sui Wonders) and studio publicity exec Maya (Kathryn Hahn, “Agatha All Along”).

Subsequent episodes grow creatively stronger, much funnier and more focused on a specific theme, from the dangers independent studios face in an age of rapacious tech company-owned streaming services to the racial optics of casting Ice Cube as the voice of Kool-Aid.

“The Studio” becomes an often screamingly funny series through the course of its first season, making it the best new comedy series of 2025 so far.

Much of the humor derives from the thin-skinned, insecure narcissists “The Studio” focuses on, from the studio executives to the bold-faced-name celebs who appear as themselves, including Martin Scorsese, Zoe Kravitz, Zach Efron, Olivia Wilde, Johnny Knoxville, Adam Scott, Jean Smart, Aaron Sorkin, Ted Sarandos, Ramy Youssef, Quinta Brunson, Lil Rel, Ziwe, Dave Franco, Zack Snyder, Sarah Polley and “The Town” podcaster Matt Belloni.

In addition to the many celebrities who show up as themselves, Bryan Cranston plays the odious owner of Continental Pictures, Rhea Perlman guest stars as Matt’s mom and Catherine O’Hara portrays the fired head of Continental, who is now a producer.

Created by Rogen, Evan Goldberg (“Sausage Party”), Peter Huyck (“Veep”), Alex Gregory (“The Larry Sanders Show”) and Frida Perez, “The Studio” deploys “Curb Your Enthusiasm’s” comedy-of-the-uncomfortable; it courses through every “Studio” episode. Sometimes it’s found in the infighting between executives, which in one episode leads to an on-set disaster, but often it’s simply Rogen’s Matt, a film fan forced to compromise at every turn, worried one false move may cost him his job.

“I love movies,” Matt says, “but now my fear is my job is to ruin them.”

Episode two focuses on Matt’s interference on a film set, where he walks into shots and basically makes the day a nightmare for the director (Polley) and star Greta Lee.

In another episode, Matt and his team can’t bring themselves to tell Ron Howard his overly long film is “a never-ending snorey.”

“I almost drilled a hole into my brain to kill the part of me that senses time,” O’Hara’s producer character says.

Matt’s insecurity ratchets up midway through the season when he attends a pediatric oncology fundraiser and ridiculously argues his job is as important as the lifesaving work of doctors for kids with cancer (“People in the arts community fund your little science projects!” he declares). His demand for acknowledgment is on full display in an episode set at the Golden Globe Awards. The episode was largely filmed where the Globes are actually held, The Beverly Hilton, although a scene of Rogen and Netflix exec Ted Sarandos at a bar was shot somewhere else.

“The Studio” gets a little less smart with its satire in the last two episodes of the season when the characters take too many drugs before a CinemaCon presentation (presumably known stoner Rogen couldn’t help himself) and the whole affair becomes more manic and slapstick. But by then, the characters have endeared themselves, and Rogen and Goldberg build such a believable, lived-in world that it all works — especially when the pitch-perfect “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” Richard and Robert Sherman’s song from Walt Disney World’s Carousel of Progress, plays to wrap the season.