If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if a joint smoked itself back and then started questioning the meaning of the film industry, then you have The Studio. Seth Rogen stars in a series about losing your grip on precisely the thing you never quite had hold of in the first place.
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Disclaimer: Apropos Magazine received access or a review copy. As always, we share our own impressions — unfiltered.
Six stars
Seth Rogen plays Seth Rogen, but this time with a slightly deeper crease between his brows and a kind of uncertainty that isn’t just down to weed. He is Matt Remick, newly appointed head of a classic Hollywood studio, and it feels like watching a dog try to steer a steam engine. Champagne flute in one hand, fear of TikTok in the other.
"The Studio" on Apple TV+ is not a satire. It is a confession. A meta-comedy about an industry that has long excelled at taking itself seriously, even when it’s serving up superheroes in latex. Now it has its trousers down and the PR team nearby. The series is split between manic, absurd humour and a nearly sad stripping-away of how little control anyone actually has.
Matt Remick is not a leader. He is a limp man with social anxiety, placed in an office where nerve has been replaced by Post-its and prequels. His employees are caricatures, but also spot-on: the producer who dreams of prestige projects and ends up making a musical about Jonestown, for instance. They all move around in the same zombie-like state: hopeful, burnt out and shamelessly strategic.
This is where Rogen proves his worth. Not as the class clown, but as perhaps the only man in Hollywood who can say “we’re ridiculous” without sounding offended. He plays the role with a mix of humility and desperation, as if he were on his way to a TED Talk he doesn’t believe in himself. It works.
And Catherine O’Hara. We have to talk about her. She plays the studio’s old guard — a kind of war-traumatised PR general — with the same elegance as a great dane in a department store. She steals the scenes. Not because they are written for her, but because she understands the absurdity better than most.
"The Studio" could have been a smug insider series. But it is more than that. It is a product of its time: an industry that is afraid of dying and therefore films its own death rattle and calls it streaming content. The series is funny, but it is the kind of laughter you get when you’ve been crying for too long. You want to shout: Make a film that matters! But no one hears you. Everyone is on Zoom.
Reflection
"The Studio" is not revolutionary, but it is honest enough to land. Seth Rogen has made his most mature series to date. You may not remember every joke. But you will remember the feeling of witnessing a system slowly implode. With a smile.
4 out of 5 stars
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