Nobody likes the guy on the top, as he makes all the dirty decisions. Seth Rogen as Matt Remick, the guy given the chair to be fair and still not scare the team at Continental Studios, is so not glamorous, so not likeable, and so right. This splendid series gets its nervous energy from Rogen’s fidgety presence.
But that is only the beginning. There is so much in The Studio to take home (in a manner of speaking), especially if you are any part of the movie business. The drama behind the scenes as the team whips itself up into a lather of excitement over the current project. Everyone thinks the team is creating a historic work. When the film flops, everyone looks at the other person accusingly.
Why didn’t you say so? The Studio is the ultimate why-didn’t-you-say-so series full of genuine chuckles about these deluded creators. The accusations and counter-accusations fly fast and furiously and funnily.
More than anything else, The Studio is a savagely satirical view of the vagaries of showbiz. The series has its tongue firmly in cheek (even if it does let out the frequent shriek) and an eye on the idiocy of the God complex suffered by many artistes.
Martin Scorsese plays himself in the first episode where someone has to tell this genius the truth about his precious project on how a drink called Kool-Aid was responsible for the notorious mass murder in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978. Who is to tell Scorsese that the idea sucks? Matt Remick, of course.
Several stalwarts from the movie business assume the sporting spirit and put in cameos as spoilt brats, or if not, then self-appointed geniuses.
Every one of the ten episodes is self-contained. You can’t afford to miss any. Not unless you are prepared to skip something voluptuously revealing about cinematic libertines and liberties. My favourite is the third episode where the iconic director Ron Howard (playing himself) must be told that his new project needs to edit out the self-indulgent climax which, of course, is the favourite part of the director’s vision.
I was reminded of my friend J. P. Dutta who declared even one frame of his war epic LoC Kargil will be cut “over his dead body.”
The delectable series takes seriously parodic potshots at the gods of celluloid. Co-directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the series moves at a breakneck speed. Everyone speaks rapidly and behaves as though they are high on something more than life (which they probably are), as though time were running out (which it is).
There are lengthy shots of characters semi-running breathlessly towards meetings and parties. As they stride purposefully, they look like paper tigers in a make-believe jungle.
These are people with an inflated sense of self trying to justify their paycheques. There is one episode where Matt, dating a paediatric oncologist, attends a medical fundraiser and gets into a heated, violent debate on art versus science.
Matt seriously thinks making movies is as important as saving sick children’s lives. It is a horrifying, embarrassing stance to take, and Matt does what he is best at: take the blows on his midriff.
There is no better series on the self-important sham and augmented shindigs of showbiz than The Studio. This is a series that doesn’t just invite us into its low-morale, hallucinogenic hysterics. It makes us laugh uncontrollably at how delusional showbiz is. And how dumb we are to take these guys seriously.
Also Read: Looking Back At 24 Years Of Abhishek Bachchan-Goldie Behl’s Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai
