Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.How does a studio boss end up telling Martin Scorsese that his greenlit epic about the Jonestown cult massacre has been reimagined as soft-drink cash-in Kool-Aid: The Movie? Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) got into Hollywood because he loves films. But as the newly appointed head of Continental Studios, he soon realises that his job largely amounts to killing off original ideas and disappointing his idols. While he wants to make auteur cinema, all the company’s owner (Bryan Cranston) wants is more bankable, box office hits based on legacy IP. Welcome to The Studio: a smart, cynical, stupendously funny new Hollywood satire on Apple TV+. Created by Rogen and his longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg, the 10-part series is both an insidery look at “the dream factory” and an out-and-out cringe comedy of errors. It’s Robert Altman’s The Player meets Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm — as the elevator pitch might put it.While the Kool-Aid project provides a season-long arc, each sharply paced, episode serves as a self-contained vignette devoted to the crisis of the day. That might be a final cut that runs too long, a celluloid reel that’s gone missing, or a casting choice that sparks a debate about the ethnicity of a cartoon jug. What begins as a trifling matter often escalates into disaster with a flustered Matt at the centre. Within a few weeks of his new role he reduces Scorsese to tears, provokes Ron Howard to physical violence, and pisses off just about everyone else, including actors Anthony Mackie to Zoë Kravitz.A never-ending array of self-satirising cameos is a huge part of the series’ charm. It also gives the show a sense of heightened reality that blurs the line between outright absurdity and alarming plausibility. Are we really that far from an AI-animated, drink-inspired franchise? Or a casting call for someone who is 63 per cent Asian?But The Studio mostly belongs to the unsung heroes whose names never appear on the posters. The show is best when it sets Matt spiralling and follows the increasingly frenzied back-and-forths between the beleaguered boss and his coked-up right-hand-man Sal (Ike Barinholtz), his spiky mentor Patty (Catherine O’Hara) and live-wire press assistant Maya (Kathryn Hahn). The snappy repartee, exquisite insults and winking references come at a relentless pace. Yet there is also something subtly sentimental about The Studio. If it’s a send-up of an ailing industry, it’s also a love letter to the art of filmmaking. We hear Matt wax lyrical about the magic of cinema — and argue hilariously with a doctor he’s dating (Rebecca Hall) about whose work is more important. The show itself is beautifully crafted and full of affectionate pastiches. That an episode in which Matt ruins a single-take “oner” overseen by director Sarah Polley is itself filmed in one flawless tracking shot might be the best gag of all.★★★★☆First two episodes on Apple TV Plus from March 26. New episodes weekly
