That's a wrap on "The Studio" season 1.
With today's season finale, we finally got to see if Matt Remick and the rest of the crew at Continental Studios survived Cinema Con. I also finally got to declare this my best comedy show of the year so far.
Spoilers for "The Studio" episode 10, "The Presentation," beyond this point
To be fair, neither of these was ever really in doubt. Despite having a multitude of people high on psychedelic mushrooms, "The Studio" was already greenlit for season 2 going into the season 1 finale.
Given this is a comedy, things would have needed to take a pretty unforeseen dramatic turn for Seth Rogen's fictional studio head not to pull a rabbit out of a hat and save the day.
Similarly, things would have needed to take a pretty dramatic turn for me to downgrade Rogen's Hollywood comedy from where it currently is in my rankings. Especially since I was already so high on it after its two-episode premiere.
When I last published my list of the best shows of 2025 so far, I had "The Studio" as the top comedy on the list and fourth overall. It's now fifth, but that's only because I finally watched "Adolescence" and — perhaps controversially — I have "The Last of Us" season 2 just ahead of it, though that could change.
Regardless, it's still the top comedy, a notable step ahead of "Hacks" season 4 — coincidentally, another show about the entertainment industry.
While both are well-written, "Hacks" has become a bit stale in its fourth season in a way that "The Studio" simply hasn't.
Part of this is because, with just one season under its belt, "The Studio" simply hasn't had as much time to retread familiar ground.
However, it's also because the Apple TV Plus comedy is far less concerned about advancing its overarching narrative than its Max (or is it HBO Max?) counterpart. It has a bit more leeway to meander and take side quests, like an entire episode about a power struggle between two of Matt's underlings at the studio.
The season 1 finale was very much about Matt's overarching story this season, though, and it was the best example yet of what an intricately layered show this comedy can be.
'The Presentation' puts the many layers of 'The Studio' on full display
Picking up from last week's cliffhanger ending, the finale, aptly titled "The Presentation," had Matt scrambling to produce the greatest Cinema Con presentation ever to prevent Continental Studios from being "MGMed" and sold to Amazon.
The only thing preventing this? Matt decided to put out an "old school Hollywood buffet" of drugs, and everyone got too high to function properly, including Griffin Mill (Bryan Cranston), the CEO of Continental's parent company.
The premise seems simple enough, and very much aimed at the members of the industry it's satirizing.
And yet, the hallmarks of Rogen's everyman, sometimes sophomoric, comedy are there.
For starters, the whole thing revolves around being high while dealing with a serious situation ("Pineapple Express" anyone?). There are also jokes about the size of Griffin's genitals.
So we have a simple premise, crude behavior and dick jokes. A sure-fire formula for making people laugh, but hardly clever.
Yet, clever is exactly what this show is, and "The Presentation" puts that cleverness on full display.
The intro to the episode is brilliant. We have a traditional recap, but it's narrated by Dave Franco, who is helping with Matt's presentation as a producer of the fictional movie "Alphabet City."
Except, it's both Dave Franco in this fictional world and the real world. He's breaking the fourth wall, talking directly to the audience in his voiceover, and he even references "Now You See Me," a very real movie he starred in.
This is the world "The Studio" exists in. The real world does exist, for the most part. The show is filled with celebrity cameos, from Martin Scorsese to Zoë Kravitz. Cinema Con itself is a very real thing, portrayed relatively accurately in the show.
Yet, it also exists in a fictional space. Continental Studios has an entire fictional slate of movies we've seen real clips from that it's putting on display at Cinema Con. Our entire main cast is entirely fictional characters.
The Studio reminds us of this at the beginning of the show with Franco's intro, and then reminds us again at the climactic moment of the episode.
When it's time to see if the audience loves or hates the presentation, Matt brings out the entire fictional cast of the show, with no real-life celebrities on stage beside them.
It's the show reminding us that, even though Franco and Kravitz are larger-than-life characters, who can be out of their mind high and still deliver flawlessly acted performances in the presentation, it's not primarily a show about these celebrities. It's a show about the "normal" people who struggle to get by without the teleprompter or the movie nerds who want to make a movie about the Jonestown Massacre but instead have to make a movie about Kool-Aid.
That's the brilliance of the show. It strikes a perfect balance between worlds — real and fictional, celebrity and anonymity — while still presenting itself as a fun, dumb comedy about being high at work, failing to impress your parents or accidentally hurting a co-worker with a burrito.
That's why it's my best comedy show of the year so far, and why I think it's unlikely to be unseated from the top spot anytime soon.
Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made.
Here's what he's been watching lately:
- 'Welcome to Wrexham' season 4 sees Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds go for broke — can they go 'back-to-back-to-back'?
- Apple TV Plus' new sci-fi action comedy is definitely worth watching — there's just one problem
- Netflix's new raunchy comedy show with Tom Segura just crashed the top 10 — should you stream it or skip it?
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