The kid stays in the pictures

Creative organisations are divided into The Creatives and The Suits. In order to make something original, The Creatives are encouraged to think outside the box, but in order to make money doing it, The Suits have to keep boxing them in.

- RAJA SEN

Creative organisations are divided into The Creatives and The Suits. In order to make something original, The Creatives are encouraged to think outside the box, but in order to make money doing it, The Suits have to keep boxing them in. This pugilistic dynamic drives commercial art, and the fact that The Suits make more money and take more decisions is best demonstrated by the way we now use the word "content" to describe artforms like film and music. The Studio, an Apple TV+ series created by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, aims at wish-fulfilment: What if a Creative became a Suit?

This is a thrilling thought: What if the head of a movie studio looked at artistry instead of bottom-lines? What if they prized an auteur's vision ahead of a project's marketability? What if artists were in charge of greenlighting art? Rogen plays Matt Remick, a film-loving studio executive thrust abruptly into the top position at Continental Studios. However, this man who claims to champion art over profit also loves expensive vintage convertibles and really, really wants to hear his name in a Golden Globe acceptance speech. Thus The Studio actually asks a sillier (and far more plausible) question: What if a Suit thinks he is a Creative?