The wrong side of the spotlight

The Studio will make you cringe and giggle, but it is also a sharp look at a film industry yearning for its golden age, amid a slide

- Deepanjana Pal

Having watched the first three episodes of The Studio, and discovered that it is possible to simultaneously cringe and giggle, I'd like to suggest "criggle" as an addition to the Oxford English Dictionary.

In a world of content bursting at the seams with self-serious drama and violence, this show, created by Seth Rogen and his longtime collaborator and childhood friend Evan Goldberg, offers a refreshing change. It's about a beleaguered studio head, Matt Remick (Rogen), who must save the floundering Continental Studios from both the challenges facing the film industry and the perils of his own earnestness.

The Studio prioritises laughter. The writing is clever, the cast is magnificent, and the cameos are the stuff of cinephiles' dreams.

"I got into all this because I love movies, but now I have this fear that my job is to ruin them," Remick says, in the first episode. In the second, he confirms these fears.