Apple's The Studio Does A Better Job Riffing On Entourage On Than HBO Itself

Hollywood loves stories about itself, movies and shows that satirize the filmmaking process, that poke fun at the hardships and the absurdity of Tinseltown. And yet, from "Bowfinger" to "The Disaster Artist" and "Babylon," the best movies about making movies have something in common — a genuine love of cinema and an enthusiasm for making art. Even when we have TV shows that look at some of the worst tendencies in Hollywood, like last year's "The Franchise" or this year's "The Studio," the main character's disillusionment with the industry stems from a genuine love of the art form and its possibilities.

What does make "The Studio" stand out, particularly compared to the rather disappointing "The Franchise," is how it riffs on one popular HBO show about filmmaking and the pursuit of stardom — "Entourage." If you're not familiar, "Entourage" was a show in the mid-'00s created by Doug Ellin and chronicling the rise to stardom of Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) as he navigates Hollywood with his close group of friends and his agent. The show became popular due to its depiction of male friendship and bonding, as well as its satire about Hollywood life and cavalcade of cameos from major stars appearing as themselves. It was a show so good and popular that it even earned the feature film treatment and inspired a Korean drama remake.

Where HBO's "The Franchise" tried to satirize the current superhero-obsessed landscape and the many production issues that plague blockbuster projects, the Armando Iannucci production pulled most of its punches and failed to say much that even those with superficial knowledge of the industry wouldn't know already.

That's not "The Studio." The show created by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg is like "Entourage" for the Film Twitter era (that may also be a stealth sequel to "The Player"), and it rules.

In "The Studio," Seth Rogen plays Matt Remick, a mid-level studio executive who suddenly becomes the head of the fictional Continental Studios. Matt is a movie nerd who dreams of helping make the next great movie and discovering the next Martin Scorsese, and who is being forced to comply to the mandates of a CEO (Bryan Cranston) who believes the future lies in finding the next great piece of IP — like, for instance, the Kool-Aid Man. This becomes the running thread throughout the season, and it is as funny and depressing as you might expect.

Much like "Entourage," "The Studio" is filled with cameos that help sell the satire as being based on real people and real events. We see both actors playing fictional characters, like Catherine O'Hara as Matt's mentor and his former boss, to celebrities playing themselves. From Ron Howard showing off his comedic chops, to Scorsese doing a delightfully weird and funny performance that will break your heart by the end of the first episode, to a surprising pull with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos making a fascinating appearance in a show from a rival streamer, "The Studio" is not lacking in the A-list and even inside baseball department. On the acting front, we even get cameos from Adam Scott, Olivia Wilde, Charlize Theron, and Anthony Mackie among many others, showing that Rogen has a lot of goodwill in Hollywood and also painting a picture of "The Studio" as being set in a heightened version of our reality — as opposed to the nebulous realm of "The Franchise."

More than just a parade of cameos, "The Studio" is a show with a deep love of movies, clearly made by people who love Hollywood despite its many problems, and a show made for this particular moment in time. The series doesn't just focus on the particular pitfalls of modern Hollywood — its obsession with IP, clueless businessmen owning studios despite loathing art, etc. — but the way it approaches inside baseball knowledge about the industry feels made for the era of Film Twitter.

Like it or not, we live in a time where quite a large part of the moviegoing audience is at least somewhat aware of specific parts of the moviemaking process. Reshoots are not just a nebulous part of production; they are widely reported and talked about even by people who have no idea how integral and common they are. Movie budgets and box office results are no longer just for the Variety-reading crowd, and people are paying attention to CinemaCon presentations as much as they do Hall H trailer drops.

When "The Studio" dedicates an entire episode to both making fun of and also homaging the oner as a filmmaking technique, it does so with the knowledge that the audience will know what it means — or at least understand when the show jokes about no one caring about pretentious one-takes. This allows the series to be both a satire to the industry and also a loving tribute to the art form. Sure, the jokes about a studio executive trying to disguise a cash-grab Kool-Aid Man movie as a Martin Scorsese art film about the Jonestown Massacre is hilarious, but the show can also deliver a visually stunning "Chinatown" homage in an episode about the making of a neo-noir movie. That's the beauty of "The Studio," and why it is the best Hollywood satire on TV.