The Topline
- The Studio shattered records at the 77th Emmys, winning 13 trophies — the most ever for a freshman comedy
- The Apple TV+ original took home Outstanding Comedy Series, Writing, Directing, and Lead Actor for Seth Rogan, outpacing previous record-setters The Bear and Ted Lasso
- The Studio follows Matt Remick (Rogen) – a cinephile-turned-executive trying to save a floundering Hollywood studio, skewering the industry’s obsession with reboots, sequels, and “IP over art.”
Hollywood finally admits it’s a mess
Hollywood is allergic to honest self-reflection. Has been for years. When La La Land won the Oscars nearly a decade ago, it felt like a low point in how the industry views itself – an glitzy, escapist dream-land that defies any self-awareness whatsoever – versus how the rest of the world seemed to view it.
The Emmy’s, historically, have trended the same way, rarely rewarding shows that held up an unflattering mirror to the industry. The Television Academy voters typically went for comfort food: Modern Family collecting endless trophies like infinity stones, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel with its razzy nostalgia and Ted Lasso peddling what is essentially Hallmark optimism as prestige television.
On Sunday night, The Studio smashed all that to pieces. Its victory lap wasn’t built on quirky teachers or sentimental sports heroes, but instead driven by a deep, biting satire of Hollywood’s current IP-driven malaise.
The show’s premise may well have been ripped from a Hollywood Reporter exclusive. It skewers the industry with 10 anxiety-inducing, and frequently hilarious, episodes and for its efforts, it was awarded 13 trophies, voted on by the very same industry it was mocking.
That mockery is, of course, made with love. Rogen’s depiction of Remick encompasses a deep knowledge of film and an impassioned reverence for Hollywood – or at least, the Hollywood that once was. The inherent tension of the series explores the dynamic between Remick’s need to make art for art’s sake in an industry dominated by marketing and an unquestionable thirst for box office smash after box office smash.
The reality of this is impossible for Hollywood to ignore because The Studio, frankly, nails the delivery. And because it’s done with good cheer, focused on a man who is, at his core, a schlemiel – a hapless fool reminiscent of Larry David’s fictitious portrayal of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm – an industry that typically trades in vanity over honesty could get on board.
The subtext of Emmy voters’ ballots is that the industry is acknowledging the problem, finally. We know we’re a mess. By handing Rogen & Co. this bucketful of statues, the Television Academy is admitting to its crimes against culture. Originality has been forsaken in the face of the Almighty IP. And for what? 💰💰💰💰💰, that’s what.
The Studio may not be the funniest show on television – not that that’s a prerequisite for an Emmy clean-sweep anyway, since The Bear only technically qualifies as a comedy. But what makes The Studio irresistible is it dramatizes Hollywood’s identity crisis with such lazer-guided precision, packaged as a love letter. And it’s biting, and meta enough, to make it a hit with a cynical popular culture.
Is it possible that Hollywood is done rewarding cozy delusions of itself? Hmmmmmm.
This could be the future of TV comedy
The Studio has set a new template for TV comedy. It blew up the worn-out templates, with its single-shot format, glitzy set decoration, and meta commentary. It looks less like a comedy and more like a prestige drama. The laughs weren’t canned – they were earned by the absurdity of treating studio boardroom debates about the Kool-Aid franchise with the same gravitas as a battlefield debate among generals.
Yes, there are other prestige comedies that have proven successful, at the Emmys and with audiences. Hacks. Veep, kinda. The Bear, which is bear-ly (ha ha) a comedy. But The Studio’s blending of satire and prestige is what makes it feel like a breakthrough. It takes the trappings of Serious Television and weaponizes them for comedy. The jokes land because the subject matter has been turned inside out.
There’s no doubt we’ve been in this hybrid zone, where comedy blends with drama, for a long time now. And there have been successful shows lately that have led us to this place – Atlanta, Ted Lasso, The Bear and Severance all played in this grey area between the two. But none of them have been as funny or as successfully meta as The Studio.
(Not to mention, all four of those shows collapsed under the weight of their premises – sorry Severance Season 2 apologists – with diminishing returns.)
The Studio is television that is Saying Something – about our culture, about the way Hollywood twists and distorts the view of ourselves to serve social media algorithms, and how all cultural output is designed to avoid any negative reaction whatsoever. The result is an endless parade of… well, drivel, really.
The Studio nails that commentary with a creative and entertaining point of view, yet never veers into cynicism, like Veep traded in, or heart-warming mush, which Lasso and Hacks tended to do. It seems, given the success of the show, critically and commercially, there may just be a market for TV like this.
The Television Academy clearly bought into that vision. Awarding The Studio with 13 Emmys is a tacit endorsement of a new direction for the comedy genre, crowning a show that treats comedy as a cinematic playground. And with Apple footing the bill with a seemingly bottomless pot of money, it’s giving satire license to scale.
Maybe Hollywood is done rewarding cozy delusions of itself and is ready to embrace original work that takes artistic and thematic risks. Maybe the industry is learning that it doesn’t need to make itself, or its audiences, try to feel good to be successful.
