Faced with a world that seems to be getting darker and more violent every day, some comedies can be a real breath of fresh air. This is the case with the series we're going to talk to you about today, which stands out as the most hilarious of the year!
The Studio: the most hilarious series of 2025?
The AppleTV+ platform has long since decided to prioritize quality over quantity. A quality that is becoming increasingly rare in the era of SVOD domination. Thanks to masterpieces such as Dan Erickson's series Severance and Martin Scorsese's film Killers of the Flower Moon, the company with the bitten apple has managed to build a prestigious reputation among film buffs and series fans, who easily forgive it for certain failures such as Ridley Scott's Napoleon or Matthew Vaughn's Argylle. Launched on March 26, 2025, The Studio is the new creation of Seth Rogen and his partner Evan Goldberg. Known for their smarmy and provocative humor, the two artists create their best work to date.
The Studiotells us about the many challenges faced by Matthew Remick (Seth Rogen), newly promoted to head of Continental Studios. A fan of art-house films and a romantic vision of Hollywood, he is both convinced of his own artistic talent and expects recognition from actors and directors that he is unable to obtain. A vitriolic portrait of the Hollywood system, the series features a gallery of guest stars who play themselves with an incredible sense of self-deprecation: Martin Scorsese, Zoë Kravitz, Charlize Theron, Zac Efron, Paul Dano, Adam Scott, Steve Buscemi, Dave Franco, Olivia Wilde, Greta Lee, Zack Snyder, Owen Kline, Ted Sarandos.
With the ten episodes that make up season 1 of The Studio, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg tackle a large number of very current subjects with biting irony and impressive comic timing: the obsession of Hollywood studios to reproduce the triumph of Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, the hegemony of Netflix, the rise of the independent studio A24, representation minorities, the growing role of influencers, the battle between film and digital, the pressure of CinemaCon and other major, essential events, the theatrical hypocrisy of the Golden Globes.
In The Studio, Seth Rogen and his band of writers don't just play with the audience's complicity through name-dropping, which would quickly become exhausting if it were the show's only comedic resource. The series also knows how to rely on the characterization of its characters. Matthew Remick (Seth Rogen) has a Michael Scott feel (Steve Carell's character in The Office) in his obsession with being liked by his subordinates and the stars he collaborates with; Catherine O'Hara (Beetlejuice, The Last of Us) is brilliant in her role as a vengeful producer with wounded pride, and shows why she is one of the greatest American comedic actresses. Ike Barinholtz, meanwhile, is perfect as Sal Saperstein, Matthew's loser companion, whose taste in cinema no longer seems to fit with the times he lives in; his rival is Quinn Hackett, an ambitious young woman played by Chase Sui Wonders (I Know What You Did Last Summer). Finally, Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision, Agatha All Along) delivers a high-octane performance as Maya, the marketing manager. Special mention also goes to Bryan Cranston, who, playing the role of the big boss of Continental Studios, wows us with a performance worthy of Hal, the completely crazy father of Malcolm in the Middle. The last two episodes, which see CinemaCon disrupted by hallucinogenic mushrooms, are a pinnacle of comedy and acting.
The Studio's other great strength is also its direction, composed of often complex sequence shots, which contribute to giving a completely frenetic energy to the episodes (lasting between 24 and 35 minutes), increased tenfold by Antonio Sánchez's jazzy music. Far from being a simple stylistic exercise, the sequence shots reveal the vanity of the Hollywood system while contributing to the series' comic tempo. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who directed all ten episodes of the series, also use the form as a mise en abyme. Thus, in episode 2 (filmed entirely in a single sequence shot of about twenty minutes), an overly intrusive Matthew Remick disrupts the filming of an ambitious sequence shot. The same process in episode 4, where the disappearance of a reel becomes a pretext for a strong homage to film noir, taking up the aesthetic, scriptwriting and sartorial codes of this highly codified genre. All these elements make The Studio a unique serial object, at the crossroads of several influences: films about Hollywood, of course (Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and David Fincher's Mank), but also (and above all) cult sitcoms like The Office and Community, which undoubtedly inspired its construction. Thus, The Studio - which made us laugh out loud on numerous occasions - manages to stand out in a year rich in comedies unanimously acclaimed by audiences and critics. We are thinking in particular of the excellent series Bref 2 by Kyan Khojandi and Navo (added to the Disney+ catalog last February) and Asterix & Obelix: The Battle of the Chiefs by Alain Chabat (available on Netflix since April 30, 2025).
Good news! Motivated by the very positive feedback from the press and viewers, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and AppleTV+ have renewed the series The Studio for a second season. And the least we can say is that the The next batch of episodes promises to be even more ambitious than the first, given the guest stars being considered. Indeed, the showrunners and their cast have mentioned several prestigious names, including Daniel Day-Lewis, James Cameron, Kristen Stewart, Al Pacino, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Just that! In any case, we can't wait to see what Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have in store for season 2 of The Studio. And you, have you watched The Studio? What did you think of it? Let us know in the comments section.
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