Television series

The Studio

The Studio follows Matt Remick, a lifelong film obsessive who finally lands his dream job running a major studio, only to discover the job is mostly damage control. Shot in long, panicky takes with real stars playing exaggerated versions of themselves, it's a cringe comedy for anyone who loves movies and quietly suspects the people making them are barely holding it together.

TVMaze rating5.9

If you liked this

Extras2005

Ricky Gervais's cringe alchemy skewers fame and ego, with A-listers gleefully playing monstrous versions of themselves, sharing The Studio's appetite for letting powerful people humiliate themselves for a bigger laugh.

But Gervais's cringe can curdle into discomfort rather than delight if secondhand embarrassment isn't your thing.

Extras poster

Curb Your Enthusiasm2000

Larry David's single-take, improvised catastrophes share The Studio's DNA of self-inflicted disaster, with starry cameos turning up specifically to make everything worse.

But It's about petty personal grievances rather than industry machinery, so the stakes feel smaller and pettier.

Curb Your Enthusiasm poster

Barry2018

A hitman chasing an acting career exposes showbiz narcissism from a darker, stranger angle, with a protagonist just as anxious and self-sabotaging as Matt Remick.

But The tonal swerves into real violence are far bleaker than anything The Studio ever attempts.

Barry poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Official Competition2021no page yet

Same target — the absurd ego and compromise behind 'serious' filmmaking — filtered through a European arthouse lens instead of an American studio lot.

A billionaire hires a prestigious director and two feuding actors to make a masterpiece, and watching their vanity collide is as savage and funny as anything in The Studio, just with even sharper claws.

But Subtitles and a slower, more theatrical pace ask for a patience a half-hour sitcom never demands.

More like this (8)

Silicon Valley2014

Swap movie sets for tech offices and you get the same panicked executives, terrible pitches, and disastrous meetings, just dressed in hoodies instead of blazers.

But Startup jargon and tech culture won't hit the same nostalgic, movie-obsessed nerve that The Studio does.

Silicon Valley poster

30 Rock2006

Tina Fey's rapid-fire satire of network television captures the same absurd collision of art and commerce, with a beleaguered boss caught permanently in the crossfire.

But Its joke-per-second density and surreal detours are a much faster, weirder rhythm than The Studio's grounded cringe.

30 Rock poster

Veep2012

Trade studio politics for White House politics and you get the same vicious incompetence at the top, delivered with even filthier, faster dialogue.

But The political setting and relentless profanity make for a meaner comedy than The Studio's love letter to film.

Veep poster

The Larry Sanders Show1992

The original great showbiz satire, skewering talk-show egos and backstage panic decades before prestige comedy made it fashionable, and it still lands sharp.

But Its early-nineties pacing and single-camera studio look feel dated next to The Studio's slicker, cinematic style.

The Larry Sanders Show poster

Entourage2004

Follow a movie star's entourage through deals, egos and disasters in a glossier, more wish-fulfillment version of Hollywood's absurdity, all swagger and bad decisions.

But Its values and machismo have aged badly, and the satire is thinner than The Studio's sharper bite.

Entourage poster

Party Down2009

A scrappier, worm's-eye view of Hollywood follows failed actors working catering gigs, capturing the same desperate hope on a much scruffier budget.

But It's a melancholy indie comedy rather than glossy insider satire, with personal stakes instead of industry-wide ones.

Party Down poster

The Kid Stays in the Picture2002

This is the nonfiction blueprint for Matt's job — a real studio chief whose taste, charm and panic nearly destroyed him, decades before the joke got invented.

Legendary producer Robert Evans narrates his own rise and fall in a swaggering, self-mythologizing style that Matt Remick would probably kill to have lived through firsthand.

But It's a real person's actual ruin, and the glamour curdles into something sadder than any sitcom disaster.

The Kid Stays in the Picture poster

The Bad and the Beautiful1952

Same panic over art versus commerce, same seductive, self-destructive studio boss — seventy years earlier and dead serious instead of a farce.

A ruthless producer chews through friends and lovers to make great pictures in this glossy, cynical melodrama, proving Hollywood's love-hate affair with itself predates colour television.

But It plays entirely straight rather than for laughs, so anyone wanting comedy will find it a heavier watch.

The Bad and the Beautiful poster

People

Cast

Writing

Production