‘The Studio’: Winning The Game with Celeb Cameos And Nostalgia Peddling

Growing up, Tabu and Shah Rukh Khan in Saathiya, Amitabh Bachchan in English Vinglish and the entirety (the literal entirety) of Bollywood in Om Shanti Om’s ‘Dewaangi Dewaangi’ made one thing crystal clear for me. Pompous star power will never not trump all the talking points movie goers, reviewers and fans will confabulate over, later.

Upon watching Apple TV’s fresh masterpiece The Studio (which recently got renewed for a second season, thankfully), this very inference underwent a fantabulous refresh. Especially seeing how well-executed and seamless the incorporation of these iconic cameos was. I did NOT go in expecting to see (spoiler alert) the cutest (and the most brilliant) Martin Scorsese laughing and crying, with such artistic prudence. Delightful.

Boosting viewership, generating buzz, resuscitating a dying franchise or sheer dumb fun, reasons are endless, and the audiences–rewarded. Even with this Apple-helmed, Seth Rogan-directed industry satire show, the very act of playing on the cameo stereotype by doing the same (we think deliberately) opens up this inception-themed Pandora’s box. Replete with inside jokes, I’m sure.

The cameo stars play themselves, there's no fictional arm to this grade-A parody, except the five members of the original cast obviosuly. Rogan is Matt Remick, a newly-promoted top boss at Continental Studios, who aims to lend some cinephilia to a mainstream mammoth hellbent on repurposing content and in the midst of making a Kool Aid movie. A 'cool' Kool Aid movie, as Remick would put it, starring THE Ice Cube. Gosh.

The cameos: Martin Scorsese, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Kravitz, Greta Lee, Charlize Theron, Adam Scott, Bryan Cranston, Anthony Mackie, and more. Yes. Like who isn't in this show? 

Every frame of every episode is dripping with money, and you're often left wondering how much some of the set-ups cost. Another thing the show has going for it is good timing given the post-pandemic crunch Hollywood is still reeling from

Hollywood satires can easily fall into the stereotypes they are attempting to mock. It's tricky business. However this one, is delightfully entertaining. Every famous celebrity ends up showing face in this show. Every frame of every episode is dripping with money, and you're often left wondering how much some of the set-ups cost. Another thing the show has going for it is good timing given the post-pandemic crunch Hollywood is still reeling from. Hollywood, Bollywood, all of them, and understandably so. Maybe this is why our popcorn costs more than the movie now. This existential threat is brilliantly captured to accurately convey that panic over the span of the show.

As grim as its outlook on filmmaking in 2025 can be, The Studio is far from a disappointment. The endearingly self-effacing celebrity cameos keep things interesting, ad most compellingly, strike a mix between dissatisfaction and affection that only a few contemporary pop culture self-portraits and celebrities have achieved. Excited fo the last episode to drop this week–guess who's gonna be in it!

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