Casting

The Studio episode 7, "Casting," satirizes Hollywood's overcorrection of its racial insensitivities and the absurdity of the modern film industry. As the Kool-Aid movie nears production, Matt and his team struggle to finalize the cast, fearing that casting a Black actor as the Kool-Aid Man would play into racist stereotypes and not casting a Black actor as his wife would be offensive to Black couples. Eventually, they settle on an all-Black cast, which hilariously convinces Matt that the Kool-Aid movie is "important." The Studio's satire of white people's discomfort discussing race is similar to Seinfeld's "The Wizard," but it does a better job of lampooning the subject.

In the social media age, studios must be careful not to appear insensitive by casting their expensive new product in a negative light. The Studio satirizes this by looking at all sides of the complicated discussion. Matt brings the conversation to the attention of every Black person he can find on the lot, while Tyler feels uncomfortable speaking for all Black people. Ziwe, Lil Rel Howery, and Cube prove to be one of The Studio's best guest stars. However, "Casting" is a workplace sitcom that lacks a clear thesis statement and critique of the industry it satirizes. The conversation, which focuses on racial balance to "reflect America," is absurd but not rooted in character or seriality. The circular dimension of the story and short running time create little space for character development, such as Quinn's racial identity. Overall, The Studio's vignette structure limits its capacity to generate a clear critique of the industry it satirizes.

Is it really satirical when this is pretty much on point with how Hollywood makes their movies? Movie makers try and avoid one political landmine only to end up walking into another, the result being disastrous box office bombs that don't really appeal to anyone. Snow White anyone?

Social media's power over creative writing decisions in Hollywood is painful and laughable at the same time. Has there ever been a movie made in the past decade or so that didn't have Reddit or Twitter up in arms about something?

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode and its portrayal of how nightmarish it must be to constantly worry about social media outrage. The Studio keeps on delivering and I really got to hand it to the writers for the meta humour.

Another hilarious episode. The Studio is nicely consistent in avoiding true dogs. Like always, this episode zips along so that you're surprised and disappointed when it ends.

I'm happy to see a return to the demented Kool-Aid movie plotline. Even if it continues into next season, I hope they keep checking in on this movie's progress every few episodes. I'll probably want them to make the movie for real before it's over. It's kind of dementedly endearing.

This week, it's a parody of wokeness run amok. Kathryn Hahn is particularly good as an over-the-top marketing maven. The focus is on racial sensitivity and the joke at the end is that they were being over-sensitive about the wrong thing.

But this episode also made me wonder about the limits of this kind of satire. Would they ever dare do a Me-Too episode? They have gingerly made references but how about tackling it head on with a Harvey Weinstein type character? No way Apple would allow that.

Apple makes some great shows but they have something in common: an unwillingness to step over that invisible line that might bring the Apple brand into disrepute. I'm afraid this will always prevent Apple shows from being truly gutsy and great. Oh well. 8 or 9 out of 10 is still pretty darn good.

PS one final point, are they insane? Jason Momoa would be the perfect Kool-Aid man. Ice Cube is soooo passe.

5 min into the episode I can't stop laughing already, did a pause just to get me some snacks and write this review. I am totally subscribing to Apple TV+ over this show! Amazing writing and acting.

5 min into the episode I can't stop laughing already, did a pause just to get me some snacks and write this review. I am totally subscribing to Apple TV+ over this show! Amazing writing and acting.

5 min into the episode I can't stop laughing already, did a pause just to get me some snacks and write this review. I am totally subscribing to Apple TV+ over this show! Amazing writing and acting. A++++

The most accurate summation of all my problems with these sort of things that are obviously going on behind the scenes. The issues they talk about are really important but I've never seen any show willing to tackle them with such honesty since IASIP's 'Frank's brother' (shadynystay). A Modern masterpiece. Hat's off to the writers and actors for even completing this!

There's nothing more to really say (so disregard this frank) but I still have a hundred or so more things to write before I reach the character limit??? West Bromwich Albion are a terrible football club.

Points before pints! UTW!