The Studio
The Studio is easily one of the best shows on TV at the moment, and the latest episode is no exception. While my favorite episode of the season remains “The Oner” which was just so clever on so many levels, this week’s episode, “Casting”, takes aim at contemporary social issues, and it’s genuinely hilarious.
The series follows bumbling new studio chief of Continental Studios, Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) as he embarks on a series of misadventures in his first months on the job. Whether he’s disrupting a sensitive movie shoot, getting into a pissing contest at a charity fundraiser, breaking Martin Scorsese’s heart, or throwing down with the surprisingly mean-spirited movie director, Ron Howard, Remick can always be counted on to put his foot in his mouth in spectacular fashion.
The show blends slapstick comedy with a series of really poor choices into one of the best parodies of modern Hollywood out there. Fans of Curb Your Enthusiasm should take note. Spoilers for Season 1, Episode 7 follow.
In ‘Casting’ we return to the Kool-Aid Movie that we first learned about in the season premiere. Remick and his colleagues are excited about the positive feedback its poster has received. But their enthusiasm is short-lived when marketing director Maya Mason (Kathryn Hahn) has a moment of doubt. She wonders if casting Ice Cube as the voice of Kool-Aid Man is playing into racial stereotypes. (The meta-joke of Ice Cube playing an anthropomorphic beverage is never mentioned by the characters).
Remick and executive producer Sal Saperstein (Ike Barinholtz) aren’t convinced at first, but soon all three are in full panic mode. They take their concerns to junior executive Quinn Hackett (Chase Sui Wonders) because she’s not white, and she tries to assure them that it’s not a big deal. She’s never viewed Kool-Aid as a black person’s drink, she tells her colleagues, but rather a “poor person’s drink” which obviously only makes matters worse. Next, they turn to socia