This article appeared in the April 25, 2025 edition of The Film Comment Letter, our free weekly newsletter featuring original film criticism and writing. The paradox of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s new Apple TV series The Studio—which is now just over halfway through its first-season order of 10 episodes—is that it tries to have Goldman’s koan both ways. To be fair, Canadian expatriates Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have spent enough time in the proverbial trenches to try shitting where they eat, and they’ve made enough famous friends to lend their back-lot roman à clef the requisite A-list authenticity. The first half of season one features appearances from Martin Scorsese, Sarah Polley, and Ron Howard—Oscar winners all, dutifully doing their best imitations of themselves. “Fine is not good enough,” insists Wilde at one point in “The Missing Reel.” She said it, not me.