‘The Studio’ reviews: Seth Rogen’s new comedy praised as one of the best showbiz satires in years

The Studio is a hit.

The new Apple TV+ comedy series from star Seth Rogen has received nearly unanimous rave reviews from critics since its premiere at the South by Southwest Film and Television Festival in Austin, Texas, earlier this month. 

“From episode to episode, I squirmed and groaned and held my breath. Between chapters, I had to steel myself to keep going. There were moments I could hardly see the screen at all — sometimes because I was peeking through my fingers, but mostly because I was laughing too hard,” The Hollywood Reporter’s Angie Han wrote in her review out of Austin. “The Studio’s strain of cringe humor won’t be for everyone; even as it mellows in the second half of the season, it remains too intense to wind down with or throw on in the background. But for those willing to get on its frazzled wavelength, this is a strong contender for the best new comedy of 2025.”

Writing for The Daily Beast in a review published this week, critic Nick Schager called The Studio an “astute peek behind Hollywood’s studio curtain.”

“It’s unlikely that any 2025 show will elicit more laughs,” he added. Schager is one of several critics who have praised the comedy series (more reviews below), which now sports a 98 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 84 score on Metacritic.

In The Studio, Rogen stars as Matt Remick, “the newly appointed head of embattled Continental Studios. As movies struggle to stay alive and relevant, Matt and his core team of infighting executives battle their own insecurities as they wrangle narcissistic artists and craven corporate overlords in the ever-elusive pursuit of making great films. With their power suits masking their never-ending sense of panic, every party, set visit, casting decision, marketing meeting, and award show presents them with an opportunity for glittering success or career-ending catastrophe. As someone who eats, sleeps, and breathes movies, it's the job Matt's been pursuing his whole life, and it may very well destroy him.”

In addition to Rogen, the cast includes Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, Chase Sui Wonders, and Catherine O’Hara. Martin Scorsese, Olivia Wilde, Sarah Polley, Ron Howard, and Anthony Mackie are significant Hollywood names who play versions of themselves.

The Studio was created by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, plus Emmy winners Peter Huyck and Alex Gregory (Veep), and Frida Perez. It is one of Apple TV+’s top Emmy Awards priorities this season and is expected to compete in several top categories, including Best Comedy Series. The series starts streaming on Wednesday with two episodes. 

Here is what other critics are saying:

James Poniewozik, New York Times: “When The Studio is funny, it is funnier than most anything on TV now. It has a doomed momentum, each episode accelerating toward disaster like a golf cart toward a craft-service table. When it flags, it’s partly because it chooses so many targets to spoof that it loses sight of its serial story line — the future of a studio hanging on the fate of an anthropomorphized beverage container — and the stakes and pathos that follow from it.

“At its best, though, The Studio is proof that even in an era of algorithmic knockoffs, the movies can still make you bark with laughter … if only on TV.”

Ben Travers, Indiewire: “Kathryn Hahn and Catherine O’Hara bring the house down. The latter thrives during the occasionally labored long takes, leaning on her background in improvisational comedy to listen, react, and take command as needed. As Continental’s previous studio head, Patty, she’s indelibly delicate one minute and equally demented the next — a mentor to Matty who’s still recovering from the betrayal of losing her perch. Hahn’s part isn’t as integral — she’s almost exclusively comic relief — but she starts Maya at a manic 10 and just keeps pushing the throttle until she’s primed to explode in the finale — which fits her character, fits the narrative, and fits the need for absolute hilarity.”

Dave Nemetz, TVLine: “Matt’s affection for classic cinema is endearing, and The Studio is heavily steeped in film history … but maybe too steeped. Storylines hinge on arcane cinematic terms like ‘the magic hour oner,’ and you’ll need an encyclopedic knowledge of film history to catch all the jokes. It’s all a bit self-indulgent, like Rogen and his pals wrote something to make themselves giggle and didn’t worry about who else would get it. The pace is frenetic as well, with lots of breathless walk-and-talks set to a frantic jazz score, a la the Oscar-winning film Birdman, and it all gets exhausting after a while.”

Alison Herman, Variety: “Luckily, it’s not my job to triangulate whether the scale of Apple’s expenditure squares with these bits’ potential reach. Instead, it’s to say that The Studio nails the absurdity and indignity of the modern movie business, in part by hewing so closely to the conventions of TV. Cutting against the countervailing trend for expensive, prestigious comedy shows, there’s precious little serialization in The Studio. Besides a two-part finale, every episode is almost entirely self-contained, a complete farce unfolding in 40 minutes or less. ... The Studio is a lavish spectacle about how lavish spectacles came to be an endangered species. On occasion, this dissonance can be distracting. The one time TV is mentioned on this TV show, it’s with derision, and Continental staffers lamenting their employer’s potential Big Tech acquisition on Tim Cook’s streaming service come even closer to breaking the fourth wall. But for the most part, The Studio leads by example. It’s the funny, glitzy, audacious output of a distinct creative vision. Doesn’t that make you yearn for more?”

Peter Travers, ABC: “The year's best new comedy series blissfully bites the Hollywood hand that feeds it. That's The Studio, streaming its 10 half-hour episodes on Apple TV+, where creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg bust open a piñata of juicy inside jokes to enhance the tale of a film geek who gets his dream job running a studio, only to find that success means killing the thing he loves.”

Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist: “Make no mistake, there is a lot of insider baseball in The Studio. Some of it will go completely over the heads of everyday viewers, but the whole program works so well as a straight comedy; it won’t matter. But for those Hollywood lifers who have lived this life, endured many of these experiences, and wondered why they just didn’t get out while they still could. It will remind them why they still love this crazy town in the first place.”

Judy Berman, Time: “The Studio is a timely, funny, and exuberantly — though not uncritically — cinephilic panorama of a business caught in the latest battle of a war between art and commerce that has raged since studios like Warner Bros. were still run by their namesakes. It’s also 2025’s best new show to date, and one of Hollywood’s sharpest self-portraits in ages — which is saying something, considering how much the entertainment industry loves to celebrate and satirize itself.”

Originally published March 7, 2025; updated March 25, 2025 with additional reviews ahead of its premiere.