A comedy series that makes you laugh, and is one of the best of the season.

When was the last time we laughed heartily? What do you want at an American series? Laugh like you're cracking up, not like you draw a slight upward curve with your lips. Into this increasingly barren territory of laughter lands The Studio, one of the best series of the season, brought to life by two of the biggest names in American comedy at the beginning of the 21st century, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. As screenwriters and, in some cases, also as directors, this pair of colleagues are behind cult titles such as Superbad (2007), Super stoned (2011), Brawl to the end (2013) or Sausage Party (2016). With The Studio They reveal how they maintain their capacity for hilarity in a more mature fiction, one might say, centered around Hollywood's favorite subject: the industry itself.

The first episode starts with a rather ironic point of departure: what would happen if a Hollywood studio were directed by someone who actually loves movies, instead of the typical mogul more interested in making money than cultivating the art of film? The protagonist, Matt Remick, played by Rogen himself, is a studio executive, a great cinephile, who in the fight between Martin Scorsese and Marvel initially aligns himself with the director rather than the franchise. Until his boss's dismissal catapults him to the position of executive producer, the man who must make the decisive decisions about which films the studio will finance, who will direct them, and what their profile will be. So Matt is faced with exactly the dilemma we posed earlier: support one of Scorsese's personal works or produce the umpteenth film inspired by a well-known brand. The Studio extracts high doses of comedy from the contradictions that arise for the protagonist and the capitalist inertia that drives the film industry. And it does so, in this first episode, with the help of an invaluable Martin Scorsese who embodies himself.

This becomes one of the great attractions of a production that knows how to capitalize on the many guest stars that appear in each episode. Because most of them do not limit themselves to making a simple cameo and are given free rein in unexpected narrative arcs. Guest appearances include Sarah Polley, the aforementioned Scorsese, Ice Cube, Charlize Theron, and Zoë Kravitz, as well as appearances by veteran Ron Howard, who is allowed to challenge everyone's perception of him as a director with a relatable personality.

In the style of Larry David

The Studio It also celebrates the hilarious potential of the sharp, fast-paced dialogue typical of the screwball comedy, a form of comedy that is increasingly difficult to find in a territory dominated by monologues, ironic posthumor, and comedy aimed at family audiences. The series also often delves into the territory of social awkwardness in the manner of Larry David's Curb your enthusiasmAll of this in a proposal that constantly exposes the hypocrisies and challenges of the film industry, from the disdain for the figure of the auteur to the competition from artificial intelligence, the mania for fame and power of its members, and the obsession with political correctness, which gives rise to one of the funniest episodes. Rogen and Goldberg's production abandons some of the usual perspectives when it comes to attacking Hollywood. Here, issues related to drugs, sex, and other excesses barely appear, proof that in the contemporary entertainment industry, double standards tend in other directions.