Whatever you wanted to call the age of current television, it is far from being golden and far from the era of the prestige of the ends of the end. Instead, we have entered a kind of money of money, where television has all the qualitative assignments of the era of the Prestige – a madness, although digitally brilliant, cinematography, clairical realization, large stars, produced stage production – but with the kind of disabiation of history and writing that is more like the kind of television on television.
I would compare current television to cable dramas from the late 2000s. Shows like the 911 Series, Favorion Rafel Director,, The PittOr the Taylor Sheridan and Tyler Perry television universes returned to the familiar TV trophies from the 2000s, but with more important and often more elaborate names. I find it mainly refreshing. At the top of the era of Prestige, it seemed that television had forgotten something fundamental about his medium that separates him from the films – you spend more time with these characters and therefore they become members of your family, and you want to worry about their stories and not try to resolve a global mystery all the time. For each Real detective Or Twin Peaks: the returnThere was much more Westworlds And Black mirrorsShows that tend to collapse when you are no longer invested in the resolution of their puzzles. Television should always be a little trip and should be more about the characters than on the story.
It was in this new television reality that I watched The studioThe latest Apple Splashy series, created by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The series follows Matt Remick (Rogen), the new chief of the continental studios (imaginary, definitively not fictitious), while he tries to correspond to his deep love of films and filmmakers with his desperate ambition, his greed and his need to feel loved by the filmmakers and to be part of the creative process. Robert Altman The player encounter The Larry Sanders show. It is a Hollywood sending which allows Rogen and Goldberg to exorcise certain demons, to distort certain leaders, perhaps to work on unresolved feelings about this piracy of Sony 2014 and to pass all their famous friends, to go out, Extras style. (Listen, we are in a recession and everyone needs a little help.) It is obviously a well -used territory, but it’s okay. This is what television is used for. It is also part of this The studio Play with a parody of the Hollywood company produced by Hollywood filmmakers for television. It would be just a film 20 years ago, but there is no money in movies like this today, so television is. At least after the two episodes I have seen, the story works well in this medium. He does not try to be more than what he is, there is no deeper signifier like Sopranos Or Mad MenAnd there is no high drama or a mystery box. It is a fun drama for actors of all kinds to make a few shots.
The first episode follows the rise of remick at the head of the continental studios. The new CEO of the studio, Griffin Mill de Bryan Cranson (The player Reference), Greenlight promotion, but with the understanding that Remick will accelerate the idea of Mill to establish a Kool-Aid film. In an effort to bring it Barbie-St of artistic style to what could be a brain -free IP adaptation, he decides that the name of name names to make the film, seeking to prove that art and profit can coexist. It finally leads to a meeting with Martin Scorsese (playing himself) about his Massacre of Jonestown script, which Remick agrees to buy as long as they can call the film Kool. It is a comedy typical of errors who end up exploding on their faces. Catherine O’Hara has a lot of fun in her role as an old -fashioned studio head, who may or may not be an allusion to Amy Pascal. Kathryn Hahn does a lot of Kathryn Hahn stuff, which is still welcome. And Ike Barinholtz plays Rogen’s most effective foil as an Imi and Executive Colleague. As for the guest stars, Scorsese is great, and Sarah Polley and Greta Lee do a very good job in the second episode, but there is always a risk of counting too much on the cameos. The tip of celebrities and itself is so exaggerated that it is close to Hacky at this stage, and I do not know that a Seth Rogen series suddenly solves this problem.
But again, it’s television, it’s a bit of what we are here: a fun moment, interesting characters and a committing story to distract us from the outside world. The age of current money has not lost all the vestiges of the era of prestige, which can still be seen in programs like The white lotus And BreakupThose who are not boring or slow necessarily but have almost adopted boredom as aesthetic quality, slowly burning mystery and mood, to the point where people online must invent more sense of each frame than there. It still has its place on television, and people certainly do not seem to worry about the languid rhythm – many people appreciated Wednesday while looking at the chairs with the names of the actors on them – so we may be in a good time for slow television. But personally, I appreciate television that is essential.
