S01.E01: The Promotion

[AnimeMania]

Matt Remick is named the new head of Continental Studios — and put in charge of a project that threatens public humiliation.

Premiere Date: March 26, 2025   Apple TV+   

Martin Scorsese
Steve Buscemi 

[Spartan Girl]

I’m pretty sure a Kool-Aid movie is eminent in real life. Poor Marty.

I had to laugh at the Charlize Theron cameo. I love Long Shot.

[SeanC]

Kathryn Hahn's costuming scene-to-scene promises to be a highlight of this show.

[arc]

A third of the way into the episode and I was already tired of oners for oners' sake. I've been low key annoyed with this technique/gimmick since the 2018 God of War game, which famously never cut. The technique gains so much by not cutting /but also loses so much/ with the obtrusive camera moves it needs to do in order to not cut.

That said, it turns out the creative team at least had a reason for it besides "it's cool": "it gives you the feeling of being a panicked new studio executive" and "we had to do something cool to give ourselves the credibility to make fun of Hollywood" (I heavily paraphrase). I don't buy it; Action, from 30 years ago, and a network comedy at that did fine while using traditional cuts. But at least it's a reason.

The Indiewire story I linked last paragraph also points out that if you commit to doing long takes, you have so much less opportunity to edit in the traditional sense of cutting and joining. They talked about having the editor on set to give feedback about doing a take with cut lines and what not, but still. Comedy is so timing dependent and it's such a major tool they've taken away from themselves. Should I grade this show on a curve and say they're doing great comedy for a show built on long takes? =/

Honestly, the Scorcese / Jonestown / Kool-Aid thing is only mildly funny. For one thing, the cultists drank poisoned Flavor-Ade at Jonestown (oh good, they referenced this), but Kool-Aid then and now was more well known, and two, there's no fucking way Kool Aid is going to sign off on this being the licensed movie.

On the other hand, Matt completely panicking in the second meeting with Griffin was fantastic. Bailing on the Scorcese flick, having to backtrack and get the Stoller idea, and then finding it he might not have that either? Great stuff. I like that Griffin may be a guy with very bad ideas, but he's not a total idiot and he knows what's happening in his company when Matt spends $10m on a script.

I'm not vibing with the sorta 70s-ish fashion choices here (so much brown!), but it's certainly an aesthetic. As far as I know, real Hollywood execs look a lot more like regular business people (grey and navy suits, nothing particularly interesting).

Gotta be honest, I thought Sal was going to be more obviously backstabbing.