The Note

The Studio's third episode, "The Note," showcases more hilarious guest performances, cringe humor, and Hollywood satire. Matt and his team watch Ron Howard's action thriller, Alphabet City, until a slow, esoteric sequence set at a motel. As Howard arrives for a marketing meeting, Matt has to build up the courage to tell a legendary, kind-hearted filmmaker to cut his favorite scene from his latest movie. With Howard's spectacular turn in "The Note," The Studio is now two for two with its A-list director cameos. The show plays brilliantly on the public perception of great filmmakers, with Martin Scorsese's reputation as the nicest guy in Hollywood being juxtaposed with Matt's mandate to make a Kool-Aid movie. Howard has the spot-on comic timing to pull off both his early obliviousness and his later fury. Chase Sui Wonders as creative executive Quinn Hackett shines in "The Note," as she gets starstruck when she sees Anthony Mackie, her favorite actor, also comes along for the meeting. Ike Barinholtz also shines when Matt learns the motel sequence is based on Howard's grief over his dead cousin, and he tasks Sal with pretending to have a dead cousin to convince Howard to cut the scene. Howard and Mackie make for a surprisingly great comic duo, sharing terrific chemistry as onscreen creative partners. The Studio's cinematography is still more creative than the average TV comedy, with fake snowfall adding another visual layer to a typical walk-and-talk sequence. The third episode of The Studio continues to get beautifully meta with its own filmmaking, with Matt wandering around the studio lot in a shot-for-shot recreation of the infamous "motel sequence." Although not as tight as the previous two episodes, the focus on just one story thread means it's not as complexly plotted as The Studio's previous installments. The cast works great together, and Howard and Mackie each bring plenty of laughs. The Studio explores the concept of the "executive note" in a series of episodes. In "The Note," Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) is put in a dangerous situation as a studio head, giving notes to legendary director Ron Howard, who appears as a fictionalized version of himself. The episode revolves around Ron Howard's new film, Alphabets City, which impresses most executives but cannot be edited out due to Howard's emotional attachment to it. Matt's avoidance of confrontation leads to innocent attempts to delegate calls to his coworkers, who fail to break the news without annoying the director. Howard's portrayal of himself is one of the best parts of the episode, and his self-deprecating humor adds another layer to his character. He is considered one of the most polite people in tinsel town, but his disposition towards Matt contains a disturbing quality. Howard's passive-aggressive tone prevents Matt from simply saying, "Let's Cut the scene." The scene becomes a psychological battle when Matt loses the decision to cut the scene during a marketing meeting. After exhausting every option, Matt loses it in a marketing meeting when he yells out the critique harshly. Howard reacts in the worst way possible, starting to beat up Matt.

I'm not saying I wasn't satisfied with the first two episodes they certainly do reflect amusing goings on in the film industry, in as much as they also had some great and funny cameos. But none of them had Ron Howard. It's always great when Ron makes a comeback to acting. And playing an over the top version of himself is absolute gold! It will be hard to do better than this. And yes even though the rating score is higher in episode 2, I just didn't get why.

I should probably start by saying I've never actually set foot inside a working television studio environment, so maybe my perspective on this is completely off base and I could be totally wrong. Having said that, the portrayal of a studio director so intensely focused on trying to please every single person around them, to the point where he seems utterly paralysed and incapable of making a clear decision, struck me as fundamentally unbelievable and quite jarring.

Because of this characterisation, the entire episode descended into something that felt overly stressed, almost frantic, and frankly just too neurotic for me to comfortably watch. It's a shame because I found myself really enjoying the rhythm and the way the story unfolded in the first two episodes - they felt engaging. With this particular episode however, that crucial balance felt skewed and it simply became annoying.

The Studio is one of the most interesting projects Seth Rogen has taken on since his departure from his mid-budget comedy run in the 2000s. Three episodes in and this has been an awesome time!

The camera work, acting, and comedic writing all work well, and haven't come with any filler so far. Ron Howard is a standout cameo here, and the boardroom sequence was hilarious and intense!

I do hope in the next few episodes we can break out of the business side of things, as I can sense a few repetitive character traits that might get stale after another 7 episodes. Thats hypothetical though. I highly recommend this show!

I'm one of those people that REALLY REALLY enjoyed The Offer when it came out and when i heard about this show i was soooo excited and after 3 episodes i can honestly say this show is perfect. ( so far )

The pace , The camera work , The dialogues everything just feels right and entertaining.

Ofcourse there's always little stuff here and there that are misplaced and don't make sense but still, The good overcomes the bad.

This show is shaping up to be upthere with one of my favorites of all time IF it stays at this same level and I'm confident it will.

Looking forward for more....!

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