The War

This previous episodes of this show were so much fun until this awful one. A bully plots to destroy and force herself into success by cheating, and that's the whole plot. Not one thing redeeming. Fastest and worst drop off in writing in a long time. Personal vendetta is sometimes fun to watch, but only when it is deeply deserved. Quinn is not loveable in this one and Sal is not that hated as the writer was hoping. It's too dark with no redeeming or lightening comedic moments. It feels like the episode was written out of hatred and a personal vendetta and that is depressing to watch. At least we got to see Roderick in a short scene! I don't really care if the real Hollywood is like this...this episode puts a dark mark on the series.

This episode was an absolute classic. Easily the most amusing, some fantastic comedy timing, and very good fun. I laughed out loud regularly.

Perhaps some of the other episodes are more technically proficient, "The Oner" for example, but The War was a nice slapslick interlude. That's what i like and admire about this show, the way that each episode borrows slightly (and reverently) from some other legendary hollywood scene or idea.

Finally, as with every episode so far, the music is fantastic. It sets a slightly older fashioned tone (much like how the episodes are shot generally) and hark back to the Golden years of Hollywood...

I honestly can't remember the last time a single episode made me lose this much respect for a show I previously enjoyed. Episode 5 of The Studio is not just a misstep - it's a full-on betrayal of its characters, its tone, and its audience.

Let's start with Sal - one of the most entertaining, characters in the series. Yes, he's a bit of a douchebag, but that's part of his charm. He's sharp, flawed, but human - the kind of character people root for. So what do the writers do? They suddenly and inexplicably decide to villainize him, with no real justification, and expect us to cheer against him. It's character assassination, plain and simple.

Then we have Quinn, the CE. A character we've seen before, but never deeply explored - until now, when the writers decide to reintroduce her as a narcissistic, selfish, entitled tyrant. Within minutes, she's bullying the parking manager ("You know I'm the CE, right?"), illegally accessing assistant's computer, stealing passwords, deleting meetings, and sabotaging Sal's work.

This is not "boss energy" - this is unhinged, unethical behavior. And instead of presenting her as a flawed antagonist or a cautionary example, the writers clearly want us to root for her. The tone celebrates her manipulation, her entitlement, and her belief that she deserves Sal's position simply because she thinks she's smarter.

But the most insulting moment comes at the end. Quinn decides she's going to report Sal to HR - and only backs off not because he defends himself, or because she realizes she's in the wrong - but because she pities him. Sal, broken and defeated, begs her not to go through with it. And somehow we're supposed to see this moment as a "badass win" for her. The episode even frames her as the triumphant underdog who came out on top.

It's not clever. It's a moral mess. There are no consequences for her actions - despite the fact that she blatantly committed fireable offenses, Instead, the show rewards her, celebrates her, and completely ignores the toxic message it's sending: that bullying, sabotage, and ego-trips are okay, as long as you're confident doing them.

In episode 5, "The War," Quinn and Sal bring competing low-budget slashers to Matt's attention, forcing them to work together to figure out a direction for their project. Their polar-opposite tastes and sensibilities clash as they try to figure out a direction for the project. Quinn wants to make an artsy horror film, while Sal just wants to make a Smile rip-off. In this episode, the Hollywood satire takes a backseat, and The Studio becomes more of a straightforward workplace comedy about tensions in the office. The classic sitcom storytelling trick of introducing a conflict and constantly escalating that conflict with increasingly farcical twists and turns is used, with Matt playing the periphery. The episode rounds out Quinn and Sal's personal lives outside the studio, including their relationship, Quinn's focus on her career even when having sex, and Sal's relationship with his teenage daughters who are glued to their phones and have no interest in spending time with him. The bickering between Quinn and Sal yields some of The Studio's funniest lines to date, such as an enraged Sal calling Quinn a "D-girl" and pointing out that he ripped off an insult from Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos. Although some main cast members are absent for entire episodes, Quinn and Sal make for a compelling comic duo, and "The War" has some huge slapstick laughs with Sal's antics, from the chili tray spilled all over his suit to the thrown burrito that starts a chain reaction that destroys a film set. While "The War" might be The Studio's least satirically focused episode yet, it's also one of the show's funniest installments. "The Studio" is a series that explores the absurdities and narcissism of Hollywood studio culture. In Episode 5, "The War," two corporate giants, Quinn Hackett and Sal Saperstein, face off in a battle for power and influence. The episode, directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, is the most stylish and tightly-knit episode yet from the series. Quinn goes on the offensive with Owen Kline, while Sal does the same with Parker Finn. The chaos quickly turns into lateral competition, with both executives having to settle to some sort of status quo. Sal loses his esteemed parking space and face but agrees to support Quinn's vision, while Quinn only halfheartedly promises to offer some respect to Sal. The episode features a darkly humorous relationship between Sal and Quinn, with Sal ripping on Quinn to his heart's content for a ruined suit he's owed from the fight. Ike Barinholtz shines in this episode, oscillating between sharp bitterness and slapstick humor to brilliant effect. Chase Sui Wonders remains great as Quinn, who is interistically chaotic and dryly witty in her ambitious insecurities. The episode is stylish visually and is in the top tier for this season, with long takes as the confrontations in the office turn into cinematic spectacles reminiscent of Scorsese. The show targets the absurdities and narcissism of Hollywood studio culture, revealing a more profound truth about the entertainment industry's ego rifts: that creative choices are made not out of artistic value but for self-preservation and influence. The episode also offers a sharp critique of workplace hierarchy with its human resources storyline, where'real' accountability amounts to little more than the offer of a designated parking space and a weak apology. It's a sharp jab at how the industry often handles conflict: smoothing over deep-seated issues with symbolic gestures. By ignoring the actual filmmakers and putting them into the argument about Wink, the show demonstrates how much corporate environments focused on image disregard creative input. The satire works because it never feels over-the-top; it just feels one step more absurd than the real world. "The War" is The Studio at its smartest and sharpest, with stylish direction and performance perfection, turning an office turf war into a hilarious and mind-blasting commentary on modern Hollywood.

I agree with most of the rewiews, this is actually the weakest episode of all.

It's not funny, it's not interesting, it's just cringe and shallow and almost like wtf?!!!

Am I still watching the same show? I was wondering.

4/10

And also the sex scene was unnecessary and way too long.

Didn't like this episode. I am disappointed.