“The Studio” excels at committing to a bit

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) should’ve known better. But I’m glad he didn’t. Thanks to his (very) faulty shroom math and an aversion to food labels, the head of Continental Studios accidentally doses the two most important people (Zoë Kravitz as Zoë Kravitz and Bryan Cranston as Griffin Mill) at his ultra-hip party on the night before CinemaCon. What unfolds in the penultimate episode of “The Studio”’s freshman season is one of the most hilarious psychedelic-fueled episodes of television ever made as the Continental crew — high out of their gourds themselves — attempt to wrangle their out-of-control star and boss. Everyone commits to the bit. Everyone gets loose and weird. There’s a copious amount of nacho cheese involved. And it all results in a treasure trove of comedy gold. 

Throughout the first season of “The Studio,” the series has distinguished itself as delighting in intricate filmmaking by making every single scene into a oner, or a single, continuous take. While other episodes have utilized this method to create great tension (“The Oner”) or fantastic spectacle (“The Golden Globes”), in this installment it makes us feel as off-kilter as the characters on screen as they begin to bounce off the walls of a palatial suite at the Venetian in Las Vegas. 

First, we’re walking casually through the party as Matt admires his “old-school Hollywood buffet,” which, for some insane reason, has absolutely no warning labels on it. Are those ketamine cookies we see? Or Percocet pastries? No one would know! The only obvious thing setting this spread apart from the other tasty (non-drugged) treats at the party is a bowl of fat joints on the side. I’m a good hostess who labels her food even where there’s no drugs to be had, so this oversight was completely appalling to me. Where’s Petra (Keyla Monterroso Mejia) with the cute charcuterie blackboard signs with “magic mushrooms” and “sexy sativa” written on them? Also, when old-school Hollywood parties offered a mind-altering buffet, there were literal bowls of pills and powder sitting out, not delicious and deceptive plates of edibles! Matt, think with your brain!

Matt, Maya (Kathryn Hahn), and Quinn (Chase Sui Wonders) all partake in the mushrooms, believing that they’re micro-dosing. Nope. Each chocolate is two eighths, or 7 grams of strong psychedelic mushrooms. For reference, an “eighth” of mushrooms is generally what a casual user might consider a full dose. A noob taking any more than that is set to take a trip to the moon. As the party rages on, Dave Franco gets in on the action as a party-hardy version of himself, hilariously sending up his party bro persona from movies like “Neighbors” and “21 Jump Street.” Dave is a delighted observer of the accidental debauchery that’s unfolding around him, both cheering on Zoë when she mistakenly eats three (!) mushroom chocolates (“YOU JUST HAD TWENTY-ONE GRAMS OF SHROOOOOMS!”) and recapping Continental head honcho Griffin Mill’s wild exit from the party (“He took a fistful of nacho cheese straight to the dome!”). 

Seth Rogen, Dave Franco and Zoë Kravitz in “The Studio” (Apple TV+). Dave’s gleeful portrayal of himself as an affable A-list party boy is an absolute pleasure. He hits each of his punchlines with total abandon and he genuinely seems to be having an awesome time. Who wouldn’t want to hang with this version of him? He tells you which foods are drugs (too late, in Zoë’s case, but still) and he wants to go halvsies on a plate of nachos! Celebrities sending up their own personas is certainly not a new thing — hell, Seth Rogen and his creative partner Evan Goldberg made an entire movie about it — but “The Studio” has proven to be golden in this regard. Throughout the season, stars and creatives like Anthony Mackie, Ron Howard, Adam Scott, Greta Lee, Quinta Brunson and so many more have lined up to toy with their public personalities, and each performance has been a blast to watch. And then there’s the MVP, Most Valuable Persona: Zoë Kravitz. 

As the character of Zoë Kravitz begins to feel the effects of six doses of potent psychedelics, the actress throws herself into the situation without any preciousness. While Zoë has tackled some comedic roles in the past, she’s never gone full gonzo. Here, she does, and she’s pitch perfect at every turn, committing to the bit with a zest that never flags. When the guys attempt to usher her down the hall to a quiet room so her mushroom madness doesn’t become public, she and Matt are stopped in their tracks by a piece of generic hotel art. Awestruck, Zoë pets the painting and stares at Matt with loopy eyes, thrilled that someone else is experiencing this with her. Us too, girl! You are a revelation! Why hasn’t anyone let Zoë Kravitz go truly bonkers before? It’s criminal, I tell you. 

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After Matt and Sal (Ike Barinholtz) stash her in an empty bedroom, Matt realizes he’s forgotten his phone and immediately heads back in. Assuming that Matt has been gone for hours, Zoë starts to explain the mental journey she’s been on, ranting about the forests in her mind as she instinctively moves her body to make herself as big as she can. The physical comedy here is super fun and energetic, and even though Matt leaves her behind closed doors for the remainder of the episode, when Patty Leigh (Catherine O’Hara) says that she found Zoë “crawling on the rug, talking to an imaginary baby” offscreen, we can see it clearly. 

Bryan Cranston in “The Studio” (Apple TV+). While Zoë gets big laughs and some comedy street cred for busting up her generally Very Serious™ celebrity persona, Bryan Cranston provides the cherry on this drug-fueled Hollywood buffet. While Cranston is not playing himself — although, he has on other occasions — he does strip himself of all vanity to portray Griffin Mill losing his ever-loving mind as he careens through the Venetian. We’ve seen Cranston go crazy for comedy before, and he doesn’t disappoint here. As Griffin’s eighty-two-year-old brain begins to succumb to a drug cocktail that might possibly kill a horse, he rips into a lobster with his bare hands in the middle of the casino floor, and then tries to bet the carcass on a hand of blackjack. Later, the gang finds him in the middle of the Venetian’s centerpiece, the outdoor (but really indoor) town square, as he slumps down a staircase, blankly tonguing a blue ice cream cone. As Quinn and Sal try to guide him away from the public eye, he does an excellent little “Weekend at Bernie’s”-like shuffle down the stairs. Cranston commits so hard that it feels like he might just have been high on shrooms. (Of course, he wasn’t. Right?)

The penultimate episode of “The Studio” Season 1 ends on a cliffhanger, sure to provide viewers with more trippy goodness in the finale. There’s no way Zoë Kravitz is sleeping off six doses of mushrooms before presentation time, and it feels likely that Griffin Mill might possibly be hospitalized the next time we see him. As long as this show continues to bring the laughs, I’d dip into this old-school Hollywood buffet anytime.