The Studio S1E3: The Note
Last week we saw Matt screw up a movie, and while most of that was due to an escalating series of pratfalls, the show did at least acknowledge that Matt’s very existence is distracting, simply because he’s the studio head. So “The Note” flips that formula; this time Matt has to save a movie, which only he can do because he’s the studio head. Except, as with last week, Matt desperately wants to be liked, and saving his movie involves pissing off beloved American icon Ron Howard. (The show wastes no opportunity to remind us Howard is a beloved American icon, but it’s hard to fault a show for flattering its A-list guest stars once in a while).
Howard’s latest is a Training Day-style drama, in which Anthony Mackie plays a cabbie who has to ferry around a mobster with a gunshot wound and a suitcase full of cash. Matt and his crew love it, they giddily declare it Howard’s best work… until it follows the satisfying ending with another 40 minutes of wordless bonding between Mackie and his dead son. It’s at best, way too artsy for the rest of the film, and at worst, drives the movie to a screeching halt and makes it far, far too long for audiences to sit through.
Which means as studio head, Matt has to tell Howard to cut the movie. Except he’s starstruck and thinks of himself as a “talent-friendly” studio head, so he’s reluctant to criticize . So we get Matt chickening out, and delegating to his subordinates, who each chicken out in turn. They all agree completely that the ending is terrible, but none of them can bring themselves to tell Ron. Worse, both Patty and Anthony Mackie praise the ending to high heaven in front of the director, before confiding to Matt in private that they hate it.
Then just as Matt’s finally ready to step up and take responsibility, he finds out the ending — incomprehensible as it might be to everyone else — is deeply personal to Ron Howard. And on and on it goes. Matt gets close to giving his studio note, something else stops him from doing so, and then another obstacle comes up. Unlike last week, it’s not really Matt’s fault, just his problem to deal with, and we hope the show continues in that mode, rather than make him the oblivious buffoon we saw in “The Oner.” But we continue to hold out hope that the show has more than one mode and doesn’t just repeat “Matt tries to fix a movie and makes things worse” five or six times and then roll credits. It’s exactly the kind of over-reliance on formula Matt Remick would hate.
Stray cuts:
• Patty wants to make a movie about an Australian chess team called Check Mate. The best jokes are the ones that are simultaneously smart and so, so dumb.
