Reaction: The Studio, "Casting" | Season 1, Episode 7

After introducing it in the opening episode, the Kool-Aid project hasn’t been a huge part of The Studio, and you can imagine a version of the show that uses it as a more recurring narrative engine. However, “Casting” returns to it with a vengeance, fast-forwarding to a stage where there’s a teaser poster breaking the internet and Matt is getting ready to introduce the Kool-Aid: The Movie’s cast at Anaheim Comic-Con.

But “Casting” isn’t really about Kool-Aid: The Movie. It’s a screwball sendup of Hollywood’s attempts at diversity, with three white executives—Matt, Sal, and Maya—spiraling after an initial concern that casting a Black actor (Ice Cube) as Kool-Aid Man could be construed as racist. It’s an episode built on the premise that the decision-makers in Hollywood are inherently reactionary, acting only in the instance that they are concerned about the appearances of their previous actions. Ignoring any and all actual procedure—including no involvement from a casting director, and seemingly no negotiations with any of the involved parties—involved with casting, the episode’s punchline is that they spend all this time chasing perceived harm that Matt doesn’t even flag the fact using A.I. would end up being the scandal after they return to their initial cast.

It’s a punchline that allows the episode to function without a clear thesis statement. Now, this is the media scholar in me, but it’s a great example of the show’s vignette structure limiting its capacity to generate a clear critique of the industry it’s satirizing. It’s an episode full of absurd industryspeak, a perceived insight into the kinds of conversations happening behind closed doors. As Matt notes when they’re trying to math out the correct racial balance to “reflect America,” this is an insane conversation to be having, but the premise of the show at least suggests that this is a conversation that could actually happen. But it’s not a conversation that feels rooted in character or seriality, making this a 24-minute Looney Tune that ends up—slight spoiler here—having no resonance in the larger story of the season.

And again, that’s fine! This is a perfectly funny episode of a workplace sitcom. But there’s a circular dimension to the story that robs it of the teeth it has at certain moments, and the short running time creates little space for pockets of character dimension—like Quinn navigating her own racial identity as the voice of reason—to develop further. The end result is a good reminder that The Studio has become an effective engine for insider Hollywood storytelling, but also a reinforcement that there’s not a lot of desire to elevate how the show is using it beyond these episodic insights (even in an episode picking up a previous thread).

Stray observations

• My favorite moment in the episode is absolutely Nicholas Stoller’s immediate agreement to rewrite the movie himself after the previous writers balk at writing for an all-Black cast. I honestly didn’t love the way those thin characters were framed in their decision—with Matt effectively given dialogue that shreds their supposed allyship—but the punchline of Stoller just bypassing the whole conversation before broaching the A.I. issue was super effective. Stoller’s first cameo was pretty limited, but he grew in prominence while losing his spine.
• I have to say that Ziwe is a great example of a celebrity whose presence here felt distracting, only because her whole bit is satirizing these types of conversations, and thus her lack of agency in that conversation felt weird? I dunno, might be a me thing.
• The continued mispronunciation of Duhamel is both a fun follow-up on Buscemi and especially funny given that you can hear someone correcting it low in the mix and it just doesn’t stick.
• Okay, but seriously, no casting director and they just make all these decisions without a single phone call? A bridge too far for me.