Episode Review: The Studio 1x7 - "Casting"

Welcome back to the blog readers. As you may know, I have been absolutely loving The Studio (2025-) and its crude, yet honest look at Hollywood. Each episode has been a display of stellar stupidity and insane bits that make you wonder what is next for our protagonists. We are now 70% of the way through the season with this episode, titled "Casting," written by Alex Gregory, and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, so what would I make of it? Stick around to find out.

NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.

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When I first saw the name of this episode, I automatically assumed that this episode would be just another standalone story about this ragtag group of studio executives. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine we would be tying back to the premiere episode with the Kool-Aid film, now titled The Kool-Aid Movie. And if you thought last week's episode was uncomfortable (in a great way), you are not prepared for the conversation that happens this week. It is absolutely insane.

I have nobody of note to highlight in terms of performance this week, but I do want to briefly mention the chemistry between Seth Rogen and Kathryn Hahn. And I want to mention their chemistry this week because we really have not gotten to see them play off each other that much this season. This episode got the two of them together for the whole runtime of the episode and it was glorious. The good man of Rogen's character Matt Remick and the sassy asshole of Hahn's character Maya play off each other extremely well, and the chemistry between the two is hypnotic to me.

Now we talk about the story of this episode, because it definitely will lead to an uncomfortable conversation or two in the wake of watching it. The last time we had mention of The Kool-Aid Movie was in the premiere episode, and we pick up with a tentative cast for the film that includes Ice Cube, Sandra Oh, and Josh Duhamel. Matt and company are set to premiere the cast at Anaheim Comic-Con the following day, but Maya runs into an issue that Sal and later Matt clue themselves in on: they feel it is insensitive for Ice Cube, a Black man, to be the voice of the Kool-Aid Man. After getting advice from Quinn (who thinks Kool-Aid is a poor man's drink) and PA Tyler (who believes it would be insensitive to not cast a Black man as the Kool-Aid Man), the three decide to speak to Lil Rel Howery and Ziwe to get their opinions. The two agree that it is not insensitive if they replace the rest of the Kool-Aid family with Black actors as well, leading them to peg Regina King to replace Sandra Oh.

Things appear to be all good, but they then realize that the all live-action cast is white, leading them to replace Josh Duhamel and Jessica Biel with Don Cheadle and Keke Palmer. Satisfied, the three take this proposal to Nicholas Stoller, the film's director. Upon hearing the cast will be all-black, the original writers leave due to not being able to write black dialogue. Stoller says he can write the new script himself, but asks Matt to allow him to enlist the help of an AI company to help him with the post-production and budgetary and time constraints of the film. Further dissent from the group leads Matt to enlist the advice of Ice Cube himself, who feels replacing him with a white man would be insulting to the culture. The day ends and Matt personally announces Cube's casting to a ravenous reception. But word gets out about Stoller's use of AI and Matt is left to deal with the crowd that just turned on him by himself after Stoller and Cube walked off the stage.

The Studio continues to take a real look at Hollywood with yet another uncomfortable episode that focuses on the overuse of political correctness. Thank you all for reading and I will see you for the next post.