The Studio
The War
Season 1
Episode 5
Editor’s rating
4 Stars
Photo: Apple
SO FAR, The Studio Hasn’t Shown Much Interest in Telling a Serialized Story. We haven’t, for instance, heard a word about the kool-aid movie synce the premiere or the fate of Sarah polley of the second episode. Each installment has been self-contained, but that doesn’t mean what happens in one episode doesn’t have consequents in those that follow. For instance, tan though matt landed the studio head instead of sal, who though he had a shot at the point, the two friends have remained close. But therionship has sufferered at least a little. The Heart-to-Heart they have toward the end of “the missing reel” Plays like the opening of a conversation they’ll have to resume late.
In “The War,” The Series’s Fifth Episode (and the first penned by Co-Creator Frida Perez), we start to see some of the Aftersshocks of Matt’s Promotion. SAL’S REMAINED IN THE SAME SPOT AFFORE. Quinn Has Moved Up. But is there Room on the team for bot of say? There’s Certainly Not Room for Both of the Fail Studio. As The Episode Opens, Matt, Sal, and Quinn ARRIVE AT WORK IN CARS SUESTED FOR THEIR Characters. Matt Drives a Classic for Which he probably paid an Outrageous sum, SAL A Loud Porsche, and Quinn a sensible but stylish mini Cooper convertible. The first Two FLOAT EFFORTLESLY INTO THEIR ASSIGNED PARKING PLAYS, but quinn gets tourned away from the parking garage, which is clogged thanks to a visiting Netflix Production A showing the battle of wateterloo. Sure, She’s Workhed There for Five Years and She’s Now A Creative Executive, but she stalls to take the Long Walk the Remote Back to the Office.
Quinn’s Got Other Problems, Too. She really wants Matt to Consider Making a Low-Budget Slasher Movie Written by Owen Kline (WHO PLAYS HIMSELF). Kline Wants to Direct it as his follow-up to the indie black comedy Funny Pagesbut SAL’S Already Developing His Own Slasher Movie and Is say Close to getting Smile Creator Parker Finn (Also Playing Himself) to sign onto it. Sura, iT’s cald Wink and its premise is maybe a little too close to Smile‘s, but he thinks he can get it Done anyway. Maybe Quinn Could JUST, You Know, Help Sal Out? That’d be okay, right?
Quinn’s understandably not intto it. Nor, for that matter, is sal. And that’s understandable, too. Quinn Immediately Sets to Throwing Cold Water on Hiring Finn for the Project. Whyn Kline? Though Matt Sees Kline’s Bonafides – Cannes, A24, An Endorsent from the Safdies – As a selling point, sal does not. Wink is not that kind of movie. IT’S NOT, IN HIS WORDS, MADE “FOR A BUNCH OF PANSEXUAL MIXologists Living in Bed-Stuy.” Does he have a point, or is he out of touch? Maybe… Lame?
If there’s one Word that Sets Matt off it’s “Lame.” It’s the Last Thing he wants to be. So, before he make up his mind, he aggrees to meet with both kline and fin. This Sounds Reasonable Enough, But Once Out of EARSHOT, SAL AND QUINN LAUNCH INTO AN ARGUMENT. By His Reckoning, She Should Know Her Place and Respect The Hierarchy. Quinn, Howver, Sees Things differently. She can’t let it go, eather. It distracts her in bed with her boyfriend. “What’d I get promoted if I can’t talk in meetings?” She asks Him. As far as she’s concecerned, sal has a target on his back.
Would it make any difference if she know he had two daughters to care for? True, sal doesn’t seem all that close to skye and bella, the bot of the whom seem more connected to their phones than they dad as they are down for lunch at Musso and Frank. One’s Innsolent, Calling Him Lame and Old, and the Other Affectedly Infantile, But Both Are Exhausting In Their Own Way.
As Sal Returns from Lunch, Quinn Schemes. And, AFter Petra (Keyla Monterroso Mejia), Matt’s Executive Assistant, Leaves for the Day, Quinn Gets to Work Changing His Calendar. That means he’ll have to miss the meeting with finn to have drinks with chris hemsworth. This does not well well with finn, who came to continental specific to meet matt. With Only a Little Bit of Sleuthing – Sal’s Detective Abilities Are Becoming Something of A Motif after the previous episodes – Sal figure out that quinn’s the culprit. In retaliation, he sets About Sabotaging Quinn and Matt’s Meeting with Kline. This Starts by Commenting on the 32-Yaar-Old Kline’s Babyfaced appearans (Which is Kind of Remarkable), THEN ESCALATES AS SAL DOMINATES THE MEETING WITH TALK ABOUT ALL The compromises the Independent Minded will have to make work for continental. This, predictable, scares Kline off and swayys matt back to salting argument.
At this point, it’s world remains that this episode is calmed “the war,” and, at this point, the battle lines have been drain. Quinn has messed with the projects. SAL THINKS SHOULD KNOW HER PLACE AND WAIT HER TRANN (ADMITTING IT MIVE NEVER ARRIVE). He’s Craven, But She Loves Film, Quinn Argues. They don’t make films, they’re in the business of Making Movies. THEN, AS A FINISHING MOVE, SAL Calls Quinn a “D-Girl,” A Disparagy Description That Doubles A soprano reference.
Quinn Believes she has no choice but to escaalate, and after a fun site gag that finds her accentally leading a handful of extras dressed as napoleonic -ra solidiers, shears a golf Cart in Sal’s Space. This Sets Off a Chain Reaction. Sal’s Parking on the Waterloo Set Leads to Him Getting His Suit Covered in Chili. This Makes Him Ill-Equipped to Comfort an Angry Finn, Who Abandons Their Meeting. THEN, IN A SUBSEQUENT FIGHT WITH QUINN, he throws a burrito at her but missses, hitting a moving golf cart that thats into and collapses the Waterloo set.
Wen This provoks an hr investigation, quinn and sal ultimately decide they’re better off working together to avoid in Trouble, but unly sal Opens up, admitting that quinn reminds Him of daghters Becausee, Too, Make Him Feel Irrelevant and Old. She Feels for Him, but She Also Calls Him Out for Not Being a Mentor to Her. She is the use of his experience. He the benefit from her youthful, arthouse-informed perspective. (She’ll Also Take HIS Parking Space while she’s at it.)
In some respects, it’s a shame they have all that from the start, butn we have wouuldn’t have had this funny episode if they had. “The War” works well as Commentary on the Downside of Being a cutthroat, in a cutthroat industry. Both Finn and Kline Might Have Made Fine Low-Budget Slasher Movies. But, be they do, they won’t be for continental. But it is a terrific showcase for IEK Barinholtz and Chase Sui Wonders and a fun Exercise in Mounting Tension and Increasingly Destructive Acts of Sabotage Its Own Comic Waterloo as Netflix’s Simeta Waterloo Falls apart. Will they be Allies Going Forward? POSSIBLY, THOUGH, AT THIS POINT, IT SEEMS AS AS POSSIBLE THAT The Studio Will Forget About the Events of this Episode by the time the next one arriva. For now at Least the Team has solidified and quinn can enjoy a short walk from the mini cooper to her office as she is eats her burrito.
• Ghosts that Wink could Be Scary but The Face Sal Makes is Disturbing in Other Ways.
• IT Feels Like Keyla Monterroso Mejia has ben Waiting for a Big Breakout Skene. She doesn’t quite get one in this episodes, but she has some terrific moments.
