‘The Studio’ Recap, Season One, Episode 9: ‘CinemaCon’

It turns out The Studio has been playing a long game when it comes to serialization. Where the episodes from the first half of the season didn’t seem to have much in the way of connective tissue, the return of the Kool-Aid project in the seventh episode confirmed that, yes, the season has had an ongoing storyline, even if that hasn’t always been obvious. With “CinemaCon,” the first installment of a two-part season finale, it all comes together as the Continental team heads to Las Vegas to show the exhibitors gathered there their full slate: Kool-Aid: The Movie, Sarah Polley’s The Silver Lake, Zoë Kravitz’s Blackwing (Kravitz might even be attending), The Promotion starring Paul Dano, Ron Howard’s Alphabet City, Johnny Knoxville’s “medical disinformation” satire Duhpocalypse!, the Olivia Wilde noir Rolling Blackout, and the Lil Rel Howery/Ziwe comedy with a title that’s been rendered unreadable on its poster. We’ve seen these films at various stages of development and everything suggests that Matt and the others have good reason both to be proud of the results — or as proud as anyone could be of Duhpocalypse! — and to expect a warm reception. Unfortunately but not unexpectedly, they encounter some potential roadblocks on the way to that reception, some of their own making.

As the episode opens, Matt is having dinner with his mom (played by Rhea Perlman, whose voice we heard in the previous episode but who remained off screen). Things are going well at work, he tells her. His personal life, however, is another story. He’s not seeing anyone and though he likes his co-workers he’s not sure if they consider him a friend. Another sort of mom might tell him he needs to get his priorities straight, but Matt’s mom is different, and this might reveal a bit about how he got to be the way he is. “That studio is the most important thing in your life,” she says. “And that’s good!” And besides, he’s about “to win ComicCon.” Her understanding of his job might not be that strong, but she’s proud of her boy.

While Matt’s mom orders dessert, Matt meets with Gemma, a friendly drug dealer he knows thanks to Dave Franco who’s selling him some “party favors.” After Gemma explains the dosage of the mushroom edibles, Matt repeats it back to her. He’s got it. There’s no way he’s going to mess this up.

Of course, it doesn’t take long for Matt to mess it up, but first he has to get to Vegas. After listening to an encouraging episode of Matt Belloni’s podcast on the way to the airport, Matt takes to the sky with most of the rest of the team (Maya has gone on ahead), whom he treats to some Kool-Aid mimosas. (Patty’s is nonalcoholic.) Everyone’s spirits are high, including Quinn’s. She’s celebrating the green-lighting of her first film, a “Coralie Fargeat body horror,” a feat she somehow accomplished without seeing some of Matt’s favorite movies: Summer School, Mannequin, and, most relevant to this outing, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The first bad omen as Matt drinks to their ongoing success ahead of what might be Continental’s “biggest year ever”: The mimosas are terrible.

Quinn has seen Swingers, however, which also seems relevant as she accompanies Sal and Matt to Matt’s party. Sal has pharmaceutical-grade cocaine and Matt has those shroom edibles, which he plans to put out on a platter in service of “old-school Hollywood vibes.” It’s going to be a memorable night, just not for the reasons they’re hoping. But first they have the walk-through for the next day’s presentation, which looks great! Maya and her team have a spectacular series of presentations planned for all of Continental’s upcoming releases. Even Nicholas Stoller’s there, whatever controversy around Kool-Aid: The Movie’s use of AI animation now seemingly settled. He passes on Matt’s offer of partaking in an “old-school Hollywood buffet,” a phrase that will become more ominous as the night progresses. They just need Continental CEO Griffin Mill (Bryan Cranston, returning for the first time since the premiere) to show up to complete the rehearsal (though Patty, understandably, is not so into this idea).

It’s up to Matt to Griffin and coax him to the stage. The finding part isn’t so hard, but their subsequent conversation soon takes several alarming turns. The first is Griffin’s revelation of his age. Asked to guess it, Matt says 65, which he learns is Griffin’s “target” for such guesses, but he’s actually 82 and has no interest in leaving the industry. The problem: a member of the Comworld board is trying to sell Continental to Amazon. That’s bad news for everyone. It almost assuredly means the end of Matt’s and everyone else’s tenures and the end of Continental as a prestigious studio. There’s only one way to prevent this: Continental has to kick ass like never before.

If step one of this process is throwing a party filled with “cool people getting high as fuck,” then Matt’s in good shape. He’s put out the buffet and consumed what he feels to be an appropriate dosage of shrooms. So has Quinn, who’s high on a combination of shrooms, ketamine, and her first viewing of Encino Man. It all seems to be going well until Patty sounds the alarm about Griffin being “out of control.” He should not be getting wasted with the talent, and she says this with the authority of someone who “did lines off of Kevin Spacey’s toilet.” Even Sal and Maya, who are on their own way to being pretty messed up, don’t like the way this looks and would like Matt to step in and do something.

It’s an unenviable task that Griffin makes no easier because he is, indeed, extremely messed up. Matt thinks he’s being helpful by offering what he believes to be microdoses of shrooms as an alternative to whatever Griffin’s doing. This does not go particularly well, and when the others notice how sweaty Matt’s gotten they grow concerned about him. Turns out he got the dosage wrong. Also, he can’t keep the news about Continental’s potential sale a secret. But don’t worry: All they have to do is give the presentation of their lives, which won’t be possible unless they get Griffin out of circulation and into bed.

Sal’s solution: Fake a security call and shut down the party. And Matt might have gone along with it if Zoë Kravitz didn’t show up. He just needs ten or 15 minutes to impress her. Instead, he accidentally gets her high when she misunderstands the items on the old-school Hollywood buffet and consumes, in the words of Dave Franco, “21 grams of shrooooooms!”

Suddenly, managing the Kravitz crisis becomes Matt’s focus. Could she have brain damage? Franco’s heard that might be a thing. Should she puke? Franco thinks that’s a good idea. Fortunately, they at least whisk the terrified star/filmmaker away from Franco and, eventually, into an extra bedroom in Matt’s suite where she can just chill and wait for the drugs to wear off. When Matt returns seconds later she describes the harrowing ordeal she’s been in, mistakenly believing herself to have been alone for hours. The bad omens keep piling up.

In the hall, the rest of the Continental execs realize why they’re so high and that Griffin, wherever he is, is much, much higher. They also learn the upsetting news that Griffin is 82 and, from Franco, the even more upsetting news that he’s eating nacho cheese with his bare hands. Fortunately, this means he’s left a trail of cheese in his wake. Also fortunately, the sober Patty has stuck around to lead the search for the wayward CEO.

They head to the casino floor and begin shouting, a sure way to attract attention and a questionable way to track down Griffin. The camera finds him, however. He’s eating lobster by hand and wearing a headband with a pair of glowing penises instead of bunny ears. (At this point it’s worth nothing that Cranston appears to be having the time of his life playing this scene.) Quinn’s the first to spot him, which means she also has to run interference when Matt Belloni shows up. She throws Belloni off the scent but loses Griffin.

When Sal finds him near the casino’s canal he’s become something of a tourist attraction. Quinn, Matt, and Maya join them but grow distracted long enough for Griffin to fall into a passing gondola. (Remember, everyone is still very high.) Ultimately it’s Patty who finds him floating outside, but when Griffin calls her the “bitch of all bitches” and struggles to remember if he fired her, Patty decides to turn the moment to her advantage by phoning in an anonymous tip to Belloni. “Come to the front of the Venetian if you want the scoop of the year,” she says in a voice vaguely reminiscent of Ghostface from Scream. As Griffin pukes his guts out behind Patty — whom you’ll recall is the only member of the gang who does not know about the potential Amazon sale, and thus doesn’t realize how much is at stake — all she can do is laugh.

What a chaotic episode. But, like the rest of the season, it’s controlled chaos in the service of a bunch of well-orchestrated comic set pieces. At this point it’s barely even notable when The Studio pulls off a scene as difficult as the mid-episode party sequence. It’s still pretty impressive, though. What’s more, “CinemaCon” makes it feel like the season has been building to this moment, whether we knew it or not. For all the problems Matt’s had, he’s continued to put the studio and its movies first. All that hard work should be about to pay off. Instead, it could be for nothing. To be continued …

• Everyone in this episode who gets a chance to play at being high really goes for it. Cranston puts all dignity aside with terrific results. Hahn has the most memorable line delivery with the way she says, “Is that why I’m so fucking high?!?” But Kravitz takes the prize by using the show’s single-take approach to work through one stage of being dangerously high after another. One moment she’s panicking. The next she’s complimenting a stranger on her dress.

• The show’s supporting cast has been sidelined a bit in recent episodes, so it’s nice to see the full ensemble put to use here. That includes Dewayne Perkins as Tyler and Keyla Monterroso Mejia as Petra. Neither has gotten that much to do throughout this season, but they’ve made the most of the time they’ve gotten.