This is an edition of the newsletter Pulling Weeds With Chris Black, in which the columnist weighs in on hot topics in culture. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Thursday.
I am on the record as being pretty disinterested in what we as a culture call “prestige TV.” The endless amount of press, cast fashion editorials, and worst of all, the heavy-handed analysis—all of it just turns me off. I’m sure Succession was fantastic, but the hoopla took me by surprise, so I never turned it on. The more you tell me to watch The Sopranos, the less interested I am. I have seen every episode of Sex & The City, which says a lot about me. I spend my TV time glued to Bravo, watching Southern Charm, Southern Hospitality, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake, and The Valley. It’s the highest-quality garbage, expertly crafted to make you feel both good and bad about yourself. I think all day—I don’t want to think with my feet kicked up on the couch at 9 PM on a Tuesday night. All of that said, a few new prestige shows have entered the ring, and against my better judgment, I have tuned in to both. They both air on the Apple TV+ streaming service; only one is actually good.
The Studio (a “cringe comedy” series) stars weed-accessories dealer and hobby ceramicist Seth Rogen as the bumbling, newly-appointed head of a major Hollywood studio. Catherine O’Hara plays his former boss, a character supposedly based on Amy Pascal. The show looks fantastic, the office is perfectly appointed, hulking in size and design. Rogen’s character Matt Remick wears Brunello Cucinelli suits and drives costly, pristine vintage cars. On paper, it should work, but Remick is too much of a doofus to be believable as a self-proclaimed cinephile who wields ultimate power in Hollywood and scuttles a Jonestown Massacre project from Martin Scorsese lest it step on his studio’s plans to make a Kool-Aid Man movie. Greta Lee and Sarah Polley are great guest stars, but Olivia Wilde is not. Something about the whole thing just doesn’t work, but maybe the production value and big-name guest stars keep people tuning in.
Your Friends & Neighbors, on the other hand, works perfectly. Little Dom’s regular, grey-sweatpants enthusiast, and beloved American institution Jon Hamm plays Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a disgraced finance guy who loses his job not long after his wife, played by the always-good Amanda Peet, leaves him for a former NBA player. Desperate to maintain his affluent Connecticut lifestyle, Hamm turns to crime, stealing from (you guessed it) his friends and neighbors. The show explores the eternal question, “Will a distracted rich guy notice if his Richard Mille is missing?” Hamm has sex with fellow divorcee Samantha “Sam” Levitt, played by Olivia Munn, and teams up with a housekeeper, and the operation gets more sophisticated and dangerous. His teenage son, a drummer, covers Matthew Sweet with his band at a house party before the mushrooms he took altogether disable him. It’s what television should be: funny, sexy, emotional, and good to look at. The houses are big, the pools are blue, and the Birkins come in every color.
I can’t tell you what to watch, as we all know the options are mind-numbingly stacked to the ceiling, but these two shows are both worth the attention, but only one of them will hold it.
More recommended reading from GQ:
- How Real is The Studio? An Actual Former Studio Executive Has a Few Notes