Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Studio episodes 9 and 10.

The Studio is wrapped and in the can with a two-part season finale taking the gang to Sin City, appropriately. In episode 9, “CinemaCon,” Matt and his team fly out to Las Vegas to unveil Continental Studios’ 2026 slate at the titular theater owner convention. The night before the studio’s big presentation, Matt throws an old-school Hollywood party with a buffet of drugs. In episode 10, “The Presentation,” after a mix-up with the dosage, everyone takes a massive amount of magic mushrooms and they have to get their act together before they have to go on stage.

The episode's main conflict is framed through the welcome return of Bryan Cranston as Griffin Mill, the CEO of the studio’s parent company. After he tells Matt that Amazon is trying to buy Continental, so this CinemaCon presentation — where Griffin is the keynote speaker — could make or break the company, Griffin takes more shrooms than anyone. The Studio’s two-part season finale is much wackier and less grounded than any of the previous episodes; it borders on cartoonish at times. The everyone’s on drugs conceit can get old fast. It's also not particularly interesting to watch people get high.

But The Studio makes it work, because it’s not just using a shroom binge for some psychedelic humor; the humor comes from the fact that everyone who’s tripping is a couple of hours away from going on stage in front of hundreds of people to salvage their company and save their jobs. Plus, it never feels one-note because every guest star has their own distinctive version of a bad trip. Dave Franco becomes an incoherent party animal, Zoë Kravitz has an existential crisis, and Cranston (the finale’s MVP) waddles around like a zonked-out zombie.

Bryan Cranston Is The MVP Of A Chaotic Season Finale

Griffin Mill Makes A Welcome Return For A Hilarious Mushroom Binge

If Griffin wasn’t being played by an actor of Cranston’s caliber, the episode probably wouldn’t work nearly as well. In Cranston’s hands, Griffin is both convincing in his inebriation and hilarious in the ways he shows it. He’s so believably wasted that it sells the stakes. If Griffin can’t nail his speech, then Continental will be sold to a tech giant and the team’s love of cinema won’t matter anymore. And the way Cranston plays it, Griffin can’t string two words together. So, as funny as his drug-fueled bender is, it also keeps you hanging in suspense, wondering how this will all shake out.

If Griffin wasn’t being played by an actor of Cranston’s caliber, the episode probably wouldn’t work nearly as well.

Aside from the looming fear of being sold to Amazon, the Hollywood satire takes a backseat in this two-parter. It’s more about seeing how each character reacts to their mushroom trip — with Chase Sui Wonders’ Quinn being the standout, hilariously wanting to taste everything in sight, whether it’s the sweat on Matt’s brow or nacho cheese smeared on a wall — and Catherine O’Hara’s Patty vindictively seeking revenge against Griffin. But the season has done such a great job of building these characters and their dynamic that I’m happy for the finale to just focus on that.

The Studio's Season 1 Finale Finally Gives Matt A Win

After A Season Full Of Failure & Humiliation, The Bean Counter Finally Enjoys Some Success

The season finale finally gives Matt a hard-earned win. Every previous episode of The Studio ended with Matt broken and humiliated in a worst-case scenario, whether he’s being wheeled into an ambulance, getting booed at Comic-Con, or sobbing alone in a limo at the Golden Globes. But at the end of “The Presentation,” as he salvages Griffin’s speech by getting the whole auditorium to chant, “Movies! Movies! Movies!,” Matt manages to avoid another embarrassing public failure. And we’re happy for him because the series maintained its empathy for Matt. The show's genius is in making us feel bad for the “bean counter.”

The Studio is available to stream on Apple TV+.

Overall, The Studio’s trip to CinemaCon makes for a satisfying finale. I couldn’t be more thrilled that Apple has renewed The Studio for a second season. The show’s satire of the modern film industry is spot-on, and this ensemble is too good to only stick around for 10 episodes — especially since we’ve just scratched the surface of these characters and the crazy world they inhabit. The Studio has been my favorite new show of the year so far, and after a near-perfect first season, season 2 has a lot to live up to.