The Franchise

Armando Iannucci, Jon Brown, and Sam Mendes have crafted an unforgettable and endlessly entertaining series that is filled to the brim with wry, dark humor, unfortunate truths, and an exceptional cast that knows exactly how to deliver what this show aims to be.

There’s lived experience on the screen here, is the point. But really, even those who have never stepped foot on a movie set can relate to the vibes involved.

This hilariously vicious showbiz satire, from producers of Veep and Succession, spares no one in front or behind the camera in its skewing of a big-budget workplace. [28 Oct - 17 Nov 2024, p.4]

The Franchise isn’t damning enough to cause some sort of reckoning upon Hollywood’s franchise factory. But it is cutting enough to lift the curtain on what it’s really like to pander to an industry that constantly changes its mind and has no room for originality. The truth may not be pretty – but it certainly is laughable.

This is comedy from a recognisable school. Mainly this is a good thing – I’m not sure that I will ever tire of the rabid phrasemaking and effervescent swearing that has long been an Iannucci trademark, nor the habit of contorting language and corporate speak to the point where words lose all meaning.

The first season’s eight episodes feel neither defensive nor score-settling, the rare satire that can be enjoyed by fans and haters alike.

A consistently funny skewering of the trials and tribulations of making a superhero movie. Phase One of the Franchise Television Universe (FTU) is off to a strong start.

Casting superhero movies not as cinema but as wildly expensive content, it’s a show that’ll be music to Martin Scorsese’s ears.

If the characters aren't as finely drawn as they should be, and if their development often gets lost in the effort of pushing Tecto's production along, the very talented actors add enough magic to keep the show highly watchable and frequently laugh-out-loud funny.

“The Franchise” is not perfect by any means, but it is very watchable and bingeable, delivered in easy-to-digest 30-minute chunks of droll, in-the-know comedy. Whether the series assembles again for another sequel remains unclear, but fanboys, myself included, who enjoyed this origin story season will surely like to see where it flies next.

Quite a few of the rapid-fire yuks and droll bon mots delivered in The Franchise can feel stagey, but they’re delivered to the cheap seats by enthusiastic players, suggesting electric on-set energy for The Franchise—a good sign for future episodes.

People like Dag getting lost in the shuffle is both the point and an oversight. When it comes to blockbuster franchises, “The Franchise” argues the people making the movies don’t matter in the slightest compared to what they’re making. But the people also don’t matter as much as they could to the series itself.

The show gets so much better when it’s not about characters insisting they’re better than the shit they’re shoveling and instead revel in said shit. That’s when they become people you actually like spending time with. The series has a lot of fun with Superstore-esque cutaways to whatever nonsense is happening among the crew around the set.

The 8-episode first season is just funny enough to sustain your interest, even if some of the targets here feel easier than in the best Iannucci productions.

Some (make that a lot of) funny lines, but far too fat a target.

With a teeming cast, it also frequently lacks any sense of a core (Selina’s inner circle in Veep; the Roy family in Succession). Yet though it’s a tad hackneyed on spoofing the superhero movie factory (this is, after all, a genre that reinvents and satirises itself), the series is strong on the insanity, insecurity, vanity, hierarchy, “location brain” and abject humiliation of film-making, with references to Christopher Nolan and superhero genre critic Martin Scorsese thrown in for good measure.

After the pilot, during which I not only didn’t laugh but couldn’t see anywhere I was supposed to laugh (except when Dan tells the classic, perfect joke about the manure-shoveller at the circus), there are some good – if never great – lines and images scattered around.

The half-hour series spews its bile with eloquence and conviction that provide their own momentum, at least to start. But ultimately, “The Franchise” is more of a (vociferous, amusing) reaction to the zeitgeist than an entity unto itself.

“The Franchise” establishes a unique rhythm and serves up some truly funny stuff (much of it featuring Patel and Magnussen), but the comedy is uneven.

“The Franchise” is a fairly diverting, if somewhat repetitious comedy with a cast that makes for good company.

There’s enough we liked about the first two episodes of The Franchise to recommend it, but we wonder how far the show’s accomplished producers can push the “crazy production of a high-budget film” theme without making things either absurd or annoying.

“The Franchise,” despite a wealth of talented performers, doesn’t have a superpowered performance that could take the show from funny to scathing. In contrast, it’s mild when it ought to be wild.

Thanks to the sheer talent of the cast, and to the kind of creative profanity you get from any comedy produced by Veep creator Armando Iannucci, there are laughs to be had — just not nearly enough given the pedigree. And most of the satire seems content to skim the surface of superhero movie culture.

Smartly scripted, amusingly acted, and believably realized, The Franchise is no failure. It’s never less than mildly entertaining—but rarely more, either.

Unlike, say, Showtime’s “Episodes,” which depicts how the TV sausage gets made in all its absurdity while still showing characters with heart, “The Franchise” gives no reason to have sympathy for any of its selfish narcissists.

There are too many extraordinarily talented people involved with The Franchise, on both sides of the camera, for it not to be occasionally scathing in funny and well-constructed ways, at least for a few episodes. By the second half of the season, though, it becomes less and less focused, less and less narratively interesting and more and more satirically banal.

"The Franchise" still wants to be scathing, so the lack of bite where it matters most makes it just feel like a wash.