It was the show that paid out Hollywood, which also received its most sweeping acclaim, says streaming columnist NICK OVERALL.

At the recent Emmy awards The Studio took out 13 wins, dominating amongst the impressive line-up of shows and winning best comedy.

The Apple TV+ production stars Seth Rogen (who also secured best actor in a comedy) as Matt Remick, a film producer promoted to the new head of Continental Studios, the maker of some of the world’s biggest and most successful blockbusters.

Matt’s aspirations to be loved and lauded by the industry he’s lived and breathed since childhood are soon brought back down to earth by the thing that it worships more than anything: money.

The whole thing is very meta, often on the edge of fourth-wall breaking.

Real giants of the film world such as Charlize Theron and Martin Scorsese play themselves in the show and interact with its fictional characters.

The first episode focuses on the acclaimed Goodfellas director wanting to make a dark and gritty film about the Jonestown massacre.

It’s an idea that Remick loves and gives the green light to, despite the studio being in a rather lucrative partnership with Kool-Aid, the same drink that just so happened to be used in the mass murder.

This amusing tug of war between creative pursuit and financial ambition is the basis of this pithy and fun series.

Scorsese is just the start of the impressive line-up of talent the show has managed to secure. I won’t spoil who else appears, as their surprise cameos are part of the fun.

Despite The Studio mercilessly poking fun at the world of film and streaming, it is ultimately born out of a place of clear passion for it with a message that it clearly hopes the industry will hear.

With its Emmys sweep, maybe it has.

TAKING out far less recognition at the awards, but undoubtedly worth just as much attention, is another Apple TV Plus series that has coincidentally returned for its new season.

Slow Horses was nominated for five awards and snagged the gong for outstanding directing in a drama series and its plain to see why.

It stars Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, a shrewd and cynical intelligence officer with espionage skills sharpened by his time as a spy during the Cold War.

In modern-day Britain though, Lamb’s abrasive and stubborn ways have seen him thrown into a division of the MI5 that is something of a purgatory.

It’s filled with failed agents whose extensive service renders them unable to be fired, but they can certainly be pushed to the sidelines.

It’s hoped these agents will quietly fade into obscurity by being buried in mountains of paperwork and other mundane tasks.

Not the case for Lamb who, beneath his ageing and disheveled appearance, has a brilliant mind capable of cracking the cases that threaten Britain’s security the most.

Like in so many of his iconic roles Oldman absolutely disappears into his character and his performance is what makes this series tick.

Jackson Lamb is quickly earning his place as one of streaming’s most popular and iconic protagonists.

With each season he gets more neurotic and his spycraft becomes more deranged, making it harder to look away.

Oldman is also backed up by a younger, talented cast from right across the UK carving their own names out in the streaming landscape including Olivia Cooke, who has recently garnered much attention in The Girlfriend on Amazon Prime Video.

Oldman, of course, is the drawcard here, but there’s a wider reason Slow Horses also scored a nomination for best casting this year.

The show got off to something of a slow start when it was released in 2022, but is now up to its fifth season with even more on the way.

With shows like these, Apple’s catalogue feels like it’s quickly closing in on Netflix’s, not just in terms of quality but in the sheer number of productions securing wide cultural kudos.