Review of the series «The Franchise»

On November 24th on HBO, and just the next day on the platform MEGOGO, the satirical series «The Franchise» concluded its airing. Unlike the show «The Boys», where the creators brazenly mock the superhero genre as such (and not only), the creators of this project tried to satirize slightly different aspects of superheroics, namely — its relentless conveyor production. In the review below, we discuss whether they managed to achieve quality and witty mockery of the likes of Marvel.

«The Franchise»

Genre satire, comedy
Showrunner John Brown
Cast Himesh Patel, Aya Cash, Jessica Hynes, Billy Magnussen, Lolly Adefope, Darren Goldstein, Isaac Powell, Richard E. Grant, Daniel Brühl, Katherine Waterston, Nick Kroll
Premiere HBO, MEGOGO
Year of release 2024
Website IMDb, official poster

On the set of the new superhero blockbuster «Tekto: Eye of the Storm» passions are running high. German director with an award from the Locarno Film Festival, Erik Bouchard, strives to navigate between his artistic vision and the complexities of working within a soulless studio system. The first assistant director, Daniel Kumar — the main character and, seemingly, the most sensible person among all present, is barely managing the filming process. Moreover, the filmmakers face constant force of circumstances and consequently, production delays. Even an extra in heavy fish-man makeup irritatingly complains about discomfort.

The pavilion is engulfed in all-consuming chaos — everyone is busy, tired, and stressed. Amidst this production hell, a major studio bigwig, Pat Shannon, intervenes, firing the current producer and appointing the ambitious Anita in their place, who, as it turns out, has a complicated past with Daniel. Continuous mishaps, team exhaustion, disorganization, conflicts, and unpredictable delays risk dooming the project and, as a consequence, the careers of all involved. The heroes need to work hard to pull this 150-million-dollar machine out of the abyss.The recent overwhelming popularity of superheroics and the current fatigue from it have left their mark on the film industry itself. Nowadays, there are temporarily fewer related blockbuster movies, and everyone from YouTube bloggers to Tom Hanks is throwing stones in the garden of colorful tight-wearing heroes — only the lazy don’t criticize them. Even the comic book movies themselves don’t shy away from mocking themselves — just remember the chatty mercenary who dramatically mows down extras to the tune of «Bye Bye Bye».

The creators of the satirical comedy «The Franchise» decided, while it still seems relevant, to also mock superheroics, but from the other side of the screen. Among them are the director of the cult «American Beauty» and technically flawless «1917» Sam Mendes, who personally directed the first episode; showrunner John Brown, who worked on the series «Broken Pixels» and «Avenue 5»; and executive producer and noted satirist Armando Iannucci. The same one who in the format of political satire/black comedy released the expectedly banned «The Death of Stalin». The satire of «The Franchise» turned out not sharp enough, or simply, not mean enough: where the authors should have used napalm, their target gets at most accurate jabs. However, even so, let’s be honest, Brown and company are beating a dead horse. However, this does not at all devalue their efforts — overall, it looks fun, light, and unobtrusive.

Find some talented festival-hit author, throw them into the meat grinder of a high-budget studio conveyor, and demand success — there is (here, for example, Chloé Zhao is mentioned). Artificially add weight to a female character because not the plot and certainly not the target audience demand it, but contemporary socio-political optics — there is. Emphasize the importance of fan-service and thereby salvation for an average script through cameos — there is. Even «damn Martin Scorsese» with his criticism of superhero cinema is mentioned.At the same time, this screen backstage of comic book movies, of course, in a satirical tone, gives a better understanding of the challenges, sometimes absolutely absurd, that filmmakers working for a major studio must face. From this emerge bad stories that appear before the viewer somewhat tied together by individual scenes (hello to you, bloodless «Justice League»). And characters that naturally receive tons of hate (hello to you, «The Marvels» or «Madame Web»). And terrible special effects, for which there is no longer any energy, resources, or time left for improvement (hello to you, «The Flash» with absolutely raw graphics).

Also, we can learn, for example, why there are two suns in the frame (studio demand for increased lighting), what Chinese tractors are doing in space (obvious product placement), or why the local director decided to compete in fireballs with Christopher Nolan. Remember, for him, a «fireball» is an atomic bomb.And how can we not mention the imaginary multiverse of all this superhero stuff. In the role of an artist with a «unique» authorial vision, welcome German actor Daniel Brühl, who has already made his mark playing the supervillain Baron Zemo in the Marvel Universe. There too, only in the series «Loki», the unique Richard Grant also made an appearance. Aya Cash, who played the producer Anita, you may remember as the Nazi Stormfront in the second season of «The Boys».