The Studio’s Mushroom Scene Is Peak Stoner TV, and We’re Still Tripping

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If you’re not watching The Studio—Seth Rogen’s chaotic new series about the inner workings of a failing Hollywood film company, then respectfully, what are you even doing? The show’s been bringing the satire, the dysfunction, and the passive-aggressive Zoom meetings... but Episode 9? That was something else entirely.

That was a full-blown psychedelic detour through nacho cheese, penis headbands, and what might be the most accurate portrayal of a shroom trip we’ve seen since Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Except this time, it’s Bryan Cranston tripping balls in a Vegas gondola, and honestly, we’ve never felt more seen.

Let’s break it down, stoner-to-stoner.

The Setup: Mushroom Chocolate at CinemaCon

The episode, titled CinemaCon, follows the Studio gang to Las Vegas for a make-or-break convention where everything that could go wrong… absolutely does. But the real chaos doesn’t begin until Griffin Mill, played by an unhinged and brilliant Bryan Cranston gets handed a piece of chocolate laced with mushrooms.

To be fair, it looked like a normal edible. Which is rule number one of stoner survival: never trust Vegas chocolate. Especially if it’s passed to you by someone who says “It’s mellow, bro.”

Spoiler: it was not mellow.

The Trip: Griffin Mill Ascends to Absolute Madness

What follows is one of the greatest mushroom montages in TV history. Griffin, the buttoned-up CEO who’s usually stressing about streaming deals and box office numbers, becomes an absolute menace.

Highlights include:

• Double-fisting nacho cheese at a party like it’s spiritual nourishment

• Wearing a blinking penis headband like it’s his crown chakra

• Screaming about the birth of cinema while riding a gondola through The Venetian

• Going full Shakespeare in the Shroom Zone with a monologue that somehow makes sense and no sense at all

  
  

It’s absurd. It’s majestic. It’s... kinda accurate?

We’ve all had that one trip where reality melted and suddenly capitalism was funny and cheese was sacred. Griffin just had it in front of half of Hollywood.

This Scene Was for the Stoners

This wasn’t just a comedy bit. It was stoner-coded brilliance.

Every moment of Griffin’s descent into mushroom madness felt like an inside joke for the weed-loving, mushroom-munching corner of the internet. You know, the ones who microdose before brunch, who organize their playlists by vibe not genre, who know the difference between a bad trip and a breakthrough.

Because behind the penis headbands and public breakdowns, there was something kind of real about this scene. Griffin’s trip wasn’t just played for laughs, it was an unraveling. A man so stressed out by the Hollywood machine that he needed to fall apart publicly just to feel alive again. And if that doesn’t scream "highly spiritual stoner breakdown," we don’t know what does.

Dave Franco & Zoë Kravitz in Peak Chaos Mode

Apple TV+

As if things weren’t already trippy enough, Dave Franco and Zoë Kravitz show up as exaggerated, almost parody-level versions of themselves, drunk, high, chaotic, and thriving. Franco steals the show as a fully untethered party gremlin who seems more comfortable shroomed out in a hotel suite than most of us are in therapy.

This is where The Studio really shines. It doesn’t just parody Hollywood, it pulls the curtain back and lets it fall into a lava lamp of self-aware weirdness. Everyone’s high, everyone’s fragile, and no one knows what movie they’re making anymore.

And that’s kind of beautiful.

A Love Letter to Stoner Cinema… Disguised as Corporate Meltdown

This episode is a chaotic, glitter-covered homage to stoner classics like Fear and Loathing, Pineapple Express, and Holy Mountain. But instead of desert hallucinations or action-packed weed deals, we get a corporate meltdown wrapped in mushroom visuals and existential dread.

And the kicker? It’s all happening while these characters are supposed to be selling a kid’s movie to studio executives.

It’s almost poetic.

Final Puff: This Is What Happens When Stoners Make TV for Stoners

The Studio’s mushroom scene isn’t just funny—it’s therapeutic. It’s a reminder that sometimes the only way to make sense of the chaos is to eat the chocolate, throw on a penis headband, and float down a Vegas canal screaming about cinema.

It’s not subtle. It’s not clean. But it’s real. And in a world where stoner culture is constantly being sterilized and repackaged, it’s refreshing to see a show that goes full psychedelic without apology.

So light one up, rewatch Episode 9, and remember:

Don’t eat the whole square.

Or do. But just make sure someone’s filming it.