One of the outcomes of comic book movies becoming the dominant form of commercial art in recent decades is that they’ve been endlessly discussed and critiqued. This has made it challenging to find any new nuances or unexplored elements in the genre, which is already designed to be larger-than-life.
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| 'The Franchise' HBO |
This challenge of finding fresh aspects to critique — whether about superheroes or the film industry — is the focus of The Franchise. Despite being created by Jon Brown (from Succession and Veep) and produced by Armando Iannucci and Sam Mendes, the comedy series quickly devolves into what feels like a TV version of Deadline’s comment section on any Marvel-related article.
It includes so many references to Deadline that you’d almost think the publication or its parent company was a producer. It’s not. But The Franchise does come from HBO, which is affiliated with DC Comics and has recently celebrated the success of The Penguin.
You may either find it amusing or frustrating that the show targets Marvel under the guise of lampooning comic book movies and contemporary filmmaking. Rather than biting the hand that feeds it, The Franchise takes shots at the hand next door — Marvel — while still subtly licking the one that feeds it: DC.
With so much talent on and off-screen, there are certainly funny and sharp moments, especially early on. However, by the second half of the season, the series loses focus, becoming less engaging and increasingly mundane in its satire.
Himesh Patel stars as Daniel Kumar, the first assistant director on Tecto: Eye of the Storm, a superhero movie from Maximum Studios. The studio has nowhere to go but down after too many high-profile announcements at Comic-Con. With superhero fatigue and failed diversity attempts plaguing the industry, Maximum needs a hit, though Tecto — with its hero wielding an invisible jackhammer and earthquake-causing gloves — may not be it.
Daniel navigates the chaos of an ambitious German director (Daniel Brühl), a rising star (Billy Magnussen), and a legendary theater actor (Richard E. Grant) whose role as the villain is hard to define.
As first AD, Daniel juggles egos and frustrations, only to find his ex-girlfriend Anita (Aya Cash) stepping in as the new producer. She’s less willing than her predecessor to shield the production from meddling studio executive Pat (Darren Goldstein), who bears more than a passing resemblance to Marvel's Kevin Feige.
Enter Dag (Lolly Adefope), a character introduced as the third AD but often acting more like a production assistant. She interrupts her bosses and complains about the project while aiming for an executive producer credit. Her presence on the production feels baffling, as the show does little to explain her character beyond vague references to her background in art history.
While The Franchise focuses its critique on Marvel, it doesn’t offer much new insight into the genre. DC, though currently adrift in its attempts to recast Superman and Batman, is mostly ignored. The show’s decision to zero in on Marvel could be viewed as an attempt to poke fun at a more stable, public-facing target, but it feels one-sided and overly familiar.
Many jokes land in the same vein as those from social media critiques made over a decade ago or from other TV shows like The Boys, The Other Two, Reboot, and Episodes. At times, The Franchise echoes forgotten projects like Judd Apatow’s 2022 COVID-era Netflix send-up The Bubble, often repeating the same jokes and with less success.
Despite its sharp cast and writing pedigree, the show sometimes feels like it’s retreading old ground. The obscenity-laced dialogue, a hallmark of Iannucci’s previous work, doesn’t quite hit the same way as it did in The Thick of It, Veep, or even the less successful Avenue 5.
Some moments work, like an episode where Katherine Waterston plays an Oscar-nominated actress whose role gets expanded due to the studio’s “women problem.” However, many of the jokes, like those about overworked VFX artists or Martin Scorsese’s criticisms of superhero movies, fall flat.
While Sam Mendes helms the visually ambitious pilot, with some impressive backstage tracking shots, later episodes abandon this style, and the show starts to feel looser and less cohesive. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score the premiere with their signature style, but subsequent episodes rely on another composer mimicking their sound, which lessens the impact.
Ultimately, The Franchise fails to develop its characters or relationships in a meaningful way. While shows like Veep and Succession had their characters sound alike at times, their interactions were always clear, and their dynamics added to the drama or comedy. Here, the variations are mostly limited to how loudly a character shouts or how embarrassed they are to be working on a superhero movie.
Despite Himesh Patel and Aya Cash’s best efforts, their characters lack chemistry or any discernible dynamic. The show hints at unresolved romantic tension but fails to develop it. Magnussen’s Adam emerges as the most relatable character by the end, portraying various insecurities that give him some depth. His interactions with Grant and Brühl offer occasional laughs.
While The Franchise will undoubtedly attract an audience that enjoys industry in-jokes and comic book movie critiques, it ultimately doesn’t go much deeper than superficial mockery of a genre that some people love and others are tired of.
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