The Franchise: HBO satirical comedy mocks superhero blockbusters but it rarely bites

When in 2018 Angela Bassett appeared on Stephen Colbert’s late-night show to promote the release of Black Panther, she had a strange tale to tell about the film’s waterfall sequence.

The cast had spent two weeks standing in an artificial body of water when actors Daniel Kaluuya and Lupita Nyong’o’s eyes became increasingly bloodshot. Kaluuya, according to Bassett, ended up in the emergency room, bloodstains dripping on to his pillow.

At first, the production was worried there was something in the PH levels of the water but what happened was the bright studio lights reflecting off the water had burnt the actors’ eyes. After that, everyone had to wear sunglasses between shots.

Bassett’s story was meant to be an amusing anecdote into the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of a massive superhero blockbuster, but what it revealed was what can seem to be a slick, well-oiled machine of adults making movies is actually a grab-bag of chaos that, sometimes, turns out OK.

The Franchise is an HBO comedy that satirises the process of making a big studio movie that’s part of a shared narrative universe.

The eight-episode series is produced by the king of satire, Scottish writer Armando Iannucci (The Thick of It, The Death of Stalin, Alan Partridge), and was created by Jon Brown, who worked with Iannucci on Veep and also with Jesse Armstrong on Succession and Peep Show.

The Franchise weaponises that Black Panther mishap in its first episode, working it into its story set during the filming of a fictional movie called Tecto, about a second-rate superhero who can create earthquakes.

The production is plagued with budget constraints, egos, hubris and studio interference, driving everyone from the auteur director Eric (Daniel Bruhl, who has been in two Marvel projects), first assistant director Daniel (Himesh Patel), producer Anita (Aya Cash), third assistant director Dag (Lolly Adefope) and star Adam (Billy Magnussen) bonkers.

There’s also Richard E. Grant who plays Peter, whose disdain for the deeply insecure Adam knows no bounds. Plus, Pat, the executive producer from the studio who is the representative of the big boss, and whose abrasive nature is only slightly tempered by his complaint that he can’t ream anyone to the degree he wants to because “Scott Rudin f**ked it for the rest of us”.

It is a bit “inside baseball” in that it drops so many rapid-fire references that, inevitably, a segment of its audience is going to need to Google some stuff.

For the ones that already know it, there are plenty of moments of droll humour, taking potshots at a movie culture that has dominated cinemas for the past 15 years. But for those viewers, The Franchise doesn’t necessarily offer any new insight that hasn’t been gleaned from scouring the Hollywood trades or from Joanna Robinson’s book about the rise of Marvel Studios.

There are plotlines involving the show’s barely fictionalised Maximum Studios, very clearly modelled on Marvel, facing opposition from fans about its lack of depth when it comes to female characters and then the resulting backlash from toxic fanboys when they give women any agency on screen.

Or pandering to the Chinese government in order to access its lucrative market. Its videos inspired by John Cena’s apology to China for saying Taiwan is a “country” during the promo tour for F9 can’t match the absurdity of the real thing.

Some of those beats are a tad outdated - the Chinese moviegoing audience has cooled considerably on Hollywood releases since Covid and studios no longer prioritise the market – and The Franchise would’ve felt much more urgent if it had been made a few years ago.

The series also reserves almost all of its pointed mockery for Marvel, which happens to be the main rival of DC Comics, which happens to be owned by Warner Bros, the parent company of The Franchise’s network, HBO.

It would’ve been more interesting if it looked more inwards at the disasters, and there were so many, experienced by WB over its troubled DC movie projects.

But that does speak to The Franchise’s overall vibe. It’s frequently funny and plenty diverting but for a satire, it rarely bites.

The Franchise is streaming on Binge with new episodes weekly