The new HBO satire shows the behind-the-scenes chaos of making a blockbuster, as star Daniel Brühl confirmed, "There's so much truth in it."

Is the comics-to-screen formula played out? Yes. Should this series work harder to make good jokes about that? Yes.

The state of big-budget studio filmmaking obviously isn't as consequential as the state of a dysfunctional, ego-driven, often deeply ridiculous U.S. government. Yet for those who obsessively follow the former,