[eerie music]
♪ ♪
- In Hollywood,
the fastest way to the top
is to work for someone who's already there.
The system dictates that one must first be a slave
before you can be a success.
Few people have the drive to endure the indignities
that make up the system.
♪ ♪
This drive is usually motivated by greed.
Sometimes ambition.
[cougar growls]
Sometimes, even love.
There are stories of love...
♪ ♪
Inspiring success over the most insurmountable odds...
Empowering stories...
Where we are not crucifying one another,
but playing fair.
♪ ♪
This...
[cougar roars]
Is not one of those stories.
[disquieting music]
♪ ♪
["Hollywood's Bleeding" by Post Malone]
- ♪ Hollywood's bleeding, vampires feeding ♪
♪ Darkness turns to dust ♪
♪ Everyone's gone, but no one's leaving ♪
♪ Nobody left but us ♪
♪ Try to face a feelin', but we'll never feel it ♪
♪ Ridin' on the last train home ♪
♪ Dyin' in our sleep, we're living out a dream ♪
♪ We only make it out alone ♪
- You have no brain.
You're an intern.
You are here in service of Joyce Holt,
CEO of Fountain Pictures.
What you think means nothing.
- What you feel means nothing.
- You are nothing.
A thousand nobodies land at LAX every day,
ready to kill to get inside these gates.
- Anything she wants-- -You get it.
-Everything you do, you run through us.
- Can't take it? Roll on back to bumfuck Iowa.
- Hi. I'm L--
- Late.
- They told me 9:00.
- 9:00 means 8:30.
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
- Meredith Lockhart's in your office.
The "Times'" run another piece,
calling the "Wanderlust Chronicles"
the most relevant book series of the decade.
Referenced the impending bidding war.
- I called the apothecary in Melbourne.
They aren't making the almond sage one anymore.
I'll call again.
- I debated between this and the Dior,
but Gucci makes me look less Hollywood power dyke.
- Please.
You love being a Hollywood power dyke.
- That's true.
- All right, my friend.
What is it gonna take to make this happen?
You gonna make me beg? I'm happy to do so.
- You know the corporate BS
that comes from a mainstream studio?
It's not me.
For my books, I want a home
that's more punk rock, artist-driven.
- Punk rock and artist-driven's not gonna pay
pay for that $2,500 coat.
- This $2,850, bitch.
[chuckles]
- If for no other reason, Meredith,
don't you want to support a female CEO
in this fucking boys' club town?
- You mean the token female.
Fountain's the most misogynistic monstrosity
out there.
- 'Cause my hands have been tied.
But I'm sure you've heard--
- Redmond's about to croak, and you're gonna take over.
Ain't gonna happen, Joyce.
- Here you go. Should be all there.
- Double meat, no bun, side of jalapeño,
mega-mint agua fresca, no ice,
and vegan banana bread pudding, hold the coconut.
- I like the whole braided, Amish, art chick look
you got going on.
Where, uh--where you from?
- Colorado Springs.
Um, excuse me. The skinless chicken breast?
It's for her dog,
so if you could put it in a separate box,
that would be great.
- I've been on this lot for six years.
I could...be your in-guy.
- All right, mate. Give it a rest.
My sister? She's not interested.
- Yeah, well, your loss.
Huh.
- I always wanted a brother.
- First day?
- [laughs] It's that obvious?
- Nah. You're a natural.
Let me get that for you. - Thank you.
- Let me guess. Travis, Joyce's dog Wesley?
He used to work for me before Joyce poached him.
Travis, that is. Not the dog.
- Work for you?
- Yeah.
Martin Bruhl, VP of Production.
- Lou Simms. VP of Hail Caesar's.
- Oh ho. Wow. - Sorry, bad joke.
- Terrible joke.
- It's all right, though. I've heard worse.
You gotta be careful, though. Travis is--
- Batshit crazy? - Yep.
He and Alex are Joyce's wrecking crew.
They've been fired hundreds of times,
but she'll never get rid of them.
- Because?
- They know where the bodies are buried.
- [chuckles]
- Can't get to her without going through them.
- Is getting to her a goal around here?
[quiet piano music]
♪ ♪
[clears throat]
Excuse me?
I finished everything on the list you gave me.
I also went ahead and did tomorrow's work as well.
- Congratulations.
I'm gonna need you to, uh--
- Sorry.
[eerie exhalation]
Hey, Greta!
I survived my first day!
[pensive music]
♪ ♪
- We're gonna move to Hollywood one day.
It's always warm.
You can have short sleeves in December.
And we can have a lemon tree in our backyard.
- Promise? - Promise.
♪ ♪
[discordant crescendo]
♪ ♪
[ambient music]
♪ ♪
- Our lunch with the new investors just confirmed.
- "Wanderlust Chronicles."
Meredith Lockhart's book series.
- I'm working on it.
- What does that mean?
You either got them or you failed.
- Means I'm working on it.
- I heard Universal is-- - You heard wrong.
- I promised them to the new investors, Marty.
- I'm aware. - There's a clock on the offer.
Five billion dollars are at stake, Martin,
money needed to save this fucking place.
- And how do you plan on getting Redmond involved
in all this?
- I don't.
Keep the investors on ice until he dies already.
- Copy.
- And get the rights to the books, or we're fucked.
Well, I'll be fine, but you'll be fucked.
- Please tell me you got in touch
with Meredith's assistant.
- I've left word like five times.
He's not returning.
- Leverage your relationship.
Go dirty if you need to go dirty.
We need those fucking books.
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
- Plug your nose. It's gonna smell like shit.
- [chuckles]
- Don't laugh. She's fired six people
over this fucking tea.
- What's it for? - Getting pregnant.
'Cause, come on, she's gonna be such a lit mom.
- I'm happy to make it.
- And risk getting fired your first week?
Be number seven?
- I think I can handle it.
- All right. Knock yourself out.
[gentle music]
♪ ♪
- How do you think lunch went?
- They were placating us.
If Redmond isn't gone soon, I'll guarantee you,
they'll pivot, and we'll lose them.
[cell phone ringing]
- Yep.
Yeah, yeah. I'm with her now.
All right. Copy.
Well, speak of the devil.
Redmond is requesting you at his house.
- [sighs] God damn it.
[uneasy synth music]
♪ ♪
Wait in the car.
♪ ♪
[respirator hissing]
- Look what the cat dragged in.
[speaking Spanish]
- [speaking Spanish]
[uneasy music]
♪ ♪
- Keeps me young.
Doctors are telling me that I'm in my final days.
Oh Jesus, you're a terrible actress.
No wonder you never made it.
Rumor has it,
you've been talking to investors
about outside capital.
- Not true. - That's what I told them.
I said, she wouldn't do that.
She gave me her word
that she would run the studio the way I wanted,
the way my father ran it.
The last great American studio, run by Americans.
What a novel fucking idea that is, huh?
No chinks, no wops, no A-rabs.
[chuckles] Am I right?
♪ ♪
Do I have your word?
♪ ♪
- You have my word.
- I assume that didn't go well.
Shit.
- What?
- Uh...
- What?
- Looks like you were right.
Meredith's getting into a deal with Universal.
[tense music]
Universal, real fucking punk rock.
They're backing up the cash truck.
There's no way we can match this.
I'm sorry.
I went down every single avenue.
I mean, as long as that cheap fuck is still breathing,
there's no way we can-- we can compete with this.
My hands are tied.
I'm sorry.
♪ ♪
[tires screeching]
- Get out.
♪ ♪
[quiet music]
♪ ♪
- What the fuck are you doing?
Open this door again,
and you'll be slinging smoothies
at the Van Nuys Jamba Juice so fast,
you won't know what fucking hit you.
Out.
[heavy music playing]
- I am fucking neurotic, Tom.
The film business is in the last innings.
♪ ♪
You know how many out-of-work, white, male
studio execs there are in this town right now?
Those books are a big fucking problem.
Joyce--she promised them to our new investors.
♪ ♪
Maybe pretend that I didn't say that.
If that information was to leak to the press or something,
then, uh...
Redmond wouldn't be too happy, you know?
♪ ♪
All right, speak to you soon.
[tense music]
[insect buzzing]
♪ ♪
- Just leave it.
- Yes, ma'am.
- You from the South?
- Colorado.
- Girls from Colorado don't say "ma'am."
- Too much Tennessee Williams growing up.
- What color were these resoled?
- Black? - And the original color was?
- Red.
- Therefore, they should have been resoled...
- Red. - Right.
Travis, get in here.
- Eight mil a year,
and the crazy bitch resoles her shoes.
- Mm-hmm.
- Why are rich people always so fucking cheap?
- Doesn't make sense.
Ooh. Hey.
Heidi. 9 o'clock.
- Don't you dare invite her to sit.
- Lou! Come sit!
- I fucking hate you.
- Only if you let me buy the next round.
- Oh, well, in that case,
Señor, Don Julio 1942, por favor?
- Three, please.
- Uh, none for me. I'm good.
- Harvard bitch is sober.
Unfathomable, I know.
Just remember, I may be her ho this week,
but that means you're up next.
Queen is on a tear. - Mm.
- See, one week she loves you,
gives you an $80 candle that she got in a gift basket.
Next week... [clicks tongue] You're dead.
- But you do end up with a very nice candle
you can put in your shitty Echo Park apartment,
so when you bring home the guy you met on Grindr,
he thinks you're super legit.
- Not sure a candle would cut it for me.
- Your friends back home.
They teachers, accountants, social workers?
Kill me now.
- Proximity to greatness is intoxicating.
- I saw Ryan Gosling's dick on a set visit once.
I mean, it was just from the side, but still,
made my fucking year.
Speaking of dicks...
- Whoa, seriously dude. Nobody wants to see that.
- I do.
All right, I'm gonna get my fuck on.
Bye, bitches.
- My apologies.
Crude and inappropriate are his default settings.
- Got it. [chuckles]
[phone buzzes] Whoops.
- Careful. Joyce gave him his start.
Back in the day, they used to...
- No, we're just friends.
- Marty Bruhl belongs to Joyce Holt.
[ominous music]
[crickets chirping]
- [groans]
- Okay.
- [exhales forcefully] - That's it.
- [sighs]
Your studio migrating into our bedroom?
- [sighs] God, don't even get me started.
I should just cancel that fucking show.
I'm not even close to being ready.
- Stay home and work.
- Don't. Don't fucking do that,
not right now.
- You're building the show up way too much.
Don't be so precious.
- I'm the one being too precious?
'Cause you're so chill and whatever about your work.
- I'm not an artist.
- Yeah, well, guess what?
Neither am I.
I'm Joyce Holt's plus-one.
- New coat? - Yeah.
- What's the occasion?
Looks like more than just dinner with the boys.
- You can come.
[melancholy music]
- [sighs] I lost this week.
I don't like losing.
- There'll be other books.
Come on! Come out.
Get dressed. It'll be fun.
Food's supposed to be incredible.
- No.
Tonight's the only night
I don't have to go out this week.
Happy to stay home and wear sweats and look like shit.
- You never look like shit.
♪ ♪
- Have fun tonight.
- I love you.
- Love you too.
[electronic music]
♪ ♪
[door slams]
♪ ♪
- I was 19 when I moved here.
Penniless.
A lost cause, my teachers told me.
There was a passage I read once as a girl
that, for whatever reason, resonated.
It was written by Marilyn Monroe
shortly before her death.
And as sad as it may read now,
it encapsulates the very thing that draws people here.
This town. This business.
The promise. That sense of hope.
Magic.
[spacey electronic music]
♪ ♪
- Dude, your girlfriend's back.
♪ ♪
- Do you have any gum? Mints?
♪ ♪
- I have a pomegranate acai throat lozenge.
♪ ♪
- ♪ There's something hiding in the ceiling ♪
♪ And it pulls my strings ♪
♪ Tried to cut it, I'm the haunted ♪
♪ It won't let me leave ♪
♪ It's so quiet, but behind it it's not what it seems ♪
♪ It's a twisted dream ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Flick of the light, glitch in the time ♪
♪ Cover my eyes, wait, is it all in my mind? ♪
♪ Is it all in my mind, all in my mind? ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
♪ Ooh-oo-oo-oo ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
♪ Ooh-oo-oo-oo ♪
♪ ♪
♪ If I told you ♪
- When I was growing up, we didn't have anything.
I didn't have anyone in my life
telling me that I had any worth.
I was so desperate for that validation.
We all need that one person in our lives
to tell us that we can do it,
that we matter.
I see you. I see you.
- ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
♪ Ooh-oo-oo-oo ♪
♪ ♪
- ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
♪ Ooh-oo-oo-oo ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
[train horn blares]
♪ Ooh-oo-oo-oo ♪
- When I first moved here,
as I looked into the Hollywood night,
there must be thousands of girls sitting alone
just like me, dreaming.
But I'm not gonna worry about them,
because I'm dreaming the hardest.
- Because I'm dreaming the hardest.
- [together] We do what we have to do,
in order to get what we want.