Some disasters take the form of shitsplosions, and others happen bit by bit, with one thing going wrong after another until a full-on collapse can no longer be averted. “The Pediatric Oncologist,” the sixth episode of The Studio’s first season, contains both varieties. For Matt, the shitsplosion is safely contained within the trailer to a new Spike Jonze movie starring Johnny Knoxville and Josh Hutcherson, a satire of “medical disinformation” in which a zombie plague spreads via explosive diarrhea. His slow-motion disaster takes the form of a black-tie gala in which he makes one unforced error after another out of insecurity. Surrounded by pediatric oncologists, Matt starts to think about how insignificant his contributions to the world are in the grand scheme of things. Or, more accurately, he refuses to think about this and starts lashing out in increasingly destructive ways. Matt lives in a bubble. Within it, he’s quite big. Outside, however, he’s positively trivial.

Being with one pediatric oncologist, however, seems to be going pretty well as the episode opens. Sarah (Rebecca Hall) and Matt have reached the point in their relationship where she’s started staying over and drinking cappuccino in bed in the morning. Handing Sarah her beverage, Matt can’t help but point out that he’s done a little design with the foam. (True, it looks a bit more like a penis than a palm tree, but he gets an “A” for effort.)

Matt likes being creative, though, as Sarah innocently reminds him, he mostly lives in the glory of others’ creativity. When Matt calls MK Ultra 4 “my” movie, Sarah asks if he directed it. “Sort of,” he says before explaining the role he played in acquiring the rights and developing the now-seven-film franchise. That his girlfriend lives in a world where she’s remained unaware of any of these movies unnerves him. She lives in a bubble of her own — just one filled with people fighting to cure cancer.

It’s also one Sarah would like Matt to visit, extending a last-minute invitation to a black-tie fundraiser at Cedars-Sinai, where he’ll be hanging out with her peers. That sounds good to Matt, who jokes he’s fine with medical talk since he’s seen “Patch Adams 12 times.” That’s great for Sarah because, unlike the doctors with whom she normally spends her time, Matt doesn’t take himself seriously at all. What could go wrong!

Besides, a night out might be just what Matt needs to put aside the stress of having to cut a trailer for Duhpocalypse that theater owners in the American heartland will be willing to show. The version they currently have, in which a zombie drops trou and vacates his bowels on Josh Hutcherson, kills in the room, but it’s also causing what Maya calls a “trailer crisis.” Beyond the obvious problems, Tyler raises the issue of whether or not the trailer will depress sales of brown liquids like Coca-Cola. Leigh (Jessica St. Clair), Johnny Knoxville’s agent, points out that this would not be an issue if they’d sold the film to a streamer instead of studio. “Don’t be such a fucking agent,” Matt tells her. These two obviously do not care for one another.

In the end, Matt feels strongly that the shitsplosion should stay and can stay with some fine-tuning. Knoxville’s happy the studio head has his back. And Matt feels safe skipping out for the fundraiser so long as his team texts him alternate cuts. They’re a bit skeptical that he’s seeing a doctor, which prompts Matt to boast that his girlfriend understands that what he does is “very important.”

He truly seems to believe it is, but the opening moments of the next scene throw in sharp relief the life-and-death stakes of what Sarah does as opposed to what Matt does. As they enter the party, both Sarah and Matt are on their phones. Sarah talks parents of a fatally ill child through the pluses and minuses of participating in a clinical trial. Matt suggests that not showing the aftermath of the shitsplosion will be enough to skirt around any complaints. It’s the episode’s funniest moment and the one that best takes advantage of the only-long-takes style that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have established as The Studio’s trademark.

Once off the call, Matt points out the plaques marking all the movies filmed at the fundraiser’s location, the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, including Fight Club, which Sarah’s heard of but never seen. Matt’s discomfort with his date’s lack of movie literacy is compounded when they’re joined by her doctor friends Rebecca (Sugar Lyn Beard) and Steve (Arthur Keng). They see Matt as a “breath of fresh air.” Matt says the gala reminds him of a Hollywood party, except that everyone’s a “little bit smarter.” Sarah and the others think the “little bit” part is funny. It’s the first sign that the evening will not end well.

More signs arrive in short order. No one seems to understand what Matt does or find themselves able to take it seriously, particularly after he refers to what he does as “stressful.” After they’re joined by another pair of doctors, Josh (Derek Wilson) and June (Shereen Khan), Matt listens to a (pretty eloquent) defense of the pleasures of golf, which he does not get. Then everyone starts saying all the wrong things. June wants to know if he thought Entourage was “too close to home to enjoy.” (“Entourage was, uh, a show beloved by millions,” is his noncommittal reply.) It soon comes out that they don’t really go to movies. They stream everything. “I’d wager that it’s better than any movie theater,” Josh boasts of the 77-inch TV June uses to watch Real Housewives.

When Matt steps away to take a call about the Duhpocalypse trailer, it feels like a relief. But when he returns, the evening takes an even more serious turn for the worse when he suggests that he, too, can have rough days at work and that he also has to deal with “serious stakes.” Everyone kind of laughs it off, at which point a thicker-skinned studio head, so not Matt, would take an easy exit. Instead, he digs in, especially when Josh objects to Matt calling what he makes “art.”

In the ensuing debate, Matt makes some excellent points about how “as long as it is a pure expression of human emotion, it is, by definition, ‘art.’” What he doesn’t realize is that this isn’t the proper venue for this debate, and he’s pissing everyone off. Or, maybe more accurately, Matt doesn’t care. When a golf vacation in Ireland that the two other couples have agreed to bid on together comes up for auction, Matt listens as they talk about capping their bid at $100,000, watches as they sweat out a win that’s a little above their limit, then swoops in to take it from them with a bid of $200,000.

This, understandably, angers everyone, including Sarah, who asks that Matt give the vacation to the others, telling him, “That way, you can look like a hero and maybe, just maybe, go some ways toward looking like less of an asshole.” It’s Matt’s only way out and his only way to salvage his relationship with Sarah. So he takes it. Sort of. Matt demands that before he gives up the vacation, the others agree that what he does is as important as what they do.

They don’t. “People like movies,” Sarah says. “They don’t need movies. They need doctors.” Matt can’t or won’t admit the soundness of her argument. Walking away, he gets the news that the trailer has been accepted. Then he takes a tumble and, well, needs a doctor. The evening ends with everyone hating Matt and feeling no pity as he’s hauled away in an ambulance.

The episode ends as it began, with Matt serving up a cappuccino to an overnight guest. Except it’s not Sarah; it’s Leigh. They slept with each other, but they still don’t seem to like each other very much. But at least she’s seen all the MK Ultra movies.

And … Cut!

• Matt’s never been an entirely admirable character, but he’s rarely been as unsympathetic as he is in this episode. That has as much to do with a change of venue as any other factor. Not only is he operating way outside his comfort zone, he’s with people whose existence doubles as a reminder that what he does is kind of frivolous. His actions are indefensible (no matter how much he gives to charity), but they’re also kind of understandable. That can’t be a great feeling. Also, these people really don’t care about movies at all.

• If the fountain at the Wilshire Ebell had plaques for every movie filmed there it would need a much bigger fountain. That list includes Forrest Gump, Babylon, Cruel Intentions, Ghost, and many more, to say nothing of the many TV shows that have used it as a location.

• Alex Gregory, who wrote this episode, has a cameo as “Doctor.” Best guess is he’s the doctor who offers to help the injured Matt.

 Matt steps outside his Hollywood bubble and realizes how small and trivial his problems are.