People in show business will tell you: It takes just as much sweat, time and tears to make a bad movie as a good one. HBO’s “Project Greenlight,” produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, is proof.

The reality show, whose latest season ended on Sunday, is ostensibly about choosing the best rookie director to shoot the best possible original movie. It hasn’t produced a great film in three previous seasons (one on Bravo) and this year was no exception. But this season was still an absorbing look at who holds power in Hollywood, at the tense dance of art and business, and at how “best” is in the eye of the beholder.

In the most notorious scene of the season Mr. Damon clashed with Effie Brown — a veteran African-American producer whose movies include “Dear White People” — over diversity in hiring. Ms. Brown argued for considering someone besides a white male to direct, especially since the script they planned to shoot was about a man who marries a black prostitute.

Mr. Damon disagreed. “When we’re talking about diversity, you do it in the casting of the film, not in the casting of the show,” he said (as if the choice of director in Hollywood doesn’t affect the actors cast, the crew hired, the perspectives shown). “You want the best director.”