Customer Reviews

Open Season [VHS]

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Robert Wuhl stars in this pungent comedy which is also scripted and directed by him, and few sacred cows of any shapes or sizes remain safe as he casts himself as Stuart Sain, a somewhat naive tour guide for the Fielding Ratings Service, which tracks the television viewing habits of specially chosen American population segments and where a computer malfunction has caused a cellar-dwelling public broadcasting station to fallaciously leapfrog to the top of the rankings. Wuhl serves up an effective pastiche, rather than satire, of the television industry and its program selection process, as well as of a large grouping of liberal archetypes, including the vocation of drug rehabilitation, pertinent as Stuart's wife Cary, played nicely by Maggie Han, is a rehab counselor, while also relentlessly taking aim at organized religion. Although a fair amount of the humour is rather tasteless, and repeated looks at a targeted subject generally fall flatly, Wuhl's main concern is hypocrisy, and his wit is often enough on the mark to make of the work a pleasing affair; it is well-edited, with an enlivening score by Marvin Hamlisch, and a fine performance is provided by Gailard Sartain as the mandarin of the largest commercial network.

Usually this type of comedy is right up my alley. I tend to like edgy satires of real events or situations. However, this Robert Wuhl ego trip of a movie is superficial and extremely unfunny.

"Open Season" is a film written by Robert Wuhl, directed by Robert Wuhl and has Robert Wuhl as its main star. Too bad he doesn't have the talent to take on all of those roles.

The story is silly and looks as if very little thought went into the details. Supposedly, the mishandling of some television ratings boxes causes them to function improperly. These boxes register that viewers are watching Public Broadcasting instead of the usual network fare. The fact that Public Broadcasting is the number one rated network causes society to become more interested in books, the arts and culture. It also causes a lot of problems at the GPN network, which had previously been number one for nine consecutive seasons. They try and figure out what is going on. Funny concept...huh?

Everyone at the Public Broadcasting station is presented as a bunch of tofu munching, whale saving elitists. Everyone at the GPN network is presented as catering to the lowest common denominator at whatever cost. The targets are too obvious and the jabs made at them seem juvenile.

There was a good idea somewhere in the developmental stage, but the execution is terrible. Perhaps a very funny movie can be made about the little underdogs over at PBS, who try to take the cultural high road at the expense of getting good ratings. However, "Open Season" doesn't give that idea the presentation it deserves.