Customer Reviews

The TV Set

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an airless, somewhat smug, fatally mild-mannered satire about the production process behind a doomed television drama. Duchovny plays a writer/producer whose autobiographical show is, bit by bit, compromised by Weaver's executive -- the casting, the tone, the plot and even the title are all eventually distorted by a suit who takes demographic readings from her teenage daughter.

This war between artistry and commerce isn't exactly breaking news, and in fact it was already tackled years ago by the smarter, funnier "The Big Picture."

"The TV Set" is pitched too loose. Though he has plenty of opportunities, Duchovny's character never really articulates any kind of vision, and the film loses a lot of tension because the story he wants to tell really doesn't look much better than the compromised version. Even when the final version of the show appears, he seems more angry over its implied failure than he does over the loss of his vision.

Ioan Gruffudd plays a supposedly ingenious BBC executive lured to America who seems to have Duchovny's back but he, too, never asserts himself in a realistic way -- his character seems like an incomplete thought, as does the go-nowhere failed courtship/feuding between the show's two leads. And Weaver's lines are all on-the-nose jabs at a corporate mentality ("Original kind of scares me," she says, surprisingly without the accompaniment of a rim-shot).

What's up with Kasdan? He made the wonderful "Zero Effect" followed by the sort of cynical teen comedy "Orange County" which wasn't nearly as funny as the films that inspired it. But I miss the wit and imagination that I thought "Zero" offered a promise of. Those qualities certainly don't arrive in "The TV Set."

One ammendment to my 2-star review: There's a commentary track on this disc between Kasdan and Judd Apatow that, to my mind, is far more enjoyable than the movie itself. They don't talk a lot about what's going on on-screen, but spend more time discussing the television work they've done that inspired the movie -- "Freaks and Geeks," "Undeclared," "Larry Sanders," "The Ben Stiller Show." I give that commentary 4 stars. Well worth listening to.

What to spend a couple of hours in the depths of the LA TV show development process (and its attendant dramas?). Well then TV Set might just be for you.

Engaging performances from Sigourney Weaver (whose father was a network exec so the role must have been interesting) and David Duchovny (as the put upon writer producer); genuine feeling of the real process; but at the end of the day this story is just not a big story and the characters aren't that memorable. It just does not capture the most important moment in anyone's life or provide any insights into them or our culture that are particularly profound. So it winds up being a middling sort of entertainment. Funny, but not super funny; kind of dramatic without being really moving. Insightful, but not in a super profound or memorable way. Sigourney Weaver is kind of like a slightly less amazing version of Faye Dunaway in Network.

Kasdan's Orange County was definitely better.

If you like this you might also like Christopher Guest's "For Your Consideration" or HBO's "Entourage".

Even though the movie's conscience, no matter how tattered, is carried by the well-intentioned characters played by David Duchovny and Ioan Gruffudd, it is Sigourney Weaver who easily steals this 2007 television industry satire as Lenny, the Machiavellian head of a struggling network. With her natural authority and scathing wit, she goes back to lacerating Working Girl mode and makes Lenny the complete embodiment of the decline of commercial television with her mantra, "Originality scares me." Acerbically written and directed by Jake Kasdan, Lawrence's older son and a TV insider himself, the film focuses specifically on the development of one sitcom pilot from its casting to the show's presentation to the network affiliates. Its creator is Mike Klein, a seasoned TV writer whose brother's suicide inspired him toward his autobiographical concept.

The story's scope is brief compared to what Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chavefsky already covered with visceral aplomb thirty years ago with the brilliant Network, but Kasdan treads familiar subject matter here. The interactions between Mike and the network suits, in particular, Lenny, are funny, but they begin to get repetitive as the plot meanders toward a rather abrupt conclusion. The other shortcoming is the erratic shift in the movie's perspective between Mike and Richard McCallister, a BBC-imported programming whiz who sympathizes with Mike but finds himself inextricably tangled with network politics. Both Duchovny and Gruffudd are fine in their rather curtailed roles, and there is a smart supporting cast that helps to propel the slim plot - Judy Greer as Mike's perpetually waffling manager, Justine Bateman as his grounded wife, Fran Kranz changing from doofus to egomaniac as the sitcom lead, Lindsay Sloane as the increasingly savvy ingénue, and Andrea Martin in a funny bit as a cynical costumer.

The film's wry tone reminds me of Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration, though Guest cuts a broader and deeper swath on the entertainment industry. Kasdan presents a more insular world in this movie, and the result feels less than resonant to the casual viewer. The 2007 DVD boasts two commentary tracks, which seems excessive for something so small-scale - the first is with Kasdan, Duchovny, Sloane and producer Aaron Ryder about the details of the production and the second again with Kasdan but with executive producer Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up) to discuss more of what inspired the film itself. A deleted scene is included as well as a brief making-of featurette.

A witty satire of what transpires when creative ideals clash with the mind-numbing industry of Hollywood production studios, "The TV Set" boasts a wealth of ironic comedy, relevant social commentary and dead-on acting. Marking filmmaker Jake Kasdan's first outing as both writer and director since 1998's excellent "Zero Point," the film is now available on DVD after a limited theatrical run last spring. Judd Apatow, who has produced many box office smashes as of late ("Superbad," "The-40-Year-Old Virgin)" serves as executive producer.

Mike (David Duchovny) is an aspiring TV writer who has paid his dues and finally has his pilot, "The Wexler Chronicles," up for serious consideration. However, there are roadblocks along the way, and most of them stem from Lenny (Sigourney Weaver), a network president who relentlessly streamlines his heartfelt, character-driven program to maximize its mainstream appeal (read: dumb it down) because, as she puts it, "original scares me a little."

On the sidelines are many people with their own specific agendas. Richard McAllister (Ioan Gruffudd), Lenny's top underling flown in from Britain due to his involvement in smash UK series, does his best to find compromise between his obsessive boss and Mike's deep-seated creativity, even if it means that he has no time whatsoever for his family. Further muddying the waters, Mike's assistant Alice (Judy Greer) is always finds a way to put a positive twist on every awful piece of news she delivers him, one of which is Lenny's mandate that Zach Harper (Fran Kranz) play the eponymous protagonist in favor of an immeasurably better actor simply because the boardroom brass all agree that their teenage daughters "will love him."

Elsewhere, Harper harasses his co-star Laurel Simon (Lindsay Sloane) while Mike's wife Natalie (Justine Bateman) pressures him to accept Lenny's provisions - after all, they have a baby on the way! Add in an overzealous production crew and a child extra who absolutely must have his scenes filmed by the end of the afternoon and the kettle is set to boil over.

Duchovny does a fine job of embodying the vast sensitivity that is par for the course in dedicated, feeling writers, making the tension in his scenes with Weaver go beyond piercing. Behind each others' backs he loathes her bloodsucking ways and she dismisses him as corny and "too blue state," but when they're together McAllister and Judy always show up to keep things going like clockwork.

"This is very personal to me because my brother killed himself," Mike says in defense of his initial idea for the show. "That's where all this came from, and the suicide, to me, has always been kind of the premise for everything that happens."

"I know," says Lenny, "but let's just think about it for a second. What if it weren't?"

Christopher Guest's "For Your Consideration" from late last year, which similarly satirized the film industry, delivered raucous belly laughs hand over fist, while "The TV Set" is much more tongue-in-cheek. However, Weaver's absolutely perfect performance is reason alone to rent it. A no-holds-barred businesswoman with a one-track mind, Lenny has all the best lines:

"I think that Jessie has fake breasts," she says after an audition, "and I believe that over the life of the series the audience can feel that."

Kasdan does a first-rate job all-around because even throughout a fast-paced 88 minutes he manages to craft depth and dimension in even the smallest of characters, including McAllister's wife Chloe (Lucy Davis), whose full-on sadness bounces off the screen in her few precious scenes, providing context throughout the film. The result is a satisfying movie with storylines that intertwine flawlessly.

"The TV Set" is indeed a fine, original film, so it wouldn't make it on Lenny's lineup - not with shows like "Slut Wars" ever in demand. Now that it's on DVD, it can make it on yours.

The TV Set is a satire of television that wants to be the next Network (Two-Disc Special Edition) but opts for a much more laid-back approach. The film shows the inner workings of the T.V. industry and how a pilot episode is pitched, then produced, and, in this case, ruined.

The TV Set makes the very valid point that the networks care less about creativity and more about stroking egos. Anything that deviates from tried and true formula is questioned. This film seems to say that sex and broad comedy is what people, for the most part, want to see on T.V. - hardly a revelation. Making a T.V. show is often a series of compromises and it's a miracle that anything decent ever makes it on the air. The TV Set shows the physical and emotional toll the process takes on people, adopting a very low-key tone (that is sometimes so low-key, it's non-existent), quietly making its points. It is most definitely not a bad film, just not a very dynamic one either.

There is an audio commentary by director Jake Kasdan, actors David Duchovny and Lindsay Sloane, and producer Aaron Ryder. They all joke and banter with Duchovny's dry, deadpanned jokes being a real treat. Everyone recounts filming anecdotes in this fun, loose track.

Also included is a commentary with Kasdan and executive producer Judd Apatow. They talk about the nuts and bolts of making a T.V. show and recount some of their experiences working on shows like Freaks and Geeks - The Complete Series and Undeclared - The Complete Series. Clearly their experiences working in T.V. were fodder for the characters and content in the film. This is a funny, insightful track.

"The Making of The TV Set" is an above average electronic press kit. Kasdan started off in T.V. making pilot episodes for shows that never got picked up.

Finally, there is one deleted scene that spoofs the popularity of lawyer and medical dramas - the main competition for Mike's new show.

Having worked in network television production at two separate studios, I have to say that The TV Set is far too close to reality to be at all comfortable. From the way a show is cast to the way it is shot to the way it is promoted, I am surprised that this got produced, let alone aired.

No, it is not Network, but Paddy Chayefsky is no longer with us either. From the sleazy to the smarmy, from the desperate to the despicable, from the manic to the mediocre, this shows them all in a quick slice of Hollywood. The unending compromises and dilutions that happen to produce the filler for television advertising is what you've got right here.

***1/2

Diehard fans of network television are sure to get a kick out of "The TV Set," a rib-tickling parody about the making (and possible unmaking) of a TV pilot. Mike Klein (David Duchovny) is the writer who has high hopes for his new dark comedy series entitled "The Wexley Chronicles" - until, that is, he sees the purity of his artistic vision becoming increasingly compromised the longer the filming goes on. Klein views his creation as a cutting-edge mixture of comedy and tragedy, but the powers-that-be seem to have their own concept of where it ought to be heading (i.e., the tragedy is too depressing and the comedy needs to be kicked up a notch or two if the show is to have any chance of achieving broad popular appeal). The foremost liability is that, against his better judgment and strenuous protestations, Klein has been saddled with an actor, Zach Harper, who's a scenery-chewing ham if ever there was one (whom, naturally, the show`s ham-fisted producers feel is just perfect for the role). In short, Klein finds his work being undermined and sabotaged every step of the way by bottom-line corporate executives, intrusive producers, sycophantic underlings, temperamental performers, fence-sitting decision-makers, knob-turning test-audiences, and even a pregnant wife who, though supportive of Klein's vision, keeps insisting he hang in there for the sake of the baby on the way.

"The TV Set" succeeds primarily because it has been conceived more as a gentle spoof than as a full-throttled, rip-everything-to-shreds farce. As such, it resists the temptation to go more broad and over-the-top than it needs to in its comedy, thereby allowing us to relate more fully with the characters. Basing the film in part on some of his own personal experiences in the business, writer/director Jake Kasdan has written a sly script filled with subtle humor, laugh-out-loud moments and cunning insight into all the behind-the-scenes compromising that goes into the making of a TV show.

The film is further buoyed by its sharp and delightful cast, consisting of Duchovny (his face all but buried under a bushy beard), Ioan Gruffudd, Judy Greer, Fran Kranz, Lindsay Sloane, Justine Bateman and Philip Baker Hall. Sigourney Weaver deserves special recognition for her juicy turn as the producer whose ratings-driven ruthlessness is barely hidden beneath a thin veneer of faux caring and sweetness (think of this as a somewhat toned-down version of Faye Dunaway`s character in "Network").

"The TV Set" makes it clear that's it's hard for any artist to keep true to his principles in a cutthroat industry where business generally comes ahead of art, and where the lowest-common denominator often serves as the sole criterion for deciding which series will be green-lighted and which will be stopped dead in their tracks. But it does so in such a lighthearted, tweaking sort of way that it prevents any potential bitterness or rancor from slipping into the tone.

The best advice the film's hero, an aggravated writer (David Duchovny) trying to protect an original and meaningful television pilot, receives is from a cinematographer, who perhaps speaks from experience: "I know this seems really important right now, but someday it will just be a blip." The scene occurs as a minor meeting between the two men -- this seemingly innocuous piece of dialog is the heart and soul of "The TV Set," a gentle satire of Network TV and a nimble drama about surviving both as an artist and provider-of-family.

Duchovny plays the role of the articulate writer perfectly: although this time, he disappears into his character (behind that beard) and wisely trades the deadpan sarcasm (he is wont to emote) for subtle irony. We absolutely accept him as a happily-married writer struggling to confront his brother's suicide by writing a TV pilot the Network sharks are itching to foul; they see top ratings, while he sees the show's integrity as his only chance to exorcise demons of the past.

"The TV Set" is a refreshing film because it relies on the subtlety of dialog and the careful building-up of characters for its narrative -- sure, there are villains here (Sigourney Weaver playing a ball-busting Network exec whose litmus test for quality is what her 14-year-old daughter thinks), and despite their promises of forthrightness, the risk they pose is real: they mean to corrupt artistic genius. Ioan Gruffudd is also excellent as the Network's creative director brought in from England to ensure quality. One of the greatest accomplishments of "The TV Set" is how his character slowly submits to the lure of power and greed; this transformation is handled with naturalism, and parallels in its contrast to the Duchovny character's own situation at home.

Jake Kasdan, who wrote and directed, adroitly channels personal experiences in the cutthroat TV industry (he and producer Judd Apatow created "Freaks and Geeks," canceled after first season). The result is a smart, fascinating dramedy about persevering through the sheer joy and pain of 'the creative process.

"The TV Set" ends beautifully, the only way it could. A criminally underrated gem from 2007.

This was a bit dull in spots and it seemed like it was trying too hard. However, this was a dark satire and I did laugh at times. The Lennie character is great...I liked her because she acted in the way that society says women are not supposed to act and that made the things she said/did even funnier. This show portrayed the truth about the entertainment industry and the foolish bureaucracy behind it.

The TV Set

I really enjoyed this movie, it's something a little different.
All the actor's Duchovny, Weaver, Griffiths et al are all on top form.
The actor's commentary is very funny and interesting.
I would recommend this DVD.