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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
An all-star cast bites the hand that feeds them in The TV Set, a sneaky satire of network programming. As a writer named Mike (David Duchovny, The X-Files) struggles to shepherd his semi-autobiographical sitcom into development, his vision--of a guy who's brought back to his home town by his brother's suicide and rediscovers his joy in life--is slowly eroded by a domineering network executive named Lenny (Sigourney Weaver, Aliens) who favors trashy reality programming like Slut Wars. The rub, of course, is that every crass suggestion Lenny makes improves the show's response from test audiences and brings the show a step closer to getting on the air. Almost everyone in The TV Set has connections to television--Judy Greer (Arrested Development), Justine Bateman (Family Ties), Ioan Gruffudd (the Horatio Hornblower TV-movies), Lucy Davis (the original British version of The Office)--and so have a keen grasp on the behavior and lingo of the media industry. Sometimes the satire is so close to the naked reality of TV development that it isn't even funny--but Weaver (whose own father was a television producer) gives an inspired performance that skirts truth and satire so adroitly it makes your skin tingle. --Bret Fetzer
Product Description
An insightful and fast-moving comic look at the world of network television development. The story follows a TV pilot as it goes through the network TV process of casting, production, and finally airing, while showing that there is as much entertainment behind the cameras as there is in front.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Clare Quilty
Format:DVD
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.
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Mike Klein (David Duchovny) has written a sit-com based on his own life. He claims to have artistic integrity and doesn't want to be "part of the problem" with the substandard shows on TV. Once it looks like his show is going to be picked up, the network wants to make changes to his story. Mike is torn between his artistic integrity and his real life pregnant wife. Sigourney Weaver gives us another good performance as an alpha female and Ioan Gruffudd does a pretty good British guy in spite of a lackluster script.
The pilot they are attempting to get picked up is pretty bad. It is not funny yet people laugh at it as if it was. The film dwells on a scene until ad nauseum. There are scenes that look like they might explode and go somewhere, by then die as if they never happened. Perhaps that was the intent, but it wasn't entertaining. 2 1/2 stars. Mildly amusing.
PARENTAL GUIDE: F-bomb, no sex, no nudity.
The pilot they are attempting to get picked up is pretty bad. It is not funny yet people laugh at it as if it was. The film dwells on a scene until ad nauseum. There are scenes that look like they might explode and go somewhere, by then die as if they never happened. Perhaps that was the intent, but it wasn't entertaining. 2 1/2 stars. Mildly amusing.
PARENTAL GUIDE: F-bomb, no sex, no nudity.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By R P
Format:Amazon Instant Video|Amazon Verified Purchase
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".
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".
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Film where the actors themseves probably had some real-life feeling...
"The TV Set" is a film that im sure alot of young (and old) writers can relate to. David Duchovny himself has probably had some real-life feelings connected to this film, due to... Read more
Published on May 12, 2010 by zck7592
2.0 out of 5 stars
When Writers Whine
Do you love hearing television writers complaining about their vision being compromised? Is the best part of any DVD commentary track the part where the writer and producer... Read more
Published on December 28, 2009 by Rac A. Powsky
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bland, with script that contradicts its thesis
As other reviews have pointed out, not only is there nothing here that hasn't appeared in hundreds of similar takes on making movies/TV, there is nothing fresh nor involving. Read more
Published on June 22, 2009 by Douglas B. Moran
4.0 out of 5 stars
DVD "TV Set"
Item arrived on time. In just okay shape, but was advertised as used. I've purchased other used items that were in better shape, but it was okay. Story pretty silly.
Published on April 14, 2009 by MV Gurl
3.0 out of 5 stars
The TV Set
This movie is watchable only because of David Duchovny. The plot is satirical but I found it more sad than funny. Read more
Published on March 11, 2009 by Southern Belle
2.0 out of 5 stars
Axe grinding makes for bad viewing
Mike Klein's (David Duchovny) television pilot has been given the green light for production. However, the "few small changes" he has to make in order to keep the network... Read more
Published on January 10, 2009 by Genevieve Hayes
4.0 out of 5 stars
Too Close For Comfort
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. Read more
Published on August 19, 2008 by L. T. Ellis
3.0 out of 5 stars
Knowing spoof of the TV Biz
***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. Read more
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. Read more
Published on July 11, 2008 by Roland E. Zwick
5.0 out of 5 stars
Criminally underrated
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... Read more
Published on January 24, 2008 by Adnan Khan
3.0 out of 5 stars
So So
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... Read more
Published on December 28, 2007 by Ashley Simmons
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