The TV Set (2007)

The TV Set wants to tell us what's wrong with television, but the tone and substance of the film never rises above a snarky whine.The story follows a writer (David Duchovny) who's trying to sell his show to a network. Things start in a conference room full of suits, deciding who's going to star in the show, moves through shooting the pilot and concludes at the grand unveiling of the network's new schedule in front of a convention hall full of network affiliates. Writer/Director Jake Hasdan thinks he's showing us how talented people end up making terrible shows, but he's not fair and honest enough to do that.Hasdan wants people to see David Duchovny as this talented guy with a great script battling to protect it from self-indulgent actors and directors and a network executive (Sigourney Weaver) who is relentlessly trying to dumb the show down and tear out its creative soul. The problem is that while we see a lot of terrible changes made to it, we never get to see the supposedly great show being butchered. It's a sitcom that we're told is smart and funny and touching, but we never get to see any of the smart, funny stuff and the touching scenes we see are straight out of a daytime soap opera. The movie is essentially a scam that wants to make fun of all the stupid, nonsensical stuff that happens to create bad TV without showing us what good TV actually is. It never rises much above mildly amusing because the punch lines are almost all based on the contrast between the silly and shallow ideas of the network executives and the smart and worthwhile ideas of the writer. But since we never get to see the writer's great ideas, the contrast is weak and so is the humor.I must say, if Weaver's performance is at all close to the real thing, you do get a sense of sympathy for people in television. She's got no real taste at all and relies on her teenage daughter to tell her what's good, but is entirely convinced that things should be done her way and holds the success and failure of others completely in her own hands. The TV Set portrays working in television like it's living in a totalitarian state, where standing up against the powers that be requires heroic courage and a willingness to suffer.The film also comes at the good TV vs. bad TV from another perspective. Ione Gruffud plays a former BBC executive who's been hired by the network to improve the quality of their shows. The movie briefly uses him to embody a different approach to television, one with more high-minded goals and more respect for the creative process. But he soon knuckles under and goes along with Weaver's crude, lowest-common-denominator style and the movie never really explains why.That's because the story scrupulously avoids examining the true root of all TV evil…money. Why do network executives make so many idiotic suggestions and force writers and producers to accept them? It's because creating a television show is hugely expensive and overwhelmingly ends in failure. A network might introduce 10 or 12 new shows a year, each costing millions of dollars an episode. Yet, if the network is lucky, one and only one show might be a hit and maybe another one or two will grab enough audience to barely keep them on the air. The rest are quickly canceled and all the money spent on them is wasted, like it was shoveled into a hole or used to light someone's cigar. Kasdan never comes close to confronting this basic equation - enormous amount of money spent + huge likelihood of failure = a desperate compulsion to do anything that might increase the chance of success to the slightest degree.Without acknowledging that basic truth, Kasdan can't really tell the story he thinks he wants to tell. What's he's created is a mild satire that's neither dark enough or truthful enough to appeal to anyone who doesn't work in television and hasn't experienced the process firsthand.The film does also focus on the young actors who get cast to star in Duchovny's show and tries to show the pressures put on them and how it can turn them into not very pleasant people but again, it's not funny or sharp enough unless you've personally witnessed that sort of metamorphosis.The TV Set is a movie about television, but you get the sense that if Kasdan had been more successful in television (and Duchovny had been more successful in movies) that it would never have been made. This is filmmaking in lieu of therapy.

I really liked the idea for this movie, cast was great (especially David Duchovny and Judy Greer), but when I was expecting the plot to move in the most interesting parts of the TV series production suddenly the end titles showed up..."The TV Set" is really good project, but unfortunately the creators have only highlighted the process and left a lot of comic potential untouched. I know there is the rule "always leave them hungry", but in this one they've left me starving :)But above all this it worth watching movie, especially if you want to find out how your favorite TV series were created.

Ah, another example of everything that is wrong with Hollywood. Garbage script gets "star treatment" and the go-ahead from the big kahunas. Next it is on to the marketing machine. The result? Why, two thumbs up of course!!! Let's put it this way: I picked up the phone and made an appointment with my dentist while watching this movie. One thing just reminded me of the other I guess.Boring subject matter. Right up there with "Watching paint dry" and "Trading Spaces: They Hated It".Fake characters. Too many swear words. Some movies choose their one magic F bomb with care; this one fires them out like farts from a teenager.For David D. fans, save yourself an aneurism and fire up "House of D" again. Sigourney fans, you're on your own, I've never cared for her. Wait, what about "Working Girl"! Of course, there is a soccer game scene, but no fair asking for the final score. You'll just have to rush on over to Blockbuster to find out.

Not living in the US, I know little of how the selection process goes for TV series and in which way this shapes up the yearly crop, but even so, I dare my imagination to go in all those places and the stories it tells me are not truly exciting.Moving on from Orange County, a nice comedy which is nothing more than that, director Jake Kasdan achieves a film that is - like the pilot it portrays - not so much a comedy in its essence, but a comedy out of necessity. The plot is uncomplicated, as it revolves around a writer, his pilot and all ensuing experiences. Often enough, it is themed as a clash between idealism and realism, without being very subtle about it. I don't see it as an "insider" movie so much as it is a movie about TV addiction and the standards this imposes, and while it doesn't go to the level of The Player, it still remains a thoroughly enjoyable watch.There isn't really much to say, except that it's always nice to see familiar faces again , especially if they're in as good of a shape as Sigourney Weaver or David Duchovny. While Weaver has been taking up roles that still seem to feed off some of that Alien nastiness everyone liked so much, Duchovny has been trying to shape up with small comedies and the sort - of late, his new series Californication has him exploring a more familiar runway. Ironically enough, the film works exactly because it has this star power behind it to compensate for the lack of edge the script "provides". As is well said, "Original scares me a little. You don't wanna be too original.".Give it a shot!