Not a backstage film for the ages, but it manages to be a bit more useful than the vast bulk of its stablemates.
The TV Set (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:73
Fresh:47
Rotten:26
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: Offering both broad and insider jokes, The TV Set is a sharp satire that will please both the average moviegoers and pop culture aficionados.
Runtime: 87 mins
Genre: Television
Synopsis: Go to any bar in Hollywood and you're sure to find a hard-done-by writer who is drowning his or her sorrows after being chewed up and spat out by the network television system. In THE TV SET, Mike... Go to any bar in Hollywood and you're sure to find a hard-done-by writer who is drowning his or her sorrows after being chewed up and spat out by the network television system. In THE TV SET, Mike Klein (David Duchovny) seems set to join them. Klein's script for a TV show called THE WEXLER CHRONICLES was inspired by his brother's suicide, and is very close to his heart. After selling the script to PDN, who are headed by a fearsome executive simply known as Lenny (Sigourney Weaver), Klein watches as everything from the casting to the production goes horribly wrong. Klein has one buddy at the network, a Brit named Richard McCallister. McCallister's former position at the BBC leads Klein to believe that some quality control will be exerted over his project, and hopes McCallister will pull it out of the mire of mundanity that PDN thrives on. But he's very, very wrong, and as Klein's dream turns into dust--the show barely resembles anything he wrote--his health takes a turn for the worse and he enters mid-life-crisis mode. Duchovny and Weaver are outstanding in their roles, adding just the right balance of humor and anger to their characters. THE TV SET is ostensibly a comedy, but may make for painful viewing for anyone involved in the industry, or anyone who hates seeing dreams shattered. But director Jake Kasdan (ZERO EFFECT) manages to add a large dose of absurdity to the proceedings, saving it from being too depressing, and making many of the scenes a genuine hoot. [More]
Starring: David Duchovny, Sigourney Weaver, Ioan Gruffudd, Judy Greer
Starring: David Duchovny, Sigourney Weaver, Ioan Gruffudd, Judy Greer, Fran Kranz, Lindsay Sloane, Lucy Davis, Willie Garson, Justine Bateman
Director: Jake Kasdan
Director: Jake Kasdan
Screenwriter: Jake Kasdan
Producer: Aaron Ryder
Composer: Michael Andrews
Studio: ThinkFilm
Reviews for The TV Set
A facile but likable send-up of how things (don't) work in Hollywood.
Yes, it’s funny because it’s true. But it’s also sad for just the same reason.
... a well-acted and generally funny comedy that doesn't bog down in emotion even when it bogs down in its own plot.
The conclusion of Kasdan's snarky, low-budget glimpse behind the small screen is appropriately cynical. It's hard to be shocking or revelatory on this subject, yet it's made crystal clear we’re amusing ourselves to death.
An inside Hollywood comedy for people over whose head 30 Rock goes. Those people won't even understand that grammatical construction.
"The TV Set" feels a little underdone and half-realized, as if it were the pilot episode for a show that never got picked up for the fall season.
Various news stories have noted the movie's accuracy, which I don't doubt, but the blanket antipathy makes for a wearying and predictable story.
Kasdan wisely doesn't make this about the big, bad bosses vs. the creative geniuses who won't compromise. It's a well-balanced look at a process, which, from the outside seems arbitrary and convoluted, but from the inside makes sense.
It's interesting and funny and agonizing and illuminating to know what happens before you get that first annoying animated promo for a new show. For fans of: Undeclared, Studio 60.
Director Jake Kasdan's not-so-scathing satire of the slimy underbelly of television program development is neither funny enough nor biting enough to validate its overreaching goals.
While it's no 'Network,' this pic is frequently quite funny as a character study of people who decide what is chosen for prime time TV sitcoms.
A mostly lightweight endeavor that never builds any genuine emotional traction. And you have to wonder if it's just a little too 'inside' to resonate with a sizable audience.
This very inside but modestly amusing show-business satire doesn't seem too far-fetched or exaggerated.
While some of the gags may be a little too inside baseball, anyone who has seen Broadcast News or reads the occasional issue of 'Entertainment Weekly' will have no problem understanding and enjoying Kasdan's chomp on the hand that once fed him.
A somewhat cold and calculated film that apparently unconsciously exemplifies that which it intends to criticize.
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