The TV Set (2007)

You won't be disappointed!

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

or at least as small apart of it.namely,what it takes to get a script for a TV show to the the pilot stage and beyond.it focuses on one network and one man who pitches his idea to them.one of the network big wigs(Sigourney Weaver)is full of herself and always manages to make things about her.Weaver is brilliant here.David Duchovny plays the writer hoping to get his script picked up.he leaves the character of Fox Mulder in the dust,proving he is no one trick pony.Justine Bateman is almost unrecognizable as his put upon wife.all in all,this is a very clever work,which pokes fun at the television industry and how stupid,plastic and shallow many of the people(mostly the corporate types)behind the scenes are.for me,The TV Set is a 6/10

I can always tell if i like a movie if I never look at my watch while I'm watching it and I'm genuinely disappointed when it ends and that was the case here. David Duchovny was well cast as the writer of a book/screenplay seeing first hand that the transition from paper to TV screen is never a smooth one. This had just the right level of angst and flakiness which you can imagine would be so typical at a network studio level. In some ways, the movie reminded me of office space, with sigourney weaver being the gary cole character, always avoiding confrontation but never letting get duchovny get his way but doing it in such a way that you could never shout at her. Everything in this movie was done with great subtlety which is a very underestimated skill and Kasdan jr should take credit for never letting this descend into schmaltz and silliness. I would have loved to have seen what would have happened to the show after a few more episodes and seen how much of duchovny's creation would have been bastardized further by the network but as it is, you're left wanting more which is a good way to end any movie.

Producer and screenwriter Mike Klein(David Duchovny,whose dry,stoic demeanor actually serves him even BETTER for comedy than drama)has decided to pour part of his life story into a script and a project for a TV series. Through about four months and plenty of experience with executives,test groups,agents,directors,crew and actors,he will most certainly come to regret that.Over that period of time,Mike watches in various shades of horror,disbelief,disappointment and despair as the personal story of his brother's suicide and how it affect his life turn into a sterilized,sexied-up and contrived network "ratings-getter". All the while,he's soft-pedaled by his loyal but woefully superficial agent(Judy Greer,who gets plenty of chance to shine here),put off by an oblivious director(Willie GArson)and getting his project raped by a team of network air-suckers led by a guile-as-natural-as-breathing chief of programming(Sigourney Weaver). Director Jake KAsdan dials it down from previous effort--more from the unexpectedly poignant "Orange County" than the dry,strange and sharp "Zero Effect"--to make a film that is wryly documenting the degradation of dreams,ideas and creativity in favor of ratings and profit. The complaints of this show that I've been reading have been two things mostly: pacing and Ducovny's acting. On the first count,I'd say the pacing was intentionally set to show how the creative process can die a slow and painful death due to plenty of "committee". As for Ducovny,well,he is what he is. Take it or leave it. As said before,he seems to work better for comedy since he doesn't feel the need to EVER punch up the lines,and to me,comedy is much better when the actors involved AREN'T trying to hit the marks. The best performances here were probably by Greer,Justine BAteman(as NAtalie,Mike's very pregnant,very patient,no-nonsense wife),Ioan Gruffudd(spelling?)(as the British producer who senses that he's losing control of both his personal AND private lives),Lindsay Sloan(as a vain,in-sincere hot,young actress. I know,I know...is there any other kind?)and Fran Kranz(as the over/under-acting douche who's letting his modest success get to his head). I'd be lying if I said this film was of superior quality,of course. My main(or chief)complaint is that this film is done at such an economy of information and plot that one might think that writer/director KAsdan was under a time and money constraint to make this show go into the can. I won't spoil the ending,but it feels like it was almost MADE to create a level of Love-it-or-Hate-it debate among viewers. Overall,this film does what it sets out to do,which is namely to offer an acidic,subtle(perhaps a little TOO much so)and funny account of the "creation" process of television. It may go over some heads,and it certainly isn't a perfect concoction,but it worked for me. Of course,it didn't do any favors for MY ambitions of creating a TV show(or movie for that matter),but I suppose it should be more of a cautionary tale than preventive. I sure hope so,anyway.

Great little indie comedy depicting just how difficult it is to make decent television. Being the medium that reaches the most people in the United States, it only makes sense that everything gets reduced to the lowest common denominator. David Duchovny plays a writer with a well-liked script that's going into the pilot process. His chief rival: his own producer, played by Sigourney Weaver, who thinks Duchovny's choice of lead actor is too subtle, and wonders aloud "What if the brother didn't commit suicide." Because, you know, "suicide is depressing to 82% of all people." Weaver's character, Lenny, is the film's greatest creation. After Anton Chigur in No Country for Old Men, Lenny is the scariest villain of 2007. The difference is, if you meet Anton Chigur, you're likely to get blown to bits, where if you meet Lenny, your brain is likely to get sanded down to a shiny stone. The funny thing is, though you're viewing Lenny from Duchovny's perspective and think of her as the villain, the truth is she's just a savvy businesswoman. Her logic seems insane, but in this business, it's entirely sound. My favorite observance: "She doesn't let her cuteness get in the way of her hotness." The film is hilarious, and well performed by the ensemble. I especially like Judy Greer, who plays Duchovny's manager. Now she's a an actress who doesn't let her cuteness get in the way of her hotness.