At its best, The TV Set is wry and even laugh-out-loud funny about the messy tangle of art, commerce and family, as talented creative types try to stay true to themselves and put food on the table.
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.
Theatrical Release:Apr 6, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $34,531
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
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Reviews for The TV Set
Very smart, very funny movie about the making of a network sitcom is a cut-glass gem of a showbiz conceit.
A clever satire on the dynamics of prime-time television in America with its sleazy programs and its slavery to ratings and ad dollars.
Kasdan should have the expertise to write a backstage exposé of the TV industry. This one simply isn't funny.
The TV Set, about the Hollywood cultural miasma called “pilot season," is the kind of sharp, satirical picture of show business as no business that so badly missed the mark in For Your Consideration.
An eye-opening satire which makes a powerful statement about television's tendency towards very calculated, mass manipulation.
It’s deftly calibrated and acted with relish: [writer-director] Kasdan is really good!
A familiar satire of the entertainment industry, the film is enlivened by some sharp observations and good acting (Sigourney Weaver) about this cutthroat milieu, but helmer Kasdan can't resist taking some easy shots at the banality of American network TV
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.
What with its utter lack of passion, it's difficult to say if the film wants to be taken as satire, but if it does then this one counts as a toothless dog.
[Kasdan's] execution can sometimes be laugh-out-loud clever... It isn't broad enough to expose why most programming is condescendingly terrible, but the cast is genuinely funny...
Kasdan, a TV industry veteran, knows his territory well and has translated his experiences with an obvious verisimilitude. But for all the dead-on accuracy of his characterizations and situations, there is little that is terribly surprising here.
An insider pic likely to produce a few knowing guffaws from the industry but only occasional chuckles from John Q. Public.
Wavering between dark humor and the anguish of the creative soul, this look at the self-destructive TV industry never quite gets at either.
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