writtenbymkm-583-902097 POSSIBLE SMALL SPOILER -- I have to say, parts of this movie sort of dragged for me. I watched it again a while later, and actually wound up fast-forwarding through a few of the scenes with David Duchovny. It wasn't him, especially, it was more the writing, the scenes he was in, it just seemed to slow down the movie. But I want to say -- and this is my reason for writing this review at all -- I've never been a huge fan of Sigourney Weaver. I thought she was okay, just okay, in "Ghost Busters." I sort of liked her in "Alien." But in this movie, to me she is brilliant. She makes the movie. When she's on screen the movie is wonderful. I don't know her (unfortunately), I've never met her (I'd be nervous), so she's a total stranger to me, but I could watch her scenes in this movie over and over and over again, she's that good! The movie itself is another of these "they totally fu--ked up my film" movies (see, "The Big Picture," e.g.). But, despite the fact that I guess you're supposed to hate her character for ruining poor David's TV pilot, she's marvelous. I read somewhere that originally the character ("Lenny") was supposed to have been a guy -- whoever decided to make it Sigourney Weaver is a genius. P.S. Since this is supposed to be a review -- a TV writer (David Duchovny) finally writes a pilot that has a chance, but the execs change his basic premise to make it entertaining, and he's very depressed, The End. Forget that. Laugh out loud at the satire. And applaud Sigourney Weaver's incredibly smart and wonderful (and probably totally accurate) TV exec of all TV execs. B-minus for the movie, A-plus-plus-plus for Signourney Weaver!!!

rooprect This movie is for those of us sorry schmucks who have worked our hearts & brains to the bone, only to be told by some soulless corporate suit that our creative efforts are not required.What, me bitter?"The TV Set" is a great comedy/drama about a writer who realizes his 1 shot at success requires him to sell out to mediocrity. This paradox leads to some great acidic fun. The movie gets its power from a great script as could only be conceived by a person (writer/director Jake Kasdan) who has seen the spectacle in real life. It builds momentum through brilliant acting, as could only be pulled off by actors who've lived the nightmare in real life. Presented with moments of riotous satire (stick around after the credits to see a scene from the network's golden egg, "Slut Wars"), the humor is spot-on with great deadpan deliveries all around.I don't usually harp on a film's casting, but in this case it was flawless, from the smallest roles (loved the wardrobe lady!) all the way up to Sigourney Weaver as the "soulless suit" who massacres the script, much to the applause of her corporate toadies.INTERESTING TRIVIA: Sigourney's character "Lenny" was originally written for a man. But due to late scheduling problems they gave it to Sigourney. She insisted that no changes be made to her lines, and even the male name "Lenny" was kept. The result is possibly the funniest clueless exec you've ever seen. Pay attention to her, as almost every one if her lines is classic, such as: "This is not just an opinion here! We have the research from other shows. Suicide is, like, depressing to 82% of all people."Omg I had to rewind that one and play it again to get the laughs out.I will warn you, though, I wouldn't call this "uproarious" the way the DVD box advertises (I'm sure some corporate suit came up with that marketing angle). No, like any good satire, its power is in subtlety. No wisecracking punchlines, no slapstick pratfalls, no fart gags. Well OK, 1 fart gag, but you'll agree it really punctuates the point.Jake Kasdan, himself a veteran of many ill-fated TV pilots, gives us a film that very few can claim to be: an honest & mercilessly uncompromising joyride til the end. It reminded me of the brilliant Christopher Guest satires of the entertainment industry: "Waiting for Guffman", "For Your Consideration", "Best in Show", and the king of them all: "This is Spinal Tap".

MBunge 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.

disdressed12 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