The TV Set

The TV Set ***1/2

Directed by Jake Kasdan
Written by Jake Kasdan

Starring
David Duchovny as Mike
Sigourney Weaver as Lenny
Ioan Gruffudd as Richard McAllister
Judy Greer as Alice
Fran Kranz as Zach Harper
Lindsay Sloane as Laurel Simon

87 Minutes(Rated R for language.)
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"The TV Set" is a well written, smart, and very funny satire on the television industry, and the entire method it goes through to get a pilot on the air, or even just made. We have all been through it. Watching television on the new season, where a bunch of new shows are about to be aired. And in the end, how many of those new shows even make it to a second season? Hell, how many of them even make it to a tenth episode. I for sure can think of a lot of shows that were excellent but cancelled way before they should have been. Well, the opening titles of "The TV Set" claim that there is even a greater amount of shows that end up having a pilot filmed, but then is not picked up for distribution later on and it never sees the light of day. "The TV Set" focuses one of the shows that could possibly be picked up by the Panda Network-"The Wexler Chronicles."

David Duchovny continues to prove that he is one of the most underrated actors around in an incredibly subdued and subtle performance as Mike, the creator and writer of "The Wexler Chronicles." Mike is very happy to be writing a comedy show, and it is very personal to him. On the show, the main character is driven because of the sucide of his brother, which ties into Mike's life as his brother actually did kill himself. The script has been picked up for a pilot, and the networks are preparing to cast. Mike has the perfect person in mind for the lead character, but is immediately shunned by Lenny, the head of the network who would rather have the loud and obnoxious Zach at the helm. After casting Laurel, his love interest on the show, Mike begins to film his pilot, and finds that Lenny is harder to get rid of than he thought. Lenny begins to question the entire basis of the story-Does the brother really have to kill himself? It's too depressing. . . Mike has inner struggle-he does have a wife and a kid and then a second kid on the way which he'll need to support. But at the same time he doesn't want his original vision to be mixed and mangled with the ideas of mediocrity. Does he really want his show tarnished and destroyed by the networks who only care about ratings, and not about the heart and soul that he put into his work? He is often stood up by Richard McAllister, a man that the networks hired from England to come and organize the schedule and help with pilots, but he finds himself less interested in work when his wife and kid walk out on him.

"The TV Set" may seem like an obvious satire-it can't be very hard to poke fun at what is on television nowadays. But it ended up being an extremely smart and witty one, and one which I enjoyed throughout. There is kind of a "documentary" feel through this, especially as we are following the process of which shows are made. The camera work is shaky, and feels as if you are actually in the room with them, making this very much like "The Office" at times. It's message is quite clear, and it is one that you could pin point even before you see the film. But its the truth-the sad and bitter truth. There is hardly anything ever constructive or unique on a basic cable channel, and the real good television is only on pay television or even "upper cable TV-." there they have less to worry about, and they do not let ratings take over their integrity within the lineup. The acting is all top notch, with Duchovny being his likable self. Even Ioan Gruffudd turns in a fine performance, but then again he isn't either dressed in a period piece garb or stretching himself around the door. This is really the first time I've ever seen him loosen up a bit, and he is much better than I thought. But in the end it is Sigourney Weaver who is the true showstopper. She turns in an award worthy performance-funny, cynical, dark, with not really a warm bone in her body, even though she does her best to pretend. Weaver makes you laugh by doing some of the corniest things here, and she is the best performance in the whole thing.

There is one thing that really does stand out to me, which ends up making the film a little shy of perfect. The script is often injected with personal story lines that just ended up being a little pointless and unneeded. For the Duchovny character it is understandable. This is a man who has to choose between his vision and his family, and even though the answer may seem obvious it is quite difficult. But then there were some scenes involving Ioan Gruffudd's family leaving him, and his work crowding him all of the time. This was not needed to highlight any points, and most of the time it did not even have anything to do with the show that Mike is trying to get made. They did not make the film boring, but they were a bit of filler. I was extremely happy that Kasdan steered clear of reality television(except for a brief mention of Slut Wars, which ends up getting a 19.0 share.) Instead he focused on actual acting television, and proves that reality television is not the only bad thing, but the network molded sitcoms are as well. And it is the truth. As the rather haunting and perfect ending proves, television is simply going downhill, and there are so many places and people to blame. "The TV Set" is an effective satire in the way it made me feel about what they were satirizing. It was effective in the way that it made me think for quite some time afterwards about what will happen to this show later on. Oh, and it's very funny too. . .