The TV Set

In 2006, a movie called The TV Set was released, written and directed by Jake Kasdan, and starring David Duchovny and Sigourney Weaver. This is in my opinion, just a movie. Nothing more or less.

This movie is a comedy without much laughs. This movie is spoofed on a recent episode of Family Guy where Brian gets a pilot made, but gives in and they change it. This movie is the story of how TV shows are made, from the audition process to being picked up for primetime. The story follows Mike (David Duchovny) who writes a pilot, mostly from personal experience, about a man who comes home for the funeral of his brother who's committed suicide. Yet it's a comedy. The network execs, mostly Lenny (Sigourney Weaver), change his show from the beginning. They cast the wrong person for the lead role; they want to change the brother's suicide to the mother's death; they want to make it more slapstick; they want to change the title. None of the changes are good changes, and we see Mike's expressions along the way cluing us into that fact. However, at first, we don't understand what's the right choice, except by Mike's reactions. In the end, the network will only pick up the series if Mike goes with the stupid network version, and if they change the name. He goes along with it, and the network plan it to be a huge success of the lineup.

For a comedy, I could count the number of times I laughed on one hand, but to not leave any fingers out, I'd have to be missing some. The best line comes when they are discussing the brother's suicide, and Lenny says: "Ok, get ready for this... what if.. he's not." Other than that, it's not that funny of a movie, it's only creative for it's use of behind the scenes of TV networks, and it's very plain with ordinary dialogue with only brief moments of clever dialogue.

Overall, I'm glad that it's only 88 minutes long, because I don't think I could sit through anything longer like this. There are useless characters that aren't needed, and whole situations that aren't interesting, nor do they add to the story. The premise isn't a bad one, it just wasn't executed that well. The best part was the last shot: Mike staring, sullen, at the recognition that the bastardized version of his script was loved by the network.. everyone laughing and patting him on the back as he shows no emotion.

Basically, I'd say not to waste your time with this one.

Here is a link to the trailer:
http://matttrailer.com/the_tv_set_2006