I generally tend to like movies about making movies and this was one of the kind. I think the acting was quite good, Duchovny was pretty believable and I felt sorry for his character in the end. Ioan Gruffudd also did a good job. The only one who was a bit too exaggerated for my taste, at least at times, was Judy Greer, but that was probably intentional. I'm just wondering how much truth there was in the movie and whether TV shows are really shot like that.
I great idea, great cast, just not very well executed.
To those of us who feel like network TV is (for the most part) SHIT...this will seem like a very tame (sometimes ammusing) attempt to point out why network TV is so bad. It could have been done in a much more effective and "biting" sort of manner.
To those who enjoy their reality TV and mundane, cookie-cutter sit-coms, it will mean nothing.
I was left feeling that perhaps this film was a victim of the very subject matter they were meant to be parodying.
I really liked this movie.I felt bad for the guy in the end but it's a great example of he's laughing his way all the way to the bank.lol Great movie very realistic.
It's the story you are told if you ever want to become a writer in Hollywood. People will alway ruin your work. I had fun watching the movie, but somehow it doesn't seem like a complete story.
The cast was top notch, the acting was great, the premise and plot were interesting but the drama was missing. That dialogue that really helps you relate to or be intrigued by the characters was non-existent. It was successful at being a quirky, yet at times depressing, black comedy. I guess I was looking for something more in this comedy for some reason other that just another detached dark comedy. David Duchovny?s beard was distracting.
It has the kind of humor that you might find in the Arrested Development show. Which is my cup of tea. The cast is what really made this film most enjoyable for me, though.
A bleak but clever story, one that pinballs between fury, misery, and comedy within seconds. None of the acting is great -- Duchovny is pretty bland, Weaver tries too hard, and the others don't make much of an impression at all -- but Kasdan really loves this project and somehow makes it work.
It's a watchable movie, but it doesn't really go anywhere. I like David Duchovny's character, he's smart and know's what he's doing. The ending wasn't good at all. The movie felt unfinished.
One bright star each for Ioan Gruffudd and Judy Greer. In an otherwise plodding look at the compromising of principles in the battle for TV network success, these two actors stand a cut above a very mediocre attempt at telling us something we all already know.
WOW!! This film depicts everything that SICKENS me about Hollywood. Very true to life. Its like oyu just keep getting stabbed with a knife deeper and deeper everytime someone has "notes" or "concerns". Abravise and devastating this film truly says it all with an incredible wit. I cant imagine that Hollywood enjoys seeing films like this that hit very close to home and exposes them for the retarded frauds that they are.
It has the kind of humor that you might find in the Arrested Development show. Which is my cup of tea. The cast is what really made this film most enjoyable for me, though.
This is a wonderfully funny movie. Sure it's not like the gross-out teen comedies that are filling screens, instead it's an intelligent and humourous look at the behind the scenes of a new series during pilot season, something different.
The characters are great, especially Sigourney Weaver who steals the movie. She is absolutely brilliant in this film and deserves to hear her named called out during Oscar time. Every time she utters the word "F*ck", I dare you to not smile a bit.
I think that people who know more about or have experienced the film/television industry behind the scenes will probably get a little more enjoyment out of this film. This is an underrated film that deserves a wider audience. (A-)
An excellent satire on t.v. pilot's. The film is not only funny, but heartbreakingly sad at the same time. David Duchovny's performance was excellent and very believeable. I think I'll add this film as one of the best I've seen in 2007.
This movie was all around great. I never trust my girlfriend to rent while I am not at the store but a definite home run for her last night. The movie was very well written, very witty and subtle. David proves he can make you laugh and can act without the help of aliens.
Half-realized seems like a good word. Also, I think its really hard for a film to illustrate to the audience the difference between types of comedy. Instead, to the people that already get it, its very obvious and over stated. Thats kind of how I felt about the whole film.
a very funny story about a writer making a pilot for a tv show. along the way he gets anoyed by everyone around him because they want to change the story he wrote. oh.. and he talks about "taxi driver"
Plot: A hair-raising comedy of art and compromise, "The TV Set" follows an idealistic writer as he tries to navigate his TV pilot down the mine-laden path from script through production to the madness of pr...( read more )ime-time scheduling--all while trying to stay true to his vision. Along the way, he has to juggle the agendas of a headstrong network president, volatile young stars, a pregnant wife and an ever-optimistic personal manager
Ever wondered how all that shit gets on TV? Sit down and chuckle as a writers dreams of a semi autobiographical dramedy is pulled apart by a network looking for fart jokes. After ninety minutes you realise that civilisation is truely doomed.
Here is a movie that hedged its bets, didn't take one way or the other, and came up short, both in duration and quality. As a satire of television production and the selling of souls along the way, the movie fluctuated between a very human and dramatic approach and a more over-the-top one. Duchovny and Gruffud (who is perhaps best known from King Arthur) play two men whose virtues and even lives descend from higher places into the lowest common denominator, where they find themselves, as Duchovny appropriately puts it, perpetuating the pipeline of crap feeding into America's homes. This more moving duo contrasts oddly with Weaver and the show's dimwitted lead actor, who's more concerned with money and his co-lead's body than with the artistic vision or shaping of his craft. To me, the over-the-top TV exec found in Weaver, along with the lead actor, failed to mesh well with the more subdued, more human Duchovny and Gruffud. In a spectrum-sense, the movie never settles quite in the middle ground of combining the two poles and lets the comical and the despairing never truly meet in the same scene. The movie bounces back and forth between these poles but never integrates one into the other. As character development the movie works, but the overall style and framework connecting the different experiences is a little disjointed. Not to forget that we never see the aftermath, no falling action; Duchovny settles into producing a bad show, yes, but what happens to Gruffud's marriage, the two leads, the show itself, is only implied. The cliche, art-house message of 'corporate-america destroying creativity' is seen almost in a misanthropic light, which is as depressing as it is unentertaining. A few set-piece gags save face, and a large supporting cast adds flavor, but a unified approach and another twenty minutes might have been interesting. Two Stars.
MCT:August 25, 2008
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MCT:September 22, 2007
