 | John E. |
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
Somehow I felt like this should have been funnier. It was like watching three episodes of a half decent HBO sitcom, like Curb Your Enthusiasm starring David Duchovny.
Here he plays a writer who's making a very personal series, and the network loves it. Trouble is, in order to get it on the air, he has to make more and more compromises to please the suits. Sigourney Weaver is great as the clueless president who has her 14-year-old make all the network decisions, and she says things, "Originality's great as long as it's not too original."
The movie goes down a familiar, predictable path, and I was hoping the guy who did Thank You for Smoking could do more with this material, but alas it wasn't meant to be. Was this review helpful? Yes
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No
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 | Ray T. |
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful
Ever wonder why there's never anything good on TV? The hilarious yet unsettling "The TV Set" takes you to the exact place where artistic integrity and network television collide and shows you exactly why the former never ends up on the latter. At its best, this film is a brilliant modernization of/homage to "Network," Sidney Lumet's 1976 masterpiece on the state of the American entertainment industry. Here, idealistic TV writer Mike Klein (David Duchovny doing equal parts deadpan and man-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown) watches as his smart, serious, and deeply personal series pilot is sliced and diced by network execs down to a broad, low-brow sitcom complete with fart jokes. Sigourney Weaver is great as the emasculating head exec. Writer/director Joseph Kasdan is obviously drawing from personal experiences having worked on some of the most famous brilliant-but-cancelled shows of this decade ("Freaks and Geeks," Grosse Pointe," "Undeclared"). Was this review helpful? Yes
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 | Jan G. |
12 out of 19 people found this review helpful
This is a comedy about the misery one writer goes through in trying to get his pilot picked up by a network. David Duchovny's simple comedy "The Wexler Chronicles" must compete with such popular offerings as "Infidelity 101", "The World's Grossest Meals" and "(Loose Woman) Wars". We see him through auditions and the challenge of getting the ego-bound actor who plays Wexler to give the same performance on film as he gives in rehearsals, meetings with the Brit producer, who knows that most of the shows he works on are absolute crap, and suggestions by the network president, played by Sigourney Weaver as queenly and silken-voiced but hard and sharp as a diamond brooch. If you live in a workaholic workplace, you'll see your job in this movie. If you are prostituting your dreams and values because you need the money, you'll see your life in this movie. Was this review helpful? Yes
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No
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| Emily R. |
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Yeah, this is a good start, but feels like the first installment of several. I want to like this movie, but it just feels like it's missing too much. Nothing seems fully developed, and especially not finished. Was this review helpful? Yes
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 | Heather K. |
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful
Not as funny as I was hoping it would be, but as always David Duchovny does not disappoint. Was this review helpful? Yes
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No
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 | Patrick D. |
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful
This was great except it ends so abruptly. Maybe that was intentional because it's about TV pilots and like a TV pilot it introduces stuff without resolving it. The way it ends leaves so much up in the air that I wished there were a sequel. Was this review helpful? Yes
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No
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| Miguel C. |
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful
If for nothing else watch this for what is probably the mind-numbing, soul-crushing reality of how the TV networks put together their schedules. All the actors played their parts well. And the crew's behavior towards the director were fun to watch. It's also good to see that Fran Kranz can play the part of a really bad actor. Compared to sitcoms he's done in the past, this is the best Kranz has ever done. Was this review helpful? Yes
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 | Sylvie N. |
3 out of 7 people found this review helpful
The movie is about producer and director who disagree about two versions of a movie they produce with unskilled actors. They use the production as a TV filler after the cancellation of another show which was supposed to run instead. The movie itself is as low quality and boring as the show they put together. Although the actors of the TV set really try to compensate for the lack of quality of the story. I only suggest to view this movie if you like movies with only dialogs. Was this review helpful? Yes
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No
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| Brent B. |
3 out of 7 people found this review helpful
A solid comedy about the process behind the creation of the new middling sitcoms we see every year. David Duchovny puts in a good performance, but the rest of the cast rarely moves beyond a single dimension. There are some funny moments, but it breaks very little new ground. As with most of the self-referencing films about the entertainment industry we see that lead actors are oblivious jerks, writers are underappreciated artists and the executives are money-grubbers out to crush the creative impulse if it will sell ads. Oh, and did you know that reality TV is a waste of time? Was this review helpful? Yes
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No
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 | Zack S. |
2 out of 6 people found this review helpful
this movie pretty much sucked. there were like 3 or 4 parts that were funny, that's it. not worth your time. there are plenty of other movies worth watching. Was this review helpful? Yes
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