"The TV Set" (2006)
Rated: R
STARRING: David Duchovny, Sigourney Weaver, Ioan Gruffudd, Judy Greet
SUMMARY: A veteran writer tries to get a very personal television show made despite less then ideal restrictions put on him by the television network.
I love television. I prefer television to movies, because, to me, a television series is akin to a novel while a movie is akin to a short story. In a TV show you have, hopefully, years of story and character development as opposed to two hours of, hopefully, story and character development. Of course, being a writer, I tend to love shows that are amazingly written, masterfully put together, and, sadly, cancelled before their time by network executives who seem to know absolutely nothing about television.
Hence, "The TV Set." Clearly, there is much more than animosity toward network executives behind this movie. In fact, if the writers felt like I did toward Weaver's character, they hate executives with a fiery, burning passion that could only be quenched by conquering half of Asia leaving a slew of executive's dismembered remains in a trail so long it would encompass the earth twelve hundred thousand times over!!! …um…excuse me…
Back to "objectivity."
I think this is a very important movie for our Reality TV age. Thirty years ago, there weren't a hundred different cable channels making new shows. There weren't thousands of writers trying to get shows made. And there wasn't "Temptation Island" or "The Girls Next Door." It's a hard world to get a good show made in, and I'm not sure everyone fully understands just how hard…or why they should care.
Television (and Hollywood, in general) is not only a reflection of our society as a whole, but it also steers the ship. Fashion is a fairly innocuous example. Back in the '90s, an outfit wasn't cool until Jennifer Aniston wore it that week on "Friends" or Shannon Dougherty on "Beverly Hills 90210." Television influences our society just as much, if not more, than it reflects it. So why should you care what shows get made? What world do you want to live in?
Ok. I'm sorry. This is a review. Not an opinion column. I tend to get off topic, don't I? My apologies.
"The TV Set" is, obviously, a very personal movie made as an indictment on the current television industry, but it's also very well written and directed and masterfully performed. Duchovny's exhaustion is heartbreaking while Weaver's executive…well…you read the above tangent. That said Weaver does an EXCELLENT job in a role that you love to hate. As well she should be. I'm embarrassed to say that this is the first thing I've seen of Gruffud's since "Horatio Hornblower," which I don't really remember, but I'll definitely be renting some back DVDs of his. He plays a new executive from England who plays counterpoint to Weaver's character and shows that not all execs are the same way. The relationship between he and his wife, played by a personal favorite Lucy Davis (a "Studio 60" alum), is also incredibly powerful and important in our age of "get to the top" mentalities (just how many ages are we living in?).
The supporting cast as a whole is itself a who's-who of television stars. Judy Greer and Justine Bateman from "Arrested Development," Willie Garson from "Sex in the City," Lucy Davis and Simon Helberg from "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"…the list goes on.
While painful, I really enjoyed this movie. Granted, I probably enjoyed it because this is my world. Television is my world. I don't live in real life. I admit that. This is a movie about my world, and I think it's great. That said, I do not think that it is irrelevant for the general public…that is to say…those that don't spend 50 hours a week with a stack of TV DVDs. As I said in my above rant, television is a mirror and a rudder of our society as a whole, and we need to understand how it works. This is, of course, the dark side of the industry, but it’s a side that is carefully hidden from us.
A very important film.
Content: Language is pretty bad. A group of people who either don't care or are angry about those that don't care naturally leads to some profanity. No violence or gore to speak of (besides that in my head whenever Weaver came on screen). Sex and nudity, there are several references to, but only a relatively innocent clip from, a reality show called "Slut Wars," 'nuff said. There are also a couple scenes of lingerie and what is clearly an accidental glimpse of Duchovny's bare butt. All in all, fairly benign, content wise. Could have been much worse.
(I have put down some more of my thoughts on the current state of the television industry in my two-part article "R.I.P. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."
OVERALL: 7
LANGUAGE: 4
VIOLENCE: 0
GORE: 0
SEXUALITY: 2
NUDITY: 2
