Movie Review: “The TV Set”
This probably won’t become a regular feature, since this isn’t a movie-blog. However, its hard not to write about a movie that takes such an in-depth (and funny) look at my favorite medium, television.
The TV Set was written and directed by Jake Kasdan, who knows the industry better than most. He was the director of numerous episodes of Freaks and Geeks as well as the pilot for Undeclared (Judd Apatow served as executive producer for The TV Set).
The premise of the film is a familiar one: a writer tries to get his dream project produced by a major network, but has to decide if he wants artistic integrity or fame and fortune once the network starts to demand changes. The artist vs. commerce angle is about as old as art and commerce itself, but the film really stands out as something worth seeing by going to great lengths to show the audience the insanity involved in producing a series for network television.
In a way The TV Set is a cautionary tale for anyone who has a dream of getting into the business. Network meddling, incompetent directors, fickle unions, self-centered actors, audience testing and the opinions of random 14 year olds seem dead sent on guaranteeing that every program that makes its way onto a network schedule be absolutely, 100% mediocre — because mediocrity is safe. No one wins big, but no one loses their shirt.
Really, The TV Set might have been the most depressing movie I’d seen in ages (take that, When The Levees Broke!). It’s like watching sausage get made — but not the good sausage, the bad stuff. The stuff that’s always four dollars cheaper than everything else on the shelf, and might be, perhaps, smiling at you. Still, when you walk out of the theater you start to think to yourself, “Man, it’s pretty impressive that this horrible, horrible system was still able to get Friday Night Lights, Arrested Development, Lost and hell, even 12 episodes of Freaks and Geeks onto network air. It’s the curious kind of happy ending where you don’t get to see the bright side until your walk home.
The TV Set is currently playing in New York and Los Angeles, and should be required viewing for anyone who gets excited by the expression, “Previously, on…â€
Tags: Movie Review
