The TV Set

Saturday, February 23, 2008

The TV Set is a satire of the television industry, all about how an ambitious pilot is slowly turned into a generic, lame-ass comedy. A lot of the humor comes out of that style of studying awkward, embarrassing or manipulative behavior. This kind of humor can be great, like on say Seinfeld, but here it doesn't quite transcend into hilarity, and instead leaves the audience feeling genuinely uncomfortable. I mean that as both praise and criticism... it's a worthy accomplishment, but sort of prevents you from "enjoying" the movie in a traditional sense. There are some very real laughs, but not enough to break a lot of the tension.

Anyway, it's another thumbs up for director Jake Kasdan, who I really enjoy, although I'm not as enthusiastic with this one as I am some of his others. The cast is uniformly great, especially David Duchovny, Sigourney Weaver and whoever the hell it was that played the lead actor. (He gets the biggest laughs as an actor who performs strongly but subtly in his rehearsals, only to go waaaaaaay over the top every time the cameras are on.) I think part of what keeps the movie from being better (aside from the uncomfortableness it causes) are its occasional attempts at seriousness... it's best when it sticks to satire and personality-observational humor.