The TV Set (2007)

How did this movie evade my radar so completely until now? And I pride myself on my decent size, up to date, movie radar. Anyway, thank you Quickflix for bringing it to my attention, guess your recommendations engine is occasionally spot on (I am still disturbed that you think I’d like Little Man, though).

During the opening titles, The TV Set informs us how the pilot season works in LA. Networks commission scripts, a handful get chosen to be made into pilots and even fewer of those see the light of day on prime time TV. This is the story of one such pilot, The Wexler Chronicles, a show about a lawyer returning to his home town after his brother’s suicide.  Its creator is Mike Klein (David Duchovny), who’s partly based the show on his own life and envisages it as a thoughtful comedy drama. The network folk see it as ‘a little bit of Ed and a little bit of Northern Exposure’. So far so good, but as the pilot goes into production, more than one creative difference emerges between the writer and the money bags people.

Mike’s nemesis at the network is Lenny (Sigourney Weaver), an exec whose reality TV show Slut Wars is a major ratings hit.  By her own admission, Lenny finds originality a bit scary and she likes to submit all the network pilots to her 14 year old daughter for assessment.  She and other suits at the network are not so crazy about the whole suicide angle. Can’t the brother be in jail and the mother dies? That is soooo much less depressing.

Casting is also an issue. Mike likes a theatre actor with a bad hair and a beard. He is understated, droll, perfect for the lead role. Lenny prefers Zach (Fran Kranz), who is charming but has only two methods of line delivery: over the top Chandler-esque or depressing.

Meanwhile, executive Richard McCallister (Ioan Gruffudd) has been imported from the BBC to give the network’s shows some clout but his instinct, which is to support the writer, is hindered at every turn.

Oh, how unkind and merciless this movie is to the US TV industry. It mocks it and satirises it and it’s just so deliciously funny.  Sure, you could say some of what’s depicted in The TV Set is absurd, exaggerated and that some of the characters are just cheeky caricatures, but is it really that far removed from reality? What is Slut Wars but a more honest name for America’s Next Top Model or The Bachelor? And if this is not how the majority of TV shows are really made, than how do you explain cookie-cutter mediocrities like NCIS and The Big Bang Theory? Or that crime against humanity, The Hills?

Alas, I will not be preaching about how all television is bad for you and how everything on it is eroding your intelligence because I don’t subscribe to that belief. But, the truth is, a lot of TV shows are designed by committee (composed of greedy, talentless people), catering to the lowest common denominator and they deserve to be satirised and ridiculed. If nothing else, seeing this movie will make you appreciate the good stuff even more because you’ll see how hard it must have been to get the likes of Mad Men and 30 Rock made in that kind of an environment.