The TV Set 2007

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Honestly, isn't it a little late to be bemoaning sleazy reality TV? Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: What's missing here is the sense that anything truly vital is at stake -- like, say, our cultural intelligence or the future of mainstream entertainment. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The jokes are things people shooting a pilot might actually say; the telling episodes of vanity or stupidity are entirely believable. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's deftly calibrated and acted with relish: [writer-director] Kasdan is really good! Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Various news stories have noted the movie's accuracy, which I don't doubt, but the blanket antipathy makes for a wearying and predictable story. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The TV Set isn't in the same league with Network or The Player, but it's very good, and its cast is accomplished. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A facile but likable send-up of how things (don't) work in Hollywood. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: ... a well-acted and generally funny comedy that doesn't bog down in emotion even when it bogs down in its own plot. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A tart, smart, closely observed satire of the television industry. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: ... wickedly funny ... Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: A somewhat cold and calculated film that apparently unconsciously exemplifies that which it intends to criticize. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Very smart, very funny movie about the making of a network sitcom is a cut-glass gem of a showbiz conceit. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: While some of the gags may be a little too inside baseball, anyone who has seen Broadcast News or reads the occasional issue of 'Entertainment Weekly' will have no problem understanding and enjoying Kasdan's chomp on the hand that once fed him. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: At its best, The TV Set is wry and even laugh-out-loud funny about the messy tangle of art, commerce and family, as talented creative types try to stay true to themselves and put food on the table. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: ... the movie deserves attention because of its sunlit graces, droll subtleties, terrific performances and soft-boiled rue. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The satire is unrelenting but not too broad; it stays close to common observation. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Writer-director Jake Kasdan has been through his share of meetings with production executives eager to share their ideas on improving his ideas, and in The TV Set, we see that dynamic play out from beginning to corrosive end. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Everyone already knew showbiz is ridiculous, but the funniest example Kasdan can come up with is a manager who has never seen Taxi Driver. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The appalling sausage factory that produces what we see on network TV is nicely skewered in The TV Set, an engaging if not exactly edgy comedy that exists to restate the obvious. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Bland and compromised, it feels as if it's been fine-tuned and focus-grouped within an inch of its life. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Kasdan should have the expertise to write a backstage expose of the TV industry. This one simply isn't funny. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: A wickedly funny satire about the vast wasteland takes the position that shows aren't born dumb. They get that way because of network meddling and a widely held assumption that audiences prefer pabulum. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The TV Set is a little wonder of a movie, as smart and sad and true as any comedy I've seen this year. Read more

Teresa Budasi, Chicago Sun-Times: Kasdan wisely doesn't make this about the big, bad bosses vs. the creative geniuses who won't compromise. It's a well-balanced look at a process, which, from the outside seems arbitrary and convoluted, but from the inside makes sense. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Time Out: Airlessly insidery and only sporadically funny ... Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The TV Set skewers the television industry in a manner that occasionally feels familiar and at other times is humorously incisive. Read more

Jay Weissberg, Variety: An insider pic likely to produce a few knowing guffaws from the industry but only occasional chuckles from John Q. Public. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: The TV Set, written and directed by Jake Kasdan, often possesses the gimlet-eyed wit of The Player or the mock docs of Christopher Guest. Read more