The TV Set

Director Jake Kasdan’s not-so-scathing satire of the slimy underbelly of television program development is neither funny enough nor biting enough to validate its overreaching goals. Mike (David Duchovny) is a TV writer with a pregnant wife trying to hold onto the artistic vision of his newly green-lighted TV pilot against the niggling interference of studio exec Lenny (Sigourney Weaver) who wants to remold Mike’s moody drama as a goofball comedy. Ioan Gruffudd steals scenes as Richard McCallister a well-meaning but impotent defender of Mike’s original concept, which wouldn’t pass muster in the real world of modern television. This thinly comic movie about the cheesy corporate personalities at work behind a crummy TV series just isn’t very entertaining.

Rated R. 87 mins. (C) (Two Stars)