Talentville coverage for The Set-Up (4-2012)

THE SETUP is a light hearted drama about the difficulties of Hollywood politics. The story follows a major actor and a struggling actress who are forced to come together in order to further their careers. Along the way, they become great friends, but also realize that they’ve sold out much of what they care deeply about. The story develops the two main characters clearly, structures the plot logically, but runs into a great deal of clichés. The decisions and the lies that the two main characters make are empathetic, but the writing doesn’t sell their personalities in any extraordinarily relatable manner. The writing does a good job establishing a unique original conflict about its main characters. However, outside of the set-up, the story flounders and settles into a monotonous pattern that doesn’t manage to explore the full emotional potential of the premise.