Unscripted

Unscripted is to aspiring actors ...

instead of a show about the glitter, fame & fortune (e.g Entourage or anything on the E-Channel) or a bunch of pathetic, fame-starved everyday people trying to get 15 seconds (e.g. anything reality TV show in the major networks) ...

HBO has brought us a hybrid reality show of what its really like to go into acting. the characters are never been heard of actors young and old, with a mix of some you've seen before and some you will never see again (all using their real names). the show follows the lives of the actors, and shows what its really like. its something every 16-yeard old kid that wants to be an actor should see (rather than watching the e-channel and hearing about how JLo made it). its gritty & shows how pathetic these people are (especially the people in the business). and its warning to people going into the business that probably wont be heard/observed ... kinda like Hoop Dreams

Well, the word on the street is that 'Unscripted' has been canceled, and it's not hard to imagine why. The pseudo 'reality' show meant to offer the inside scoop on the hard road to stardom never really garnered much of an audience, and, with little to no plot or storyline to speak of, never provided much of a hook to keep viewers interested. This is George Clooney's second stab with the sorta-kinda-reality show genre on HBO--the first, 'K Street,' which Clooney co-produced with his buddy Stephen Soderbergh, tried to meld fictional drama in a DC lobbying firm run by real-life power couple Mary Matalin and James Carville. The show attempted to bend genres by combining actual current news stories with fictional subplots, presumably to expose the behind-the-scenes action leading up to public news events. One problem: could there be anything less interesting to watch than the lives and doings of a bunch of hyper-neurotic DC lobbyists? Answer: the lives and doings of aspiring actors trying to break through in Hollywood.

'Unscripted' again tries to give us an improvised take on 'reality,' with real struggling actors (Krista Allen, Bryan Greenberg, Jennifer Hall) splitting time between humiliating auditions, the occasional, small-time acting gig, and an acting class taught by the ridiculously pretentious and egocentric Goddard Fulton (Frank Langella), who pontificates about the 'craft' of acting for a roomful of desperate sycophants trying to pretend that art has something to do with their desire to be famous and make easy money. Langella is a fantastic actor, but his Goddard is easily the worst thing about 'Unscripted,' boring the audience to death with idiotic speeches about artistic integrity for a bunch of people who would do back flips from one end of the Sunset strip to the other to be cast in a commercial or a soap opera. Though I'm sure Goddard has his real-life counterparts who are just as serious as he seems to be, the performance is unintentionally funny to the point of being embarrassing.

The series had its moments--the best story-line was held by Allen, Clooney's one-time girlfriend, a stunning beauty trying to be taken seriously as an actress after spending the first half of her career modeling for men's magazines and doing soft-core porn. Allen's is a classic dilemma, and while we don't necessarily feel sorry for her, her humiliation at being unable to find a job that doesn't require her to take her clothes off is palpable.

The main problem, though, is that people outside of LA and New York--i.e., the audience--don't care about the inner workings of Hollywood. It's no secret that Hollywood is a viper's nest and that aspiring actors face a lot of rejection and humiliation before they get lucky, if ever. We just want to be entertained. And given the fact that there's a war going on right now, it's hard to take a bunch of actors feeling sorry for themselves too seriously.

Clooney deserves to be complimented for attempting to translate the current public obsession with unscripted reality programming into a new film-making genre. But thus far, the projects seem to be overwhelmed by self-importance and humorlessness. Clooney's pal Mark Wahlberg seems to be having better success with 'Entourage,' a far less intelligent version of the behind-the-green door genre, probably because that program seems to be more comedic in nature. Perhaps one day Clooney will be able to pull this pseudo-reality thing off more successfully, but it's unlikely after the failure of 'K Street' and 'Unscripted' that he'll get another chance any time soon.

Network: HBO; Genre: Comedy, Docudrama; Content Rating: TV-MA (profanity, mild simulated sex); Available: DVD; Perspective: Cult Classic (star range: 1 - 5);

Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)

George Clooney and Stephen Soderburg's Section Eight production company hits a home run on just their second try. "Unscripted" follows in the reality-bending mold of their faux political docudrama "K Street": real people play themselves improvising in fictional situations shot around real events and injected with other actors playing characters. Got all that? "Unscripted" takes this neo-classic format and gives us three people at the center of it that are so endearing, they take it to the next level. What was before just a technical feat to be admired in "K Street", is now an emotionally wadded experience to be loved in "Unscripted".

"Unscripted", in every frame, is about stars Krista Allen, Bryan Greenburg, and Jennifer Hall. It captures the plight of a young, idealistic actor struggling to make it in this bizarre world of Hollywood with more insight and empathy than any other show. The Hollywood of "Unscripted" isn't glamorous, where the burning desire to act goes hand-in-hand with a daily gauntlet of humiliation.

To make sense of it all is Goodard Fulton (Frank Langella), the hard-nosed acting school teacher, defining pretension, whose many priceless monologues about every high and low of the soul-consuming "craft" of acting serves as a sort of narrated tour guide to keep his students surviving the Hollywood machine. He tells his students the only way they will be able to do this will be if they "can't not do it".

Bryan Greenburg looks like he is on the fast track to stardom. Having a brush with fame on "One Tree Hill" and "Life with Bonnie", he later lands a starring role and a trip to New York in the Meryl Streep/ Uma Thurman movie "Prime". At the coaxing of his roommates he pads his resume and uses his daily life as a training ground to immerse himself in a limping, stuttering character for a role. But what happens to those friends if Greenburg hits it big?

"She's just so green" says a casting agent about Jennifer Hall. The adorable singer/songwriter of her 2-chick band Black Liquorish, Jennifer's credits include a line on "Yes, Dear", a brush with Keanu Reeves as a "featured extra" and playing the statue of liberty on the corner of Liberty Car Wash with more gusto then you can imagine anyone else in the world doing.

The biggest revelation here is Krista Allen, whose storyline involves a quest to become a real actress despite the reputation of being in "Emmanuelle" ("the James Bond of soft core movies") hanging over her head. There is a sitcom element to the stories of Greenburg and Hall, but watching Krista Allen I became completely convinced I was seeing a documentary - to the point where you have to step back and remember that Allen is playing herself, not being herself. Allen is subject to some particularly stinging humiliation, which results in her taking a role in a 16-year-old's backyard film. While much of this is motivated by the chance to strike back at a Hollywood that won't take her as anything other than a sex object in a 2-piece (the men around her are shown to be pretty creepy), Allen's "character" is a dichotomy that doesn't see using her sex appeal (which includes an affair with Goddard) to get what she wants as undermining her mission. A series highlight is when an enraged Allen tells off a casting director who told her 6-year-old son that he was "not funny". Krista should be proud of this show. This is great work by any standard.

Other actors and would-be actors in Frank's acting class include "Tru Calling's" Jessica Collins, Jennifer's increasingly close friend "Dragon" who fights actor outsourcing ("Why did 'Lost in Translation' have to take place in Japan", he asks), and Nick Paonessa who steals Bryan's contacts and accidentally finds himself in a genital warts commercial - a bit that on any other show would be purely sitcom stuff, but here is so well played it gets the biggest laughs of the series. If anything "Unscripted" recalls the UK masterpiece "The Office", a show that finds laughs in total humiliation and refuses to allow its characters a victory until the last possible second.

George Clooney (who has proved his classic directorial skills on the big screen) directs the first 5 episodes and Clooney regular Grant Helslov, picks up the last 5. They do one hell of a dynamite job. Each episode is constructed masterfully with an assemblage of audio and video that looks like a documentary and doesn't feel linear. It is a sitcom for people who hate sitcoms. You might call it organized chaos, which at first might not look like it knows where it is going and then brings itself into focus. Where "Street" was foggy, aimless, distant and pretentious, "Unscripted" is sharp, clear, thoughtful, fluid and heart-felt.

"Inside Hollywood" shows are a dime a dozen, particularly on HBO. From the scripted wish-fulfillment series "Entourage" to the day-to-day documentary "Project Greenlight" to the celebrity behind-the-scenes cameos of "Curb Your Enthusiasm". "Unscripted" is the best. The best. The only flaw here is that it didn't last long enough to really flesh itself out. I watched the 10 episodes slowly, trying to savor everything, not wanting it to end as soon as it does. The mind wonders what a few more years of Goddard speeches would be like.

It is the rarest show that you don't just enjoy watching every episode, but instantly want to watch them again. That, and a desire to know what is happening with the "characters" after the show was cut to an end, is about as high a compliment as you can give a series.

* * * * ½ / 5

Unlike other viewers (posting on this site), I thoroughly enjoyed the debut episodes of "unscripted." Certainly I agree that the show might not be on the same plane as "Larry Sanders," "Curb," or "Arrested Development," but those shows are neo-classics. Furthermore, Clooney et al are attempting to do something very different here than we see with those programs.

Krista Allen and Bryan Greenburg's characters are endearing, even if the other students portrayed are a bit formulaic and silly. Frank Langella's depiction of the brutally honest acting coach is riveting and entirely realistic as a portrayal of an advanced drama coach.

This is an insightful and creative look at a few of the thousands of actors on the edge of making it, and infinitely more entertaining than HBO's recent attempt ("Entorage"...and rare dud) at creating a television show about an actor who already has.

Many actors say they got into acting because it's "like therapy." Just as many would-be's quit because the process hits too many nerves.

I had never seen, or even heard of this show until after a three day search for something worthy on any of my 500 channels to watch, I stumbled onto it in my HBO "On Demand" fare. I figured I'd give it a shot and watch an episode. Well, I was delighted with the season opener, and went back for seconds. Completely addicted by the third, I viewed the entire season over a period of a week.

I recognize nearly every character in the program as a stock personality that inhabits the cruel and unapologetic world of acting. I studied acting for five years in Washington, DC, worked a couple of paying theatrical gigs, and moved to New York. I continued with classes here and worked in four films and a play my first year out. Frank Langella's character is the male embodiment of one of my "most respected" acting teachers, (an abusive tyrant, but if you could get past that, you could learn a thing or two.) I agree with absolutely everything he tells his students. Goddard's anecdotes are real, his caveats to be heeded, and his teaching points valid.

I have known more than a few "Krista Allens," pretty, sexy women who got boxed into a stereo-type early on and spent years trying to bust out of it. (Forgive the pun.) New York and L.A. are overrun with the likes of Jennifer--sweet, honest, naive young girls who want more than anything to act, make their mark, and be loved.

Every actor in training will meet their share of "Brians." He IS talented. He IS basically a good guy. He IS self-absorbed. He WILL get a plum role. He WILL try to "keep it real," and he WILL tick off his buddies, use women, and charm who he needs to help him keep on course. Such is life.

Anyone who has a remote interest in acting for film and/or television should watch this show. It might save them from being surprised or caught off guard at some point. Beyond being a quick course in thespian politics, it accomplished what most good movies, plays, or shows do-- Made me laugh. Made me cry. I don't really care if it's scripted, improvised, or fed to the players on cue cards. The resulting product is fresh, engaging drama. I am stunned by some of the hostile and negative comments on this thread. If this show "offends" you, look inside yourself. Or better yet, take an acting class. It really can be like therapy.