At the time of its initial release, few viewers could have predicted that The Truman Show would not remain pure fantasy for decades to come. The very concept that millions of Americans would sit 24/7/365 watching what essentially amounts to a secret recording of a kidnapping victim's daily life as if it were some sort of true stardom was clearly the film's most scandalous and fantastical idea. . While The Truman Show was clearly intended as satire, the fundamental quality of satire is that it maintains a certain distance from reality, and the distance between that conceit and the uglier realities of society that the film satirized seemed permanently detached from. In less than two decades since its release, however, The Truman Show can be seen as an almost disturbing prediction of the commodification of victimization as entertainment in a process that increasingly makes viewers complicit partners rather than victims of a more passive nature. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Watching The Truman Show and dismissing the premise of watching a kidnapping victim live his life as entertainment for the masses as something that could never be accepted by American society is no longer something easily achievable. The show within the film presents what at the time appeared to be a satirical extension of the reality show concept to its extreme consequences. After all, from a legal perspective Truman is nothing more or less than a victim of the federal crime known as kidnapping, and it is his unawareness of his situation that is the only aspect of his condition that allows the secret footage of that life to become entertainment. . He is held against his will; such a situation is decidedly contrary to every aspect of American values. This element of the film was so far from expectations about the possibilities of the future of television that it is clear evidence that Truman's situation was not intended to be a reflection of reality and, therefore, was intended rather as the last lost foothold . on a slippery slope. Over the years, however, such an unlikely scenario is actually getting closer and closer to becoming something that could happen any day now. That real-life slipper descent has already taken viewers from Big Brother to Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire. Clearly, America's ability to accept what seemed clearly unacceptable has gone through a state of de-evolution. The film also points the way to a society where victimization is the new entertainment and there no longer seems to be a line beyond which content producers do not cross when it comes to exploiting victimization for entertainment purposes. Truman seems much happier than most real-life “stars” of so-called “reality shows,” but that is probably because he is unaware that he is the star of a reality show. On the other hand, the actors paid to play roles in Truman's life – including what amounts to a prostitute playing the role of his wife – don't seem particularly happy. Even as recently as 1999, it seemed ridiculous to suggest that billions of people around the world were tuning in to watch the mundane and, let's face it, downright boring daily routine of a person's life 24 hours a day, but the rise of YouTube sensations that doing absolutely nothing of real interest has made this hypothesis ridiculous today. YouTube and live streaming are just the tip.