t three decades when even the most engrossing soap can not sustain a third of that time period. Perhaps there is a message here about the content of television. Much of what appears daily on television is boring. Every season, television producers try to sort through what programs will capture the audience once they define who that audience is. The Truman Story television audience is presumed stupid for being engrossed in the everyday life of an everyday person perhaps the subtle question is Truman representing them? (Or us?) Why is Christof, the producer of this empty story, considered brilliant for reflecting this vacuum of television programming? Christof is the epitome of the concept of television media executives selling products to an audience, and securing directly, or indirectly as in The Truman Show (where product promotion arises from the use of products by the residents of Seahaven), commercial sponsors to pay for the air time. Christof manipulates all of the components of Trumans life, and the movie audience feels that they too are being manipulated into a sense of compassion for the sadness of the sameness and falsehood of Trumans life. If there is a positive note about this movie, it is that the Jim Carreys performance as Truman is good. We, the audience, find ourselves part of this interplay of media mediums, and there is a feeling of boredom are we the problem? But Carrey is not the problem. He is a professional actor who tries to create comedy in what is a sad story on many fronts. Carrey becomes Truman; it is we the audience who should walk out on ourselves....
