What if Truman had been a sociopath or pedophile in "The Truman Show?"

[Jayson1]

I love this movie and it might be Jim Carrey's best movie but I do see a few flaws in it and not just the blatant one that it would be illegal to hold a human being against their will like this. What if the baby they got, which became Truman had grown up and ended up to be a sociopath or a pedophile? You just invested who knows how much money in making a show around him, building a whole town in essence and if he came out wrong it would damper anyone from wanting to watch that kind of show.

Even if you wanted to do a dark show that focused on someone like that you couldn't risk putting people's lives in danger when casting the the townfolk. You would even run into issues if he simply had things about him that aren't morally wrong but might be hard to get people to watch. If he is gay you mightnot get conservatives and while you can build a show without needing them can you do it with the budget this show must require. What if he just is a boring guy. What if he grew up to be Eric Bana instead of Jim Carrey. Not only do you have to hope he isn't evil, isn't controversial and isn't boring and you doing this by starting with a random baby who you can't predict what he will become.

Jason

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

We saw that he wasn't the only candidate if I remember correctly.

I would imagine that the producers invested in deep background checks of the family's, medical records, psychological profiles and dispositions that run in the family.
And then during his childhood he was constantly under surveillance, medical and psychological care included.
His family was fake and they were selfish bastards in for the money and fame , but they provided him with "loving" care as well.
And Kristoff saw himself as kind of his father, so he would make sure Truman grew up with an intact personality and education of a sorts, fundamental knowledge though heavily filtered cultural knowledge.

So all in all I think Truman came out as undamaged as can possibly be expected.

In some ways he was probably more healthy psychologically than many people in the real world ever have a chance to.

That all said, they took away his right for self determination for over 30 years up to the point where they just couldn't anymore.
Practically slavery.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Another thing to remember is that the show didn't start out so grand. The beginning of the Truman Show was one camera in his nursery. Everything else was built up slowly when needed and desired. So the big investments only came after the show proved its popularity.

 

[Jayson1]

Another thing to remember is that the show didn't start out so grand. The beginning of the Truman Show was one camera in his nursery. Everything else was built up slowly when needed and desired. So the big investments only came after the show proved its popularity.

Makes you wonder what the early years of the show were like. Maybe the fake mom and dad were the main focus before Truman could start doing interesting things. Perhaps it started out as a hour long show, they would then spend the other 23 hours streaming online until they could start creating some drama for him to deal with.

Jason

 

[CorporalCaptain]

What if Truman had been a sociopath or pedophile in "The Truman Show?"

I would have enjoyed the film a lot less.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

They were watching closely enough to tell if he was dangerous before he could really hurt anyone. I imagine they had contingency plans to start over if he was a danger. Not all sociopaths are violent and if he was a nonviolent sociopath it would have gone on as a very different show.

There's little risk of being boring when the writers can just write interesting situations around him.

You can't explain away ethical problems and fact it's basically slavery but if you handwave that I think the rest can make sense in the right light.

Another disturbing part is how they were going to have him procreate. Which would basically be prostitution, and would require a woman consigning her own offspring to being raised in ignorance.

Speaking of procreation, I wonder if they at least cut out when he was doing what teenage boys do, and if not, what sort of creepy sex offender audience would they attract?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

They covered that in the movie with the audience interviews.
One of them said, they always turn the camera away when he has sex and play the music up, show candles, etc.
Masturbation by Truman would be handled similar I guess.

 

[Jayson1]

I wonder what would happen if someone had a heart attack or has cancer. We saw in that one scene that the "doctor" was just a actor and had no idea on how to do a surgery. They must have trained personal in the city for that and also as firefighters. Proably don't need real cops but you would think that you would need actors who are capable of doing some of the stuff you need to do that comes with their fake jobs.

Jason

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I wonder what would happen if someone had a heart attack or has cancer. We saw in that one scene that the "doctor" was just a actor and had no idea on how to do a surgery. They must have trained personal in the city for that and also as firefighters. Proably don't need real cops but you would think that you would need actors who are capable of doing some of the stuff you need to do that comes with their fake jobs.

Jason

Well, driving a bus was not among that stuff.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I wonder what would happen if someone had a heart attack or has cancer. We saw in that one scene that the "doctor" was just a actor and had no idea on how to do a surgery. They must have trained personal in the city for that and also as firefighters. Proably don't need real cops but you would think that you would need actors who are capable of doing some of the stuff you need to do that comes with their fake jobs.

Jason

No one there was a real person except Truman. If someone got cancer, they'd get treatment in the real world and get written out of the show, if necessary. It would be an issue only if Truman needed medical treatment, but then they'd no doubt have arranged a special episode with real doctors and extra drama for a ratings-boosting extravaganza. "Will Truman make it out of surgery? Tune in to find out!"