Usually a variant on the
Tomato In The Mirror, where it turns out that the lead character is in fact the main character on a
Reality TV show. Exactly how much of his life is controlled varies: in some cases, every little detail of his life is controlled by the network, while others basically let the main character do whatever he wants, so long as they catch it on camera. It can be a twist ending, or it can be established right at the start of the show.
A fairly potent form of
Paranoia Fuel.
Now, toss your hair back a little so your face can catch the light - perfect! Great shot! *ahem*
As you were...
Examples:
- The Truman Show was the Trope Namer, and one of the few to fully consider the massive levels of subterfuge needed to make this work.
- Year of the Sex Olympics: After "The Sex Olympics" get disappointing ratings, a family is taken to a remote Scottish island and then murdered in "The Live Life Show!".
- The Simpsons: Homer's murder trial in "The Frying Game" turns out to be an elaborate reality TV hoax, which is only revealed when the switch is pulled on the electric chair.
- The Simpsons: Hit and Run reveals that the entire planet Earth is one of these, set up by Kang and Kodos.
- Philip K Dick's novels have often used the idea of a person's belief that they are the centre of everything, at least to themselves. One, however, has the protagonist the centre of possibly the prototype Truman Show plot. He's not on TV, but living in an ordinary town, (a few years later than he believes) where he does a newspaper contest every day called 'where will the little green man be next?' He is actually predicting where the missiles fired from a breakaway Luna republic will impact on Earth; also, he designed the factory that makes the missiles, but has had a psychotic break through guilt, that providentially gave him limited precognition. It's normal for PKD.
- In Nebulous, it turns out that the characters have spent the past six years trapped in a time loop, which is actually the weekend omnibus of an alien reality TV series.
- The 1985-1989 version of The Twilight Zone. Its third-season episode "Special Service
" used this trope.
- The South Park episode "Canceled", in which Earth is revealed to be the setting for an intergalactic reality show.
- One of the episodes of the Amazing Stories anthology show played this for a black comedy, where a woman had her life filmed and manipulated and shown in secret theaters she never sees, she finds this out when people start to recognize her and treat her as a celebrity.
- Sort of the premise of Stranger than Fiction, although it was a book, not a film or show.
- This was also the premise of an actual Reality Show known as The Joe Schmo Show.
- The anime Eternal Family. The plot synopsis at that link sums it up pretty well.
- "Megazone 23" has this as its main plot, albeit more in common with "The Matrix"
- The ending of The Big O. Maybe. Possibly. Arguably.
- Bolt has this premise at the beginning, then proceeds to explore the ramifications of the titular character escaping from the facade (without even knowing it!)
-
Real Life.
-
I've said too much... they're coming for me...
- Nothing to see here, folks. It was just a weather balloon. Move along.
- There's actually a real life phenomenon known as "Truman Show Syndrome" in which people think they're being watched as part of a TV show...
- No there isn't, the network just wants us to think were insane because ratings are dropping! HELP!
- Justice League Unlimited had the Ultimen, a team of genetically-engineered heroes created by Mawell Lord and given fake pasts via actors and memory implants.
- While they're not exactly on a reality TV show (though they do get tricked into one about 1/3 of the way into the game), the protagonists of Wild ARMs 5 are being watched on Duo's magical camera(s?), so everyone across Filgaia is witnessing their exploits for most of the game and NPC dialogue is undoubtedly affected by this.
- EDTV: Ed agrees to let a camera crew follow him around because he needs the money. Close enough to The Truman Show to be Dueling Movies.
- Manhunt's hero is forced to kill a lot of people by a "Director" of snuff films.
- The Even Stevens Movie features the titular family on a tropical vacation gone wrong, unaware that it's all staged for a reality TV show.
