Wow! Hard to believe The Truman Show is a whole generation ago. Definitely due for a fresh screening. And yeah, much as I enjoy Shakespeare In Love, it did not deserve to win over The Truman Show.

I wonder, have you ever seen The LA Complex? It's a Canadian-produced drama about young people trying to make careers in film, tv & music, mostly centered around a particular LA apartment complex. Bearing in mind LA's my hometown, but circumstances forced me to decamp for NYC in the mid-90s, so I'll watch anything set in LA. Still, it was pretty good & I was sorry it didn't run for more than two seasons. One of the characters, an actress who became famous for playing a character on TV but had her career falter, gets a role on a reality "treatment" show, signing on to address a problem she doesn't even have. The potential cruelty & cynicism of "reality" TV as portrayed in the series make one cringe. Is it really that bad?

If you haven't seen it I think it's available on Youtube, free.

Great piece.

Incidentally, I followed your link & bought a copy of the Irresistible Summons. Interesting idea. I'll let you know what I think...