What moral and right-minded elder statesman of the Recovery Movement wouldn't? Crude, exploitative, unethical, profit-motivated manifestations of the worst of Schlock TV that they were! I decried them as morbid and voyeuristic, as they depicted addicts and alcoholics at their worst; the perpetuated the stereotype of the addict as the composite of society's phobias and ills.
And also, eminently watchable.
I look back on some of the criticisms I voiced a few years ago and find the little voice inside saying, "lighten up, will you? It's only tv."
And maybe the little voice is right.
Sometimes sobriety may be promoted by the crudest of things. In my addiction, while struggling to believe that there was a way Shows like Intervention were very important to me.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I would try to get my wife to watch because the show was able to portray some truth about addiction that I could not was not ready to express.
Habituated Buddhist
http://habituatedbuddhist.com
For some reason I'm really hooked on Intervention. Admittedly part of it is the vicarious contact with drugs (am I flirting with disaster?).
ReplyDeleteBut beyond that it's interesting to see the countless ways people can hit bottom.
I perversely "bet" with myself as to whether the subject will successfully make it through their stay in rehab. I guess it's obvious that the more manipulated (emotionally blackmailed) interventionees will be more likely to fail.