Dear Tina,
So it’s the beginning of January which usually means that everything on television is in reruns. Unfortunately, this is not the case on ABC with the premiere of the 14th season of The Bachelor. Fortunately, I’m not watching it. Instead, I am watching an all new episode of A&E’s Intervention. There is little disputing the decline in integrity television has taken since the reality TV craze began. Even shows that are well received by critics like Survivor have invited the broadcast of problem step children like Fear Factor. American Idol led to America’s Next Top Model. The Real World led to Jersey Shore and, well, more seasons of The Real World. Even our scripted programming produced some of the most memorably horrific reality television of the past decade. The popularity of the Josh Schwartz series The O.C. is certainly to blame for the pseudo-reality train wreck, Laguna Beach, just as Desperate Housewives certainly got the programming department buzzing over at Bravo as we now have The Real Housewives. A series that captures the most captivating (read: busty) women and their emotional ups and downs; the type of women who wear heels and gold jewelry to a children’s soccer game.
It’s this type of overwhelming trend that appears to have no end in sight (have you seen the previews for Conveyor Belt of Love?) that reminds me what a sophisticated and devastatingly thought provoking show Intervention is. It corrects all the cliches of reality TV yet still accurately documents the life of an addict in less than 45 minutes. The way the producers arc each story, the viewer is introduced to the addict in his/her current environment to learn what role the drug of choice plays in the daily routine of the individual. Then slowly pieces of the person’s past are revealed and those of us watching from the comfort of our living rooms begin to understand how this person arrived at a place of total self-destruction. You watch an episode of a young adult alcoholic and wonder how is she different than me? It’s important to know the answer to that question if we are to learn anything from the television we watch and Intervention seamlessly leads you there. By the time the actual intervention occurs you are as anxious as the family and as frustrated/baffled by the stubbornness of the abuser.
The only scripted part I find in these episodes is from the interventionists themselves. The moments of joy in this series are few and far between but I can’t help but smile whenever I hear Jeff VanVonderen, one of the interventionists, say “Your family’s crazy aboutchya and they want to fight to getchya back. And they’re just here today to ask you to join that fight.” No matter the person, no matter the addiction, it is the same line nearly every time. These are the moments that ground the show. While all other reality TV producers across the country are seeking out the most ridiculous people to guarantee that the most ridiculous things occur while the cameras are rolling, Intervention essentially treats all of their subjects the same. No matter who the person is, the objective to save them from their addiction is the driving force behind every episode. And isn’t that possibility of being unable to help those who need it most the most gut-wrenching part of all? In those last few moments when the show is about to end the epilogue reveals how the person faired in treatment. Sometimes we see them three months later happier and healthier, and sometimes they were kicked out of the rehab facility after a few short weeks and continue their journey toward rock bottom (if they weren’t there already). It is the reality of addiction and it is presented without apologies. A&E manages to tell these stories, season after season, so poignantly and humanely, words that no other reality show on television today has yet to earn.
And now an intervention scene that most certainly was scripted. Brilliantly.
30 Rock Quote of the Day:
Dr. Spaceman: Is it 411 or 911..? (dials) Um… yes, New York. Diabetes repair, I guess.
Dear Tina 