Watching the show Intervention on A&E sometimes leaves me feeling embarrassed as I witness such deeply personal and painful family interactions. I feel like a voyeur. Addiction, in whatever form it takes, time and time again is shown to devastate families, especially the parents and children of the person with the addiction. Yet I am often profoundly moved by their courage and dedication as they face their own failings and fears and willingly participate in the emotionally grueling "surprise" intervention. At the end of each episode, viewers are given an update on the patient who has accepted the help offered and gone to a treatment facility. Invariably there are setbacks and relapses, but often there are successes, too.
Nothing is sugarcoated in Intervention. Sometimes parents and spouses go back to enabling addicts, and sometimes addicts get themselves thrown out of rehab.
Recently the Library of Congress announced that it would begin to collect and catalogue Twitter messages, i.e. "tweets" as a snapshot of our American culture in this its second decade into the 21st century. Maybe a catalog of best selling nonfiction and fiction and self-proclaimed "reality" TV shows could add some depth to the portrait. Intervention reveals brutal truths in black and white with shades of gray.
No comments:
Post a Comment