Intervention
I have been watching Intervention, which airs Monday nights at 8pm on A&E, since early January.
How the show works: a documentary film crew follows an addict who has agreed to be in a documentary about addiction, but does not know they will soon face an intervention. In order to be on the show, a family member must contact A&E on behalf of the addict. After being filmed for a number of days, the addict goes to a hotel conference room where they expect to be giving their final interview for the documentary. When they arrive at the interview, they find their whole family, and an interventionist, waiting for them. The intervention is filmed, as is the addicts trip to rehab, if they choose to go.
There are a wide variety of addictions represented, including methamphetamine, alcohol, prescription painkillers, heroine and food. While filming, I’m not sure that anything is off-limits. They present the addicts just as they are. You will see heroine users shoot up, crack-heads smoke crack and mother’s leave their children with someone else so they can go get their next fix. Every episode either shocks me or makes me cry.
Sometimes I wonder if it is all for real. The lives these people lead are almost unbelievable. But on occasion, you can figure out why they do what they do. On a particularly moving episode I saw recently, a 24 year old man was an alcoholic, self-destructive to the point of being suicidal. I wondered what in the world could lead him to want to destroy his life. Then they started interviewing his parents. His mother used to sell drugs out of her house and had only stopped after being busted by the cops and sent to prison for five years. That was a pretty extreme case, but you get the idea.
The most common denominator in each situation is that the addicts were enabled to continue their lifestyle by the friends and loved ones that had turned them in. Some were given money, others a place to live, but none were completely on their own out living on the streets. The inverventionist would often suggest family members attend counseling or AA while their loved one was away at treatment, claiming that the addict could never fully recover unless the dysfunctional family started working on their issues.
Intervention takes a good look at addiction and helps everyone in the situation, including the viewer, understand that choosing to do something based on emotionally painful events is not a good idea. Many times it leads to addiction. You’ve got to tell each other how you feel. Never let it fester. Never try to hide it away or cover it up. Be honest with yourself. It is a sobering message whether you’re addicted to anything or not.
Permission to Over-Analyze 
donnadb said,
February 27, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Love your conclusion. Watch overly casual asides like “you get the idea.” You do a good job of explaining the show’s unusual structure — thank you!
gamertags said,
February 29, 2008 at 11:21 am
So, how do they pick people to follow? Do they just sorta troll the slums and wait until someone shoots up to approach them and say, “Hey, can we film you?”
This is really interesting, but I’m curious about how much they’re trying to make a point about addiction and help people, and how much they’re trying to make money by showing people the “dark side” of society. What would you say it feels like? Is it helpful or exploitative?
marvelous005 said,
March 4, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I think I actually saw parts of this show the other day. It was two girls addicted to alcohol. You are right. These shows are sad. What I think this show does well is show the audience that when people get into these situations it is never because they put themselves there on their own. You said that the show also encourages family members to attend AA meeting for example. And you also said that in one case the mother sold drugs. This is a good example of a the surroundings affecting a person. Many times I feel like we point at someone and say, “You are a bad person,” when in actuality they just got mixed up in the wrong group. I know some blame has to go on the individual because they did in fact make the decision to drink alcohol or sale drugs or whatever may be the case, but much of the blame can go on people who have the opportunity to do something about the situation and choose not to.