I Can't Help Myself
Ever since I was a little kid I have been obsessed with the plight of everyday people. Of course I apply a certain distance to this obsession. This is why I still don't choose to watch the news or read the paper. All of that would be too realistic. Instead I would opt for safer bets like afterschool specials and early episodes of the Real World. You know, when people were still like, real.
But lately I have found myself having a soft spot for the hard hitting A&E documentary known simply as Intervention.
The program is exactly as the title says. Each week they feature one or two different real life people who have serious, serious issues that make the people on the Real World look ten times crazier than they already do. I know you didn't think it was possible, but it's true.
In fact, the way you can tell how messed up that week's installment is going to be is by whether or not you share your hour with somebody else. If you manage to get a whole hour devoted to you and your problems alone, you are vying for the crown of king or queen of interventions to end all interventions. So in a way, it's a lot like the Celebrity DeathMatch of Inteventions.
The way they rope the people is this- they tell them that they are making a real life documentary about them and their addiction. They do not know that their family and/or friends are secretly scheming to intervene roughly 38 minutes into the program. Essentially, it's a really morbid version of Candid Camera. The participants honestly believe the camera crew is just going to follow them around a few weeks and then say sayonara.
And the fact that they believe this is just another sign these people are severly unglued.
I've tried to figure out for months why I am so taken with Intervention. Recently I've equated it with the innate feeling we all get from time to time, also known as "Curious George car crash syndrome". This is the part of you, of everyone, that slows down or stops and tries to see what is going on when something obviously went very wrong. We know that whatever we see (or hear) is not going to be pleasant, far from it, but something inside of us compels us to seek it out anyhow. Incidentally it's all the same reason shows like the Real World have remained so successful for all of these years.
While the problems themselves vary from everything from various drug addictions to gambling to even shopping, there almost always is one common denominator. After we get a brief glimpse into the subject's everyday lives there is ALMOST ALWAYS a loved one who sadly says, "It wasn't supposed to be this way", or something of the sort.
This is when the flashback segue kicks into high gear. This is also usually when they get me cause as anyone woman will tell ya, the way to heartstrings is good old fashioned slow motion flashback sequence.
You see that no matter what these people's problems are, that usually they didn't start out of the blue. They were abused. They dealt with a lot of loss. They were unloved etc, etc. I find this part so fascinating because it only goes to show you that the majority of messed up people wouldn't be so messed up if life would just leave them the hell alone.
By the end of the episode the participant is crying. The family and friends are crying and then before you know it, I am crying. From day to day I don't find myself to be an overly emotional girl, but the idea that someone who once was lost is now found, someone who is blind can now see is definitely amazing to me.
At the very, very end of every episode we get my absolute favorite part- the update. This I have decided is one thing that is lacking in make believe tv and thus, why reality television has ruled the airwaves the past decade or so. This is because reality tv is full of real life people you can follow up on after the show is over. There are reunions. There are Google searches. There is My Space. In short, the days of wondering where someone is now are long over.
With fictional characters you can't do that. Sure you wonder what happened to the cute kid who played the nerd in The Breakfast Club, but telling someone he's now the guy on The Dead Zone it just doesn't have the same ring to it.
And in the end the real reality is that not all stories have fairy tale endings. Some of them stay on the road to recovery, while others, Robert Downey Jr. be damned, just can't seem to get it right. It doesn't mean any of these people are bad people, they are just lost souls.
Of course I realize the irony here since as I watch each week I find myself become entirely too obsessed with these people's obsessions. Just you wait. One week there may very well be an intervention episode about my intervention to stop watching intervention.
Who knows? It might even be premeditated by one of you.
But lately I have found myself having a soft spot for the hard hitting A&E documentary known simply as Intervention.
The program is exactly as the title says. Each week they feature one or two different real life people who have serious, serious issues that make the people on the Real World look ten times crazier than they already do. I know you didn't think it was possible, but it's true.
In fact, the way you can tell how messed up that week's installment is going to be is by whether or not you share your hour with somebody else. If you manage to get a whole hour devoted to you and your problems alone, you are vying for the crown of king or queen of interventions to end all interventions. So in a way, it's a lot like the Celebrity DeathMatch of Inteventions.
The way they rope the people is this- they tell them that they are making a real life documentary about them and their addiction. They do not know that their family and/or friends are secretly scheming to intervene roughly 38 minutes into the program. Essentially, it's a really morbid version of Candid Camera. The participants honestly believe the camera crew is just going to follow them around a few weeks and then say sayonara.
And the fact that they believe this is just another sign these people are severly unglued.
I've tried to figure out for months why I am so taken with Intervention. Recently I've equated it with the innate feeling we all get from time to time, also known as "Curious George car crash syndrome". This is the part of you, of everyone, that slows down or stops and tries to see what is going on when something obviously went very wrong. We know that whatever we see (or hear) is not going to be pleasant, far from it, but something inside of us compels us to seek it out anyhow. Incidentally it's all the same reason shows like the Real World have remained so successful for all of these years.
While the problems themselves vary from everything from various drug addictions to gambling to even shopping, there almost always is one common denominator. After we get a brief glimpse into the subject's everyday lives there is ALMOST ALWAYS a loved one who sadly says, "It wasn't supposed to be this way", or something of the sort.
This is when the flashback segue kicks into high gear. This is also usually when they get me cause as anyone woman will tell ya, the way to heartstrings is good old fashioned slow motion flashback sequence.
You see that no matter what these people's problems are, that usually they didn't start out of the blue. They were abused. They dealt with a lot of loss. They were unloved etc, etc. I find this part so fascinating because it only goes to show you that the majority of messed up people wouldn't be so messed up if life would just leave them the hell alone.
By the end of the episode the participant is crying. The family and friends are crying and then before you know it, I am crying. From day to day I don't find myself to be an overly emotional girl, but the idea that someone who once was lost is now found, someone who is blind can now see is definitely amazing to me.
At the very, very end of every episode we get my absolute favorite part- the update. This I have decided is one thing that is lacking in make believe tv and thus, why reality television has ruled the airwaves the past decade or so. This is because reality tv is full of real life people you can follow up on after the show is over. There are reunions. There are Google searches. There is My Space. In short, the days of wondering where someone is now are long over.
With fictional characters you can't do that. Sure you wonder what happened to the cute kid who played the nerd in The Breakfast Club, but telling someone he's now the guy on The Dead Zone it just doesn't have the same ring to it.
And in the end the real reality is that not all stories have fairy tale endings. Some of them stay on the road to recovery, while others, Robert Downey Jr. be damned, just can't seem to get it right. It doesn't mean any of these people are bad people, they are just lost souls.
Of course I realize the irony here since as I watch each week I find myself become entirely too obsessed with these people's obsessions. Just you wait. One week there may very well be an intervention episode about my intervention to stop watching intervention.
Who knows? It might even be premeditated by one of you.
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