Friday Fight: Is Intervention Wonderful Or Terrible?
Even though Lindsay and Gabe are friends, they very rarely agree on anything. Every day, they have a fight about something. On Fridays, we publish one.
lindsay: Intervention is widely considered by smart people to be the best reality show. Why do you disagree?
gabe: it's the definition of exploitation
lindsay: Is it the TEARS OF SADNESS or the TEARS OF JOY?
gabe: also what is this 'widely considered by smart people'
gabe: you and your friends are not that smart
lindsay: But it's not. It's not like celebrity rehab. They really help people.
gabe: i didn't say celebrity rehab was great either
gabe: but compared to a normal reality show
lindsay: I was saying Intervention is different. CR is exploitative.
gabe: these are not people who need attention, they're people who need help
gabe: and it's not like these people are getting the help they need because the cameras are there
gabe: that's bullshit
lindsay: I think the show helps a lot of people who aren't on the show.
gabe: oh get real
gabe: look, this show is a show
gabe: it's not a charity
gabe: it's sole reason for existing is to sell advertising
gabe: period
lindsay: I think people feel like they actually learn something by watching it.
gabe: you can learn a lot about addiction by watching a two hour documentary about addiction, sure
gabe: but at this point Intervention is on what season?
gabe: I think you and your friends get it now
lindsay: Season 5
lindsay: haha, I never actually said a thing about my friends
gabe: maybe the first two episodes really opened your eyes
gabe: at this point it's just voyeurism
gabe: at the expense of truly sick people
lindsay: Well, in the beginning they were more explotative and less deep (the former ER star who was a shopping addict comes to mind)
lindsay: Every show exists to sell advertising, but some shows actually add something to the world.
gabe: what on earth does this add to teh world?
gabe: these are intensely private miseries that take years to treat and process emotionally
lindsay: Well, there's a reunion episode later this season!
lindsay: Where they'll talk about the years it's taken to be treated.
lindsay: The best thing about the show are the interventionists, Candy Finnigan and especially Jeff Van Vonderen
lindsay:They're fascinating because they're not ready for prime time at all. lindsay: They're not Dr. Phil, they're the real thing.
gabe: I'm sure the doctors and therapists on that show are wonderful people
lindsay: There are a lot of reality shows about strange jobs, but what other job has a prerequisite of former drug addiction?
gabe: wait
gabe: you are seriously going to pretend that the draw of this show is the nice therapists?
lindsay: To quote a commenter last week "Jeff Van Vonderen is my boyfriend."
gabe: I think my main problem with this show
gabe: is the idea that because "smart people like it" and because it's on Arts and Entertainment
gabe: that that somehow makes it not fucked up
gabe: like, you're welcome to like it
gabe: but to pretend like it's not horribly exploitative
gabe: if you liked this show and said "man, it's kidn of fucked up that they're doing this to people, but it's really entertaining and at least they help some of them"
gabe: that would be one thing
gabe: but to pretend that this is some elevated work of cultural improvement is total garbage
lindsay: Well, what I meant by that is I watch reality shows, but I seem to have met a lot of people who don't except Intervention.
lindsay: And the show does just go deeper than your average reality show.
gabe: yes, i agree that it is invasive
lindsay: I challenge you to watch Monday's episode without feeling something:
lindsay: I guess you don't cry, but I did!
gabe: again, i think you're missing the point
gabe: my emotional gratification at the expense of others doesn't impress me
gabe: like, i might cry because these people are living horrible situations
gabe: that doesn't make it right that i get to watch it
gabe: and cry
lindsay: the best part is when you cry at the end seeing how much 3 months of rehab has changed them, though.
lindsay: Except when people die, it's a hopeful show.
gabe: hahahah
lindsay: It doesn't make you feel as terrible about the world as 99% of reality shows
gabe: reality shows don't make me feel terrible about the world
though
lindsay: really?
lindsay: I can't even watch them alone.
lindsay: I think reality shows make a lot of people depressed, I don't think I'm alone in that.
gabe: no, i don't think you are
gabe: well, i think reality shows make a lot of overeducated people depressed. i think it's a very specific group
gabe: i think the majority of americans are perfectly happy with their reality tv
gabe: the reason that reality tv does not depress me is that everyone, basically, is a willing participant
lindsay: Including on Intervention. You think they don't know?
gabe: oh they know
gabe: but i don't think they have particularly sharp decision making skills
gabe: there's a big difference between "sure i'll live in a shitty mansion and give a stranger a blowjob" and 'sure i'll have six of the most painful months of my life documented on national television along with six of the most painful months of everyone in my family's life"
lindsay: I think that a lot of these families can't afford the kind of expensive treatment the show offers.
lindsay: Okay, obviously I am willing to believe that because I love the show.
gabe: sure, and i think that makes sense as a reason why they might be willing to participate
lindsay: BUT the show is good.
gabe: but that's the same argument as a lot of poor kids join the army because it gives them the potential to go to school while actually the army ferociously recruits poor people with false promises
lindsay: Usually the families on the show aren't poor, but treatment costs a lot.
lindsay: The families on the show are middle class.
gabe: the argument that the families are getting treatment they couldn't get if they weren't on the show is the same argument as
gabe: sweasthops are actually good because the people who work there make more money than the people who can't even get a job in the sweasthop
gabe: which is often the case
gabe: it's just kind of morally unfair
lindsay: Well, my argument is that unlike most reality shows, Intervention has the potential to put something good out into the world.
lindsay: Like, nobody watches Flavor Of Love and is like "I feel like I know more about how to help someone in my life."
lindsay: They're just like "Snap! She shit in her pants!"
gabe: i'm not arguing that flavor of love makes the world a better place, NECESSARILY
gabe: but at the very least
gabe: flavor of love is boldly honest with itself about what it is
gabe: Intervention is a snake
lindsay: But the thing is, Intervention isn't this really juicy fun thing to watch. It's hard to watch.
gabe: car crash
lindsay: If they wanted to be exploitative, they could do it a LOT better.
gabe: you're doing all these lesser of two evils argumentation
gabe: 'it could be so much meaner"
gabe: doesn't make it nice
lindsay: No, I think it's a good show. I think it's about as tasteful as a non-public TV reality show could be.
gabe: right, and i disagree whole-heartedly
lindsay: And I think the people on it for the most part come out of it feeling like they helped others.
lindsay: Well, except probably the meth people.
lindsay: There's really not much hope there.
gabe: so, how have you helped people using the knowledge that you've gained
lindsay: HAHAHAHAHA
lindsay: Well, I know to never try meth.
gabe: it's funny that you needed a tv show
gabe: you should get better at knowing things
lindsay: I think there's an element of the show that is very comforting.
lindsay: Jeff Van Vonderen's tough love is very comforting and sane.
gabe: I think there's something very comforting in being reminded
gabe: that people have much worse lives than you do
lindsay: Well, also, there's a big element of "If this happens to me, I know what to say and what to do."
gabe: i don't think that makes it not-exploitative and of dubious-motivation
gabe: oh get REAL
gabe: the idea that this show somehow provides a pre-emptive treatment program
gabe: for the rapid downward spiral into a devastating addiciton
gabe: no, david blaine
lindsay: you are on crack.
Posted by Lindsay at 5:38 PM in Friday Fight, Reality TV, Train Wreck Documentaries
Tags: Intervention
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I have not seen the show Intervention, but I do agree with Gabe. When I see promos for Makeover: Home Edition, I think it's a total exploit. Yes, they are doing a good thing for the family, but they seem to keep getting families that are more destitute each week, just so we can feel like we are doing good by caring and being aware, but we are actually feeling better about ourselves. I feel like it is a freak-show effect.
Score = -2
I love this comment. You HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN THE SHOW, yet you're taking the side that a SHOW YOU HAVEN'T SEEN must be exploitive because of promos for a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SHOW. You sir, are impressive in your misguidedness.
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The show is a public service. I'll make my kids watch marathons when they get old enough. These are the (surprisingly uniform) consequences of substance abuse.
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Caring and being aware? But Lindsey! I thought you're primary motivation was being clueless and unaware. C'mon over and attack us again some more, snowflake.
Gilmore Girls! That's what you need to be watching. Leave the hard core stuff to folks born before1992.
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Gabe, you come of as such a dick. Debates are only fun if those involved aren't totally stubborn.
What's the difference between this type of Reality TV and a documentary? Both are voyeuristic and exploitive by nature. And if the exploitation of a few willing drug addicts serves to educate the public even a little, it's worth it. Especially considering their alternative, which is to have virtually no impact on anyone besides a negative one on their immediate families.
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Lindsay is right:
Meth is Bad.
There ought to be a show about it.
I can't believe what a Meth Apologist Gabe is.
Methinks someone is smoking too much Drugs.
p.s. Squiggly sounds like kind of a dick. (and is obviously a meth addict.)
Score = 1
Gabe wins.
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lindsay wins
gabe is just hard to arggue with
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I agree with both sides, actually. Yes, it's awful to broadcast the very worst, most heartbreaking period of someone's life to millions of viewers for the sake of turning a profit. But many of the people who watch the show probably know someone wih a substance abuse or self-harm problem, and the show probably gives them a jumping-off point on how to deal with that kind of issue. Obviously, everyone deals with addiction and recovery differently -- some people just choose to be an example/warning to others by letting themselves be filmed and broadcast.
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Hey Gabe
Radiohead posted "Gabe and Max's Internet Thing" on their site
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Radiohead probably got it from Andrew Sullivan. INTERNET!
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Intervention is misery porn, and I can't get enough.
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The biggest issue I have with this show is that it doesn't help you with a starting point if you know someone with an addiction. They tell you (or should tell you) that you need to have an interventionist with you when you do something like this because doing it on your own is very reckless and runs a high risk of not working. A&E has also shown documentaries of people on Meth on their channel, and I find a real documentary more impactful because these are people who need help and aren't being offered it. It may be more exploitative because there is no aid offered, but I think that would be more effective as a deterrent than a show that says you can f*ck up your life and put your family through hell and someone will still offer to pay for treatment for you. The people on Intervention tend to piss me off because they are given help and most of the time it's like twisting their arms off just to get them to go. I say, if they're willing to throw their lives away, let them. That would be a great lesson for people: don't do drugs or you will end up like these people.
Gabe wins because the show isn't watched by most people for the Interventionists but to see how jacked up these people are...and maybe to see how the treatment worked (which isn't a true assessment unless you watch the reunion shows...and I have only seen one reunion show and most of the people on it failed). I don't cry watching these shows because that's just silly. I have a brother-in-law who struggled with drug abuse for years (starting in his young teens) and his family had the good sense to not whore him out for the television cameras just to get someone else to foot the bill of his treatment (and yes, they used an interventionist). Don't use your loved one as a lesson for others; that doesn't help the addict and it is exploitative.
If you want your kids to see something really shocking, there are videos out there of real drug addicts where you get to see how terrible it really is without the "happy ending" of treatment.
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Gabe, you say "exploitative" but I say "cathartic." As someone who has known people with severe substance abuse problems, this show gives me ideas and also has a stand-in therapeutic effect. And I think it really does show people like the people in last night's episode that there is a way out.
So, obvs, I agree with Lindsayism.
Interesting side question: They do name the rehab facilities by name and give their location. Do those facilities pay a fee for that kind of exposure?
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I love Jeff VanVonderen like crazy.
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