Addiction-centered Reality Programs

Discuss TV shows old and new.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
mfunk9786
Under Chris' Protection
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 4:43 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Addiction-centered Reality Programs

#1 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:28 pm

warren oates wrote:--My Strange Addiction: Before anyone says anything about this, I dare you to watch the episodes about the
SpoilerShow
gasoline drinking (as in several times a day!) girl and the car loving (as in romantically) guy.
What bugs me about My Strange Addiction is that the episodes aren't really focused on significant progress - the person sees a psychiatrist once, and rarely concludes with any sort of new perspective on their issue. Sure, I love the freakshow element as much as the next person, but it doesn't reach the heights in terms of self-improvement and actual progress that Hoarders or Intervention do.
Last edited by mfunk9786 on Fri Oct 19, 2012 5:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
warren oates
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:16 pm

Re: Dynamic Top 10 Current TV Shows

#2 Post by warren oates » Fri Oct 19, 2012 3:39 pm

Well, I think you're being a little unfair to the show. I've seen almost all the episodes now. And while it's true that strange addictions are often as intractable as more common ones, the producers of the show now seem to have a fairly decent formula worked out for trying to impact the subjects meaningfully, including structuring in public confessions to friends and loved ones and visits with medical professionals who warn them of dire physical consequences and usually refer them to psychologists. You're one of the only people I've ever heard holding up a show like Hoarders as a paragon of self-improvement. I couldn't make it through more than a few episodes for exactly the opposite reason -- it felt so bleak and hopelessly exploitive.

What I like about the strange addiction focus isn't so much that it highlights these people as freaks, but that the structure of their addiction
SpoilerShow
or in the case of the car guy, the structure of his romantic obsession
isn't at all abnormal. It's only their chosen object of addiction/obsession that sets them apart. We've all seen myriad accounts of alcoholics who drink to numb their feelings and continue well after it's clearly hurting themselves and everyone around them. And after a while those kinds of stories, true as they are, lose some of their power to shock and to move us. Change the drink of choice from alcohol to
SpoilerShow
gasoline
and you lay bare the naked desperation of addiction in way that creates more empathy -- at least for me -- than a show like Intervention ever could.

:wink: In light of some of our past discussions, it's a wee bit ironic that part of your problem with the nature of these reality shows is how much their characters ought to be seen to change. On My Strange Addiction, a few of them even do seem okay the way they are.
SpoilerShow
Especially the car guy, though his story really isn't about addiction per se.

User avatar
warren oates
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:16 pm

Re: Addiction-centered Reality Programs

#3 Post by warren oates » Fri Oct 19, 2012 6:08 pm

domino harvey wrote:All of these type of programming are just fancy geek shows, but I guess that's part of the appeal. I'm not necessarily criticizing any of them for serving this function, but it's hard to imagine one being morally "better" than another of similar ilk
I don't know about mfunk, but I'm not making an argument for "moral" superiority, but use-value as info-/edu-tainment. I've not learned anything about addiction from Intervention that I didn't already know, nor felt any especially new feelings toward the subjects. Likewise with Hoarders. Whereas I'd heard about objectophila and pica before but never seen such extreme cases as the ones on My Strange Addiction. And it's these cases in particular that have made me legitimately rethink my own notions of more conventional addictions and romantic relationships.

I suppose in some ways this is the same old discussion about the inherent exploitation present to some degree in all nonfiction filmmaking. Which is obviously always balanced out the by intentions and achievements of each individual work.

Have either of you seen Abby & Brittany? I'll admit that it's too much of a guilty pleasure for me to stump for it in the list thread, but it's a good example of the kind of more humanistic approach these cable reality shows can take toward the admittedly unusual ("freak"/"freakish"/"geek" aren't terms I'd choose) people they feature. If you seek out that show to see a freak, you'll end up pretty disappointed as the girls strike me as more normal and healthy than most people I know.

User avatar
mfunk9786
Under Chris' Protection
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 4:43 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: Addiction-centered Reality Programs

#4 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Oct 19, 2012 6:58 pm

Oh, I wasn't making a moral argument either. More of an argument over what I consider a more compelling dramatic arc. But it's all gravy, you're right on that front

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Addiction-centered Reality Programs

#5 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:10 pm

Anyone watch/seen the UK show Secret Eaters? People who are overweight contact the producers for help understanding why they are so fat and then the show not only sets up cameras and surveillance for a five day period, they hire private eyes to follow the participants everywhere and log their true daily calorie counts. The results are often fascinating-- one middle aged man who thought he was eating a healthy bowl of cereal every morning discovers that between cream and jam and portion size, his "healthy" breakfast cereal clocked in at 2500 calories :shock: -- and like any confrontational "Fix Yourself" show, some are in denial about the evidence and some make healthier life choices. Most if not all of the episodes are up on YouTube and it's pretty entertaining

User avatar
Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Addiction-centered Reality Programs

#6 Post by Gregory » Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:24 pm

First I've ever heard of putting heavy cream on cereal—yuck, and why?. More than ten times the fat of whole milk.
Given the show's stated concern over the obesity epidemic, do they ever focus on health and lifestyle factors (such as sitting around watching lots of TV and not exercising?) or instead focus only on overeating?

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Addiction-centered Reality Programs

#7 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:35 pm

Apparently using cream stops the cereal from getting soggy like normal milk. It also has three times the fat of whole milk. And the cereal he was using was the UK version of Special K-- a diet cereal (even though it like the US version has about the same calories as most unsweetened cereals)

The show is definitely primarily focused on fixing the lifestyle choices that lead to overeating/eating calorie-dense foods than exercise/non-sedentary lifestyle. Obviously a holistic approach with regular exercise (if just to bring up your BMR) is going to produce the best overall results, but the show is targeting a population that increasingly doesn't understand the basics of calorie counting and not overeating "healthy" foods. They set up hidden camera "traps" for everyday people on the street too in between updates on each week's participants, trying to show how temptation and snacking can add up-- I remember one where a guy was handing out free cheese samples and his goal was to get each grazer to take as many samples with them as he could, stuff like that.

User avatar
Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Addiction-centered Reality Programs

#8 Post by Gregory » Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:40 pm

Interesting.

A quick internet search had told me that whole milk had about 3.25% fat content, and heavy cream (aka "double cream," which an article on that guy in that episode mentioned he was using) had about 36–40% fat content (or according to some sites, 48% butterfat content).
Last edited by Gregory on Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Addiction-centered Reality Programs

#9 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:42 pm

Oh wow, I thought the cream was like 10% fat! Yikes! (I, uh, use almond milk which is like 30 calories for a bowl of cereal)

Post Reply