So Intervention, which airs on Sunday nights at 10:00 Eastern on the network where Bill Kurtis once roamed freely, is an extraordinary program. But it is also based on deceiving the very people who have agreed to put their squalid lives on film, and that's never far from the back of your mind when you're watching even the most absorbing episode. As a blurb at the beginning of every episode notes, the documentary subjects have no idea that an intervention is being planned behind their backs, and that it will be shown on camera.
True, everyone featured on the show has desperately needed an intervention and professional treatment. But they are still being lied to, and some of them almost certainly would not agree to appear on the show if they knew what was really going on. When a criminal or terrorist agrees to speak to a journalist, or when a person charged with a serious offence meets with his lawyer, he does so with the knowledge that important information will not be disclosed to the general public. That allows him to open up, and if that trust was betrayed, others in the same situation would never agree to be so candid.
These situations are not perfectly analogous to Intervention, in which the addicts know full well that they're being filmed for a documentary available to the general public, but the principle is the same. In the end, this has not stopped me from regularly watching the show, but it does set a disturbing precedent - and, on some level, it's not that far removed from the infamous British reality show in which men were deceived into competing for the hand of a woman who was actually a pre-operative transsexual.
Many children and teenagers would never go near illegal drugs if they saw what happens to the poor people on Intervention, so some episodes could be used as valuable classroom tools. But if so, the teacher should also lead a class discussion about journalistic ethics.
Article comments
1 - seth
Personally, I root for the drug addicts to continue their misbehavior. How ridiculous it is to live in a society that is bombarded with advertisements for drugs, while at the same time locks up half of its minority citizenry for engaging in the sale and/or use of drugs. There are more black men in jail than in college, and the majority are there due to drug-related activity. We let rapists and murderes out of prison early in order to accomodate the huge number of drug dealers and addicts. While 90% of the population of our country takes some type of drug on a regular basis, we say "drug addict" like it is something we are unfamiliar with, or scared of. For high school students, it's easier to score a bag of weed or meth than it is to get a six-pack of beer, yet we seem extremely reluctant to leagalize either of the former. Is our judgement so far gone that we cannot understand the nature of the black market? Are we that fooled by the repeated mantras and gimmicky, slogan-laden propoganda campaigns spewed forth from our corporate-controlled government? Have they thoroughly brainwashed us to believe that night=day? It would appear so. And that is why, when it comes to "Intervention," I root for the addicts and curse all efforts to stop them. Due to their hypocritical, shortsighted, and chronically myopic view of the world, the sober players in each drug-themed episodes of "Intervention" make me spite them, mock them, and ultimately root against them, no matter the severity of the conflict they are embroiled in. Nothing is worse than being wrong because everyone else said it is acceptable. At least display a little originality or imagination in your wrong-headedness. Why people allow themselves to be manipulated in this manner, I will never comprehend.
2 - rich
i enjoyed reading your opinion on the show intervention and on addiction within society in general. I too see things in a very different way then most and was in agreement with you throughout reading your opinion. But then i realized that you were one of those people who just likes to focus on writing purely to sound intelligent with alternate views on subjects that show how enlightened you are...then i realized that your a moron.heres my opinion, minus the "slogan-laden propoganda campaigns spewed forth from our corporate-controlled government" B.S. ADDICTION IS BAD...HELPING PEOPLE IS GOOD,AND THATS ABOUT AS INTELLIGENT AS IT GETS.
3 - Rick, Manhattan Beach, CA
'Intervention' has helped me with my own addictions and recovery. I'm a middle-aged married father of two. I'm quite functional in my personal and professional life. Still, I have pain from my past that I use addictions to soothe, and issues from which I am slowly recovering. When these addicts and their families share their lives with me, they help me to improve my life and my relationship with my family.
The show, unlike many others, digs into the past of the addict and reveals events that probably caused their addiction. Many of us suffer because it's too scary to go back and do, as Alice Miller says, "the discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and unique history of our childhood." The show deserves a lot of credit for at least getting this process started. This digging is painful and difficult, but worth it. So much coverage of addiction -- fictional and non-fictional -- seems to ignore the underlying issues. Often it's assumed that the addict just one day started to shoot up or whatever for fun or pleasure or self-interest, and now they can't stop. I can relate to the different events and hardships in people's lives. There are common themes, and surprising exceptions. Many addicts have suffered miserable abuse. Some kids simply respond badly to divorce. To those who think that addiction is an over-reaction to a hardship, I would just say that different people respond differently. Although some kids handle divorce well, others, like Cristy in the show, "collapse in a heap on the floor" and have their lives forever changed by the event.
For example, last night's counselor said that pretty young Andrea seeks validation from men. She strips for cash for a 75-year old neighbor and lets men abuse her. Sound familiar to anyone? The series is filled with information that we can use to understand our own motivations and make adjustments to our lives. Often it's those of us with smaller issues who suffer the longest. As they say, even a stopped watch is right twice a day, but a slow watch can go undetected for quite a while, until it's made your life miserable.
To the producers: Thank you for making the show, for digging into the past, for the follow-ups. Also, graphics, the format, and the theme music are brilliant.
To the addicts: thank you for your courage to share. Whether or not you have helped yourself, you have helped me.
4 - Janice
My brother and sister will be on season 4 of Intervention. They went into taping knowing that they were going to be doing a documentary film about their drug/alcohol use that would be on television. They agreed to the taping because they knew how bad off they were at this point in their lives and they wanted to share that with the world so that maybe, just maybe, people watching the documentary would sewe the effects of drugs and stop before they got too far into it.
Has the road to recovery been easy for them? Hell no! I am sure that there are days when they want to curse the family for "tricking" them into recovery.. but the next day, they are calling us to thank us for caring enough about them to send them to rehab.
The taping was not only hard for them.. it was hard for our whole family. We watched our brother and sister doing things that no one should ever have to witness. Watching your brother shoot up cocaine into his arm without a flinch is something that stays with you for a long time.
I am so happy that the show was able to help my family. My brother and sister will complete their 90 days of rehab on November 17, 2007. Without Intervention, I don't feel as though my brother would have made it to November 17th alive..
5 - l_ematson
I would like to thank all the people that made this program possible iam currently studying to be an alcohol and drug counseler and ill keep watching
6 - Schele Hayes
I am very disapointed in this women Sandy that was beaten by her husband and allowed it to happen to her children. YOU COULD HAVE SAVED THEM FROM THIS ABUSE. You had no where to go. How about down the fucking street on the corner where your kids would have been safer than they were in your care. DRY IT UP. You make me sick
7 - bd
As far as deception goes: whether or not there was a TV show involved, any intervention would still involve deception, in that no addict would come to an intervention if they knew that's what it was going to be. This is partly because the addicts are sick, and need this shock to the system to help them get better. A show about Interventions cannot help then to be deceptive in this way. Otherwise, the addicts are under no illusion that the dirt of their addiction is going to be aired nationally; they agree to be a part of a documentary that is going to air all aspects of their addiction.