TresSugar

Addicted to A&E's Intervention? You're Not Alone

TresSugar — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:00:09 -0700

Exploitation. Voyeurism. Tears. There are all sorts of reasons to tune into A&E's Intervention. Maybe it's because it capitalizes on people at their lowest of lows that we cannot help but feel a twinge of guilt for tuning in again . . . and again. Its viewers are certainly a loyal bunch - some people (mostly them) would go as far as to say addicted.

Now Funny or Die has given the obsessive need to watch Intervention a name, a face, a parody. It's not the funniest thing I've seen, though I do love when his sister says, "It's the driving that worries me," as we see Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen, the addicted, driving while watching. And it does star Elisabeth Moss, Fred's fiancee, better known as Peggy Olson on Mad Men!

Intervention Intervention with Fred Armisen from Fred Armisen

TV Interventions: Eye-Opening Truth or Blinding Exploitation?

TresSugar — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:00:00 -0700

Celebrity DJ Adam Goldstein (aka DJ AM) has teamed up with MTV to launch a new show tentatively titled Gone Too Far. The reality show will capture tough-love interventions for young people addicted to drugs.

You might be wondering what DJing has to do with kicking addictions. He may spin songs for party animals, but DJ AM is not one himself. He admits to a tumultuous upbringing and a struggle with hard drugs. After getting serious about recovery, with the help of friends, he has been sober for over a decade now.

DJ AM's new show sounds like A&E's Intervention, one of my favorites. While it's often hard to watch, I'm fascinated by the damage caused by addiction, and more importantly the subject's ability to confront it. I appreciate that the show almost always tells a full story - we see an addict before, during, and after the intervention.

How do you feel about these types of shows?

Source

Intervention Has Never Been So Fun

GiggleSugar — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:06:20 -0700

I'm having a hard time breaking my addition to A&E's Intervention. (Though I guess it could be worse.) Perhaps a song is in order?

See more Kristin Chenoweth videos at Funny or Die

Does This Reality Go Too Far?

DearSugar — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:00:00 -0700

My new favorite show, Intervention, is gaining popularity by the second. It's the show I can't wait to discuss with my friends the next day and even though the people depicted are troubled and in dire need of help, I'm fascinated each and every episode. Of course reality TV isn't anything new, but this documentary takes the reality to a whole other level. A recent article in The New York Times said it best: "Nothing on television matches its freaky calculus of exploitation and good will. Cameras follow the addicts as they shoot up, freebase, panhandle and score."

Though I feel a little voyeuristic watching these people inflicting such pain on themselves and their loved ones, knowing that the end of the hour will lead to a happy ending - out of 102 addicts profiled on the show, only two have declined treatment - makes me feel a whole lot less guilty. So if you're a fan like me, glued to the TV every Monday night, tell me, is Intervention taking reality TV too far or does it make you realize all that you have to appreciate in your own life?

Source

Girl Intervention

DearSugar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:00:00 -0700

Even the most optimistic people feel down every once and a while; it’s only human. But sometimes, one day of feeling sad turns into a week and then a month and before you know it, you’ve go a bad case of the blues. The only thing worse than finding yourself in one of these phases, is having to watch a friend go through it.

You can be the best listener ever, but sometimes the only thing that works is a girl intervention, you know, when you and your friends plan an amazing day or evening for her in order to lift her spirits. There’s just nothing like a girl intervention to remind someone that they’re loved, and let's be honest, we all could use the reminder from time to time. So does your group of friends do this for each other, too? What are your tricks for cheering up your friends when life gets them down?

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Divine Intervention: 1 in 2 Say Prayer Saves the Dying. Do You?

CitizenSugar — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:44:20 -0700

Paging Dr. God? More than half of adults in the US put more faith in the divine than in a doctor's care - 57 percent said God's intervention could save a dying family member even if their doctor had declared treatment futile. Researchers say this data should spur doctors into being prepared "to deal with families who are waiting for a miracle."

Oddly, the strong show of faith over doctoring may be a result of leaps in medical care. The author of the study says that advances in trauma treatment has allowed more patients to survive past the scene of an accident, living longer and allowing more time for hope and prayer. He says, hospital trauma specialists "are much more heavily engaged in the death process," and that he frequently meets people who think God will save their dying loved one. It's a tricky balance, mediating a miracle. He says, "you have to respect that," while still showing the medical facts that may ultimate prove otherwise.

With prayer even being credited with softening gas prices, where do you stand?

Source

Intervention: Dog Food Addiction

GiggleSugar — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:02:00 -0800

This season, A&E goes where no do-good show has gone before: into the dark underbelly of dog food addiction. She's only a baby, but Katie has a serious problem. The temptation to nosh on kibble has consumed her appetite, her curiosity, and her exploratory crawling time. Will Katie be saved before it's too late? Watch the intervention unfold...

Somebody Stage an Intervention!

GiggleSugar — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:44:31 -0800

This ~~cat~~ crackhead is really getting into the holiday spirit! Too bad he needs drugs. Cats these days. . .

Have Cafe Novelists Replaced Boozin' Writers?

TresSugar — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:30:07 -0700

In the past, the writer's life was often a lush life. Many great American novelists - including Ernest Hemingway and John Cheever - were notorious drunks. In fact, according to an article by Tom Shone in the new issue of More Intelligent Life, five of America's seven Nobel literary laureates were alcoholics:

In America William Faulkner and Scott Fitzgerald were the Paris and Britney of their day, caught in the funhouse mirror of fame, their careers a vivid tabloid mash-up of hospitalizations and electroshock therapies.

Rehab wasn't something people did back in the '30s. Neither was recovery-centric memoir writing. When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a story for Esquire chronicling his struggles, Hemingway told him to cast his "balls into the sea-if you have any balls left."

Ever since rehab went mainstream in the 1960s, Shone observes, the boozing writer stereotype is less typical. Both Cheever and Raymond Carver came out of rehab and kept writing; Stephen King got sober after an intervention. So where have all the overindulgent writers gone?

Is This What They Call an "Intervention"?

GiggleSugar — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 07:02:00 -0800

This poor, sleepy, drunken fool is about to get a rude awakening. Consider this video a reminder why "drink less" should be one of your New Year's resolutions...