Meth of the masses

Here's a little test:

Step 1: Read this scene description:

"An alcoholic meth addict stripper throws food, spits, plays the music of Nine Inch Nails or some 'industrial' band that aspires to be Reznorian, and engages in a fist fight with her sister that goes from in to outdoors. She is nude throughout. This scene is from A&E's Intervention, a show that advises viewer discretion."

Step 2: Resist watching the actual scene that the above blurb describes:

(Download)

It's hard, right? I'm well beyond the stage of piqued curiosity, having watched the above scene about 20 times now, and I'm still having a hard time resisting that play button. This comes from an episode of Intervention that originally aired in August. A few Google searches provide some message-board references to the episode, but as far as I can tell, it was never YouTubed or written about in any detail. I'm shocked, as this is not the most insane Intervention episode I've ever seen, it's one of the most insane things I've ever seen, period. I figure if nothing else, this clip should serve as a record of my deep, deep fascination with Cristy, someone who, at age 24, has been using meth for 10 years now.

Immediately, I feel like I have to defend my perverse pleasure in watching someone who's clearly demented (despite the fact that flying Cup o' Noodles is comedy, no matter the pilot, no matter the situation). I think ultimately, whether you cackled throughout the clip or really were able to skip it based on your disgust at the preceding description, it's hard to deny that this is extraordinary human behavior. It's only now that reality TV's debt to mondo movies is totally clear to me -- now, 45 years after the granddaddy of the shockumentary, Mondo Cane, promised on its poster to be your doorway to "a hundred incredible worlds where the camera has never gone before," it's a goal of broadcast media to make that number of worlds infinite. Cristy's is but one of millions.

Things might not be as romantic as the sofa-surfing-as-world-travel scenario envisioned above -- schadenfreude is knocking on the door of the house party. And how easy (and borderline socially acceptable) it is to revel in the misfortune of someone who was stupid enough to become addicted to meth, right? The length of her drug use makes it even hard to sympathize with her family (they're just intervening now?). But even more than these admittedly heartless and cynical rationalizations, there's an even bigger excuse for schadenfreude at work -- the simple fact that this is broadcast on television. It's funny, the push-pull of the media machine that gives us access to all these worlds and for what? Derisive laughter at the differences that make humankind what it is? Celebration of those differences? Reassurance that our lives could be worse? Reassurance that there's someone like us out there? While attempting to figure out why it's OK to be entertained by something so bleak and ostensibly real (and really, attempting to sort out how this doesn't make me a giant asshole), it struck me that I can't exactly defend this show as being socially responsible (at least, it isn't based on my reaction to it). There really is little difference between the above display and what goes down on the textbook target of trash-TV haters, The Jerry Springer Show. Well, there's the dim hope of rehabilitation that Intervention offers, always after the circus -- is it poetic justice or just plain poetry that "intervention" rhymes with "pretension"?

Taking pleasure in others' pain (or lack of self-awareness that leads to pain) is especially pertinent right now because of this week's debut of the seventh season of American Idol. Or at least, that's what I hear on The View, whose condescending panel bitched about the AI judges' treatment of the deluded, ugly and tone deaf during this week's episodes. (A side note: Is anyone else looking forward to the day when the View  shrews are not the only ones setting the topic for whatever pop-cultural discourse is happening at the moment? Not only that but, Christ, as though Rosie's constant carrying on and theatrics don't comprise their own sort of freak show! She has America gawking at her every disgruntled and myopic complaint!) The deluded, ugly and tone deaf, though, seemingly try out for American Idol just to be on TV (which we've known for years now!). And since America loves fame so much, America is defensive about it -- fame whores, those in the spotlight for the wrong reasons face ridicule and punishment (it's here that Flavor of Love/I Love New York become more reflective of society than most would care to admit). So we laugh at idiocy. It's therapeutic, much like America's Next Top Model is therapy -- it's exercise for the id, as it creates a world where it's not just acceptable, but encouraged to judge someone only for superficial reasons. It's a way to politely experience what seems to be an integral part of the human condition for so many of us.

No matter how real something purports to be, the camera is the inescapable variable. It often affects whom it's pointed at, resulting in showboating, but it also affects the discerning viewer – we're aware of this very tendency of the camera to vary a situation, and so we understand that what we're seeing is merely an approximation of reality. Cristy's life is painful, yes, but her performance begs to be watched. Its unreality is just as crucial as its reality.

During one of my several viewings of Cristy's Intervention episode, someone that I didn't know that well who hated reality TV (see a connection?!) looked on and winced. "Ugh, what's next? Where do we go from here?" he asked in a manner not unlike homophobes who suggest that people being allowed marry animals must be the next logical step after legalized gay marriage. His question expressed his doom for our culture. I can relate to what he was asking -- I often wonder the same thing. Except when I do, I'm giddy over the prospects.

[Love, as always, goes out to slutmachine, who gave me the heads-up and brought Cristy into my world. Oh, and I'm not just plugging, sm's blog, but her existence, in case you're concerned. Thank God for you, slutmachine, the wind beneath my wings.]

Comments

[siren823]

I tivo Intervention on a regular basis. As a social worker, I find it endlessly fascinating and heartbreaking. When I watch most of the episodes, I spend most of it trying to figure out which one will actually end up going through the program and staying sober. Usually, I am wrong.
One of the things about Intervention is it somewhat normalizes the experiences. I know that sounds strange, but I have the feeling that someone who sees themselves in that situation, a parent, a sister, a friend of an addict (or cutter or bulimic) can also see that there is hope for their situation. A&E isn't exactly known for their Springer type shows.
Yes, I admit, I like to watch the train wrecks too.

[.Chris.]

Oh man Christi.
I seriously love intervention, and yes basically to watch dysfunction caused by drug induced escapades- to me its just pure entertainment.
I really loved this post rich, i really agree with others- you should write a book. you are simply fantastic.

You missed the best part though, when you talk of haow delusional the family is having waited so god damn long to intervene- you have to mention the father- and how he's a "musician" and he has that pathetic song about her that he sings- it really makes the episode that much better to me.

"shes so pretty and shes witty thats my christy- shes my world- my little girl-to me....thats who she'll always be..."

or something to that note.
last i checked she went to jail because she was still fucked up. do you know anything?

[slut machine]

i bet like 6 years ago, when cristy was only 4 years into her meth career, we would've had a lot of fun together. except i wouldn't do meth, i'd just get drunk and we'd laugh and laugh. we'd just roar.

and thanks for the shout out. tez!

[starstattoo]

I fail to see why so many people think that watching human train wrecks on television (or the internets) is a recent thing or represents some sort of decline. It's only been about 100 years since Americans stopped attending public hangings for entertainment. We watch fictionalized autopsies and horrible sex crimes on prime-time network television, we rubberneck at traffic accidents, and we deliberately scare ourselves with gruesome horror movies or tv newsmagazines. One of our most popular fictional characters is a genius serial killing-cannibal, and one of the surest ways for a recording artist to increase sales is to land in prison. One of the top-selling music acts last year was a troupe of female burlesque dancers, and no one could shut up about the ubiquitous shots of the Brazilian waxes of sundry starlets.

We have been behaving this way all throughout history. It did not end with the fall of the western Roman Empire, and it did not reappear in the late 20th century.

From slapstick comedy to town-square executions, we have always been entertained by other people's suffering. From the statues of intercourse on Hindu temples to lesbian pulp fiction, we have always been entertained by other people's private activities, especially those that are 'immoral', salacious, or pathetic.

It seems that we've declined as a civilization because for the first few decades of broadcast technology, we maintained (for the most part) an artificially moral and mannered facade, one inherited from the upper classes of the Victorian era. But Queen Victoria, whose name became synonymous with 'prude and repressed' had a husband with a genital piercing.

[jezebelly]

Rich, what a fantastic, insightful and thought provoking essay.

[Queen Lena]

starstattoo is absolutely right. Thank you for that.

[Miss Kitty]

Prince Albert had a Prince Albert? Starstattoo, you've gotta fill us in on that one.

[kestrien]

You're on Best Week Ever again!

http://www.bestweekever.tv/2007/01/22/little-girls-love-belly-shirts/

[Calisha Jenkins of drunky brewster fame]

favs quote from this, which I actually texted to myself when I wasted-ly watched this with your sister from another monther: "I am just on a perminate good one that none of you will ever experience and I feel sorry for all of you." I can relate.

[Maya]

Speaking of schadenfreude, have you seen engaged and underage on MTV. It is pretty amazing, I only saw one episode, but as far as I could tell, these two 21 year olds were gettign married blantantly so tehy can have sex (becasue tehy do not believe in sex before marriage). The truth of eth matter is taht the couple does seem happy to be getting married, but teh schandenfreude comes from watching teh wedding preparations and teh awkardness with the families. It is no I love New York, but it is still pretty great!

[Alyson]

This has been replayed recently and it is on On Demand if you have comcast (i am in Cali, not sure who your cable provider is). It is a particularly great episode. The whole series is fantastic.

[Ian]

Did you know you can now buy a whole video of this sort of stuff?

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0701/gallery.101dumbest_2007/91.html

[Lena]

Um, for starters? That is going to be one nasty yeast infection.

And I have to side with Cristy. I think it really IS because she's skinny and the other girl's fat.

[theidlereceptionist]

Ok, I'm a closeted intervention fan and I know that makes me nothing more than a voyeur. I saw the episode in question a couple weeks ago and it was the craziest one I've ever seen!

[mike]

The girl has bipolar disorder and she is manic the entire episode. I don't see why no one has brought this up until now. Trust me on this...I have bipolar disorder, and I know tons of people that have it. I have also known tons of meth heads. She doesn't even use that much meth, and if she had been using for ten years hard core she would look A LOT worse. She is exaggerating her drug use.

She is manic. This is actually a really good primer on what someone with severe psychotic mania looks and acts like. The God delusions, the permanent smile tattooed on her face, the statement "I am just on a permanent good one..." etc...those are all classic symptoms of mania.

The drugs are defintely making it a lot worse, but she will not get better until she gets treated for her underlying mental illness that no one on the show seemed to recognize.

[Madame M]

What a great entry.

[Lila]

This episode disturbed me so much...I cant believe that for TEN years she has been using and NOW they decide to do an intervention? To see how she lives and acts is horrible. Her family should be ashamed of themselves. I knew right from the start of the episode she was too far gone to either go to or complete and rehab. Ten years of meth and the amount of alocohol she drinks - I am surprised she still looks the way she does, having seen before and after pics of meth users. What bothered me most is her family enables her to be the way she is and to live the disgusting way she lives. I wished I could just shake her and change her into a drug-free girl, my heart broke for her for some reason. I really don't think that deep down she wants to live the way she does, I think she is punishing her family in some way for the devastation she went through when her parents split and her mother moved her 200 miles away from her father who she idolized. I wonder what has happened since she was filmed? does anyone know?

[Steam Man]

Lo que viene siendo un putísimo 10 !! tópamí, tópadentro.

[duane]

I'm just shocked that people like her exist.

[FIFI]

UGHHH. Its "fascinating" to watch because you can turn it off and on... in essence you're in "control". Imagine what its like to live that day after day after day?... its not very fascinating. meth plain addiction is a motherfucker. Come to Hollywood... you can see em all over.

[FIFI]

In addition most of these "kids" grew up in abusive environments that just continues to produce this life of hell. Try to remember that girl is a kid and she was once a newborn... and before you know it shes probably gonna either have babies and keep the insanity going... or i hate saying it but i prefer this.. shes gonna become another statistic 6 feet under or more realistically shes gonna end up in a morgue unclaimed cause she burned so many bridges and broke so many hearts...unless of course she gets clean/sober. just another day in paradise.

[Andrea]

I wanna Re-watch the full episode of Cristy's intervention, But I don't know where to down load it or... where to watch it and that. I really love this episode it caught my eye one day when I was cooking up a storm in the kitchen for the kid's. and I only got to see her Intvention and I really really want to watch from the the begining But can anyone I mean anyone help with that? Please and thank you get back to me Bye!!

[mike]

Andrea,

You can find the torrent of it here:

http://www.mininova.org/tor/408828

Or you can google it and find another source for the torrent. To download a torrent you need a program called "Azureus"....that one I find works the best. Just google it and download that program, and than you can find the Intervention episode using google if the above one doesn't work.

[gestibar]

nice :)
;))

[B]

Cristy is my idol. She has transcended time and space. She should have her own show.