Intervention
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We watched this weekend an episode of Intervention that was so depressing, it is still sticking with me. It profiled an alcoholic named Bret who refuses to go into treatment. There is a horrible segment of his son who is maybe 10 and his daughter, a teen, sobbing hysterically and begging Bret to seek treatment. It is heart-wrenching. Bret refuses even after they threaten to never have contact with him again. The son is especially compelling due to his age and the sheer terror and gaping wounds being produced in front of the viewer's eyes. After an off-camera break, the family convinces his to go or they will seek to have him involuntarily committed. He spends 80 days in treatment (or something like that) before he is diagnosed with eesophageal cancer. He goes home to be with his family and dies three weeks later.
The end of the program, the family is interviewed. The boys says that at least his dad got to come to one of his basketball games. He is clearly moved by his father's short sobriety. He ended with the words, "At least he didn't die a drunk, he died a dad."
Maybe you had to see it to get the emotion of the moment. To be enraged by his selfishness. To then be shocked at his death. To feel so deeply for his family. I had a good cry. Turned the TV off. And even now, I can't get that little boy out of my head. His hurt. His open bleeding on screen. His mature and wise last words of the program. And the sheer horror of the terrible ending to that chapter of that family's life. (Episode 93)
We watched this weekend an episode of Intervention that was so depressing, it is still sticking with me. It profiled an alcoholic named Bret who refuses to go into treatment. There is a horrible segment of his son who is maybe 10 and his daughter, a teen, sobbing hysterically and begging Bret to seek treatment. It is heart-wrenching. Bret refuses even after they threaten to never have contact with him again. The son is especially compelling due to his age and the sheer terror and gaping wounds being produced in front of the viewer's eyes. After an off-camera break, the family convinces his to go or they will seek to have him involuntarily committed. He spends 80 days in treatment (or something like that) before he is diagnosed with eesophageal cancer. He goes home to be with his family and dies three weeks later.
The end of the program, the family is interviewed. The boys says that at least his dad got to come to one of his basketball games. He is clearly moved by his father's short sobriety. He ended with the words, "At least he didn't die a drunk, he died a dad."
Maybe you had to see it to get the emotion of the moment. To be enraged by his selfishness. To then be shocked at his death. To feel so deeply for his family. I had a good cry. Turned the TV off. And even now, I can't get that little boy out of my head. His hurt. His open bleeding on screen. His mature and wise last words of the program. And the sheer horror of the terrible ending to that chapter of that family's life. (Episode 93)
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