I wasn't interested in the show or its premise at first and I managed to avoid it largely because of that, but I was home alone and thoroughly bored the other day when Celebrity Rehab was on back-to-back a couple, few times. So here's my take on VH1's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew:
First of all, someone please kill Jeff Conaway.
Yeahyeahyeah, I'm so harsh. Puh-lease! I really felt sorry for the guy after the first episode I saw, but my patience is finite - and obviously far shorter than those who work at rehab centers - and I am so over him now that I almost can't bear to watch it!
The guy is far beyond Britney; this guy is a rolling corpse. No, worse: he's a rolling deathtrap, because anyone who gets anywhere near him is going to be slowly sucked into that desperation and addiction, no matter how hard they try to avoid it. Besides, the guy brags about having tried to commit suicide 21 times, so he obviously can't do the job on his own, even though he agrees it needs to be done.
The rest of the people are, for the most part, there to receive help; Jeff Conaway is there to put on a show. I know he has a serious problem(s), but I do not buy that he is there for help has as much as he is for the attention.
If my argument has not swayed you, then at least rename the program The Kenickie Show.
Daniel Baldwin is like my female friend's six-year old daughter: he thinks he knows everything and he believes he has some kind of control for some reason. He hasn't figured out that he is on the same level as the rest of the patients; he thinks he is some kind of authority figure - like a liaison between "Them" and "The Doctors." Still, he seems earnest in his efforts, so...
Most of the others, the girls especially, haven't received as much coverage and aren't as "camera-ready," (read: they're honest in their attempts to get sober) and I have yet to form any real opinion of them. Aside from, like I said, knowing that they are serious about their rehabilitation efforts.
As for the show itself, the on-screen production value is as good as any other reality show and the editing deftly moves the show forward and paces things well; it's an interesting show that will hold your attention, though not as raptly as a scripted one. The online production... sucks. Goats.
I mean, the text is so bad, it's literally unintelligible at times. Sentence fragments, punctuation that is so incorrect it borders on being Mathematics, misspellings... not to mention that some of the stars don't even have pictures! This is a television show, y'all! These are celebrities! You're telling me you don't have any stills or shots of them you can use!?
Speaking of which, they are actually listed as "Characters"! Yes, these celebrities - real people, ostensibly - are listed as characters in a reality show. Why not just call them "The Whore," "The Former Child Star," "The Brother of a Famous Guy," and so forth?
Anyway, decent show for reality TV and definitely an important subject. The online leg is so half-assed that you can safely skip it and not miss a thing
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
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