A&E's compulsion-focused Obsessed, and close relatives Intervention and Hoarders, take viewers further down an uncomfortable road than anything else on television. The first season rode high on a wave of critical acclaim, and the second season looks just as good.
Season Two kicks off with Cindee & Graham. Cindee compulsively exercises, and Graham fears contamination which results in his washing his hands up to 150 times a day and showering as many as a dozen times on top of that. Both have families who are suffering for their behavior, and neither of them seem able to stop their compulsions even long enough to talk about wanting to stop their compulsions.
Finally at the breaking point, where their obsessions are destroying their relationships and/or their health, they agree to put themselves in the hands of experts who can hopefully break the cycle of uncontrollable behavior.
The success of such shows clearly demonstrates that the fascination is out there, however we explain it, and while these shows would likely get viewers in any incarnation, A&E manages a delicate balance between interest and exploitation that we've seen since the initial episodes of Intervention some half-dozen years ago.
It's easy to shrug off the interest in getting inside the lives of people we can't understand. People whose problems seem utterly alien to us. I mean, washing your hands 150 times a day is easy to dismiss out of hand. Even the most politically correct of souls write that off as just plain crazy.
But, that doesn't actually explain why these shows, especially Obsessed, are so fascinating. A show about people we really couldn't understand at all wouldn't do very well, and few things are more instantly compelling than a good dose of, "There, but for the grace of God..."
Not only have we all wondered whether or not we left the oven on, but if we factor out the mind-altering state of drugs in the system, the subjects who are "obsessed" aren't very different from the addicted, and we know that we're all addicts really. Some addictions aren't all that bad, and we just call them habits (maybe "bad habits"), but the differences we see are only in degrees, and perhaps the counter-productivity of the behavior.
It may sound as bizarre as some of the behavior we see on Obsessed, but is it really all that weird for a person to talk about wishing they could stop doing something, even while they're doing it?
One way or another, it's a compelling piece of entertainment, and like all the best entertainment, it is also much more. It's hard to immediately connect with Cindee, who is on the treadmill talking about how she would like to get off the treadmill enough to give her husband and five children the attention they deserve, but as you watch the show and see the work it takes to help her, you realize you can remove "treadmill" and plug in just about anything you like.
Be sure to tune in Mondays, starting tonight, at 10/9c, and check out the preview below.
The second season of “Obsessed,” will feature some of the most compelling stories to date including: a father of two whose overwhelming obsession with odd numbers has left him jobless, living out of his car and unable to function on odd numbered days; a father and his two grown daughters who suffer from agoraphobia and who are all attempting to break the family “curse” which prevents them from being able to venture more than a few miles from the safety of their homes; a musician whose life is completely consumed by hand motion rituals that can take up to 10 hours to complete; a recovered alcoholic whose fear of contamination is so extreme that he washes his hands up to 150 times a day and lives in fear that another alcoholic will contaminate him and cause him to return to drinking; and a young budding artist who believes that her checking, tapping and counting rituals are currently keeping her mother from dying of cancer.
“Obsessed” takes viewers inside the minds and lives of Americans whose anxiety has taken complete command of their existence. Individuals whose loved ones have witnessed the disorder take them prisoner, living at the mercy of their uncontrollable thoughts and ritualistic behaviors. From OCD, to agoraphobia and germophobia, these disorders trigger from an emotionally traumatic event and eventually snowball until the individual is a shadow of their former self. The series documents both their afflictions and their courageous attempts to defeat and overcome them. Highly trained therapists use desensitatization and exposure therapy, whereby the patients are increasingly exposed to what causes their anxiety until the feelings begin to fade. Viewers will be moved as patients heal, make amazing progress and slowly but surely, take their lives back.
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About Marc Eastman
Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.
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