Dr. Phil Don't Play That

It's become a bit of a habit for us to watch Dr. Phil, especially on the nights when we don't have Luke, and sometimes when we do have Luke and he's absorbed in Minecraft on the computer. When he's playing Minecraft, we could be watching The Exorcist Does Dallas and he wouldn't notice or care.

I have liked Dr. Phil since he had four minutes on Oprah Winfrey's show twenty-five years ago. First, I admire his commitment to his moustache. That thing has stayed with him for more than two decades. Second, I like that he tries to get people to face up to their own culpability rather than being victims. Third, his show pretends to be a little more thoughtful than Jerry Springer, but it's really not. Fourth, he always offers the guests help, even when they clearly have no interest in taking it, and he always says things like, You're not a bad guy, you just have anger management problems.

Dr. Phil as a much younger man, before the moustache addiction.

Last night, he had on two sisters who are both drug users, along with their former alcoholic mom (of course) who has cancer. The younger sister, age 18, was 7 months pregnant, cute as a button, and smoking crack, pot, and whatever else she can get her hands on. Like all reality shows of some kind, the benefit of watching is that you can always feel better about yourself. In this particular episode, the girl's level of denial and deflection (those are Dr. Phil terms) was incredible. He would say, Do you think you're an addict? And she would say, No!  And he would say, So you're choosing to smoke crack for fun even though you know you're harming your unborn child? Then she would say, But I can't help it! And the audience would laugh, and the girl would be like, It's not funny! And Dr. Phil would say, No, it's not funny. They're laughing because what you're saying is absurd.  The episode didn't wrap up with them getting help--they are both such a mess that a whole other hour will be used up today.

Part II is on tonight and I'm sure that the girls will agree to go to treatment and then possibly flee as soon as ever they can.