Quality Programming: My Strange Addiction

I am normally not a fan of the crap that gets broadcast on TLC.  I despise their non-traditional family shows such as the Duggars with their multitude of children and the creepiness of the Sister Wives.  And I think plenty of people will agree with me when I say that I'd rather gouge out my eyes with a rusty nail than watch that Toddlers and Tiaras shit.  My problem with these shows is two-fold.  First off, they're boring.  Most of the time there's not really a whole lot of driving conflict and everything's just kind of...whatever.  And secondly, and perhaps most egregiously, they are massively sleazy and exploitative.  Now to be honest I don't necessarily have a problem with sleaze in entertainment, but the combo of boring and exploitative is just too much.  At best I just tune out and at worst I find such lowbrow TLC fare to be actively annoying.

But as always there is an exception to the rule and its name is My Strange Addiction.  Over the winter break I had the pleasure of hanging out with my friend El Lobo, who introduced me to the cringe-worthy, yet oh so awesome ride that is My Strange Addiction.  Now full disclosure, I've only watched one full episode of the show (season 2, episode 3, "Adult Baby/Eats Dryer Sheets"), yet I feel that the plethora of clips I watched on TLC's site gives me full authority to comment on the show.  Plus, if the episode I watched is any indication, the conflict resolution at the end of each episode is rather minimal and unsatisfying.  So really the perverse joy of Addiction comes from the set-up.  Everything after this is more or less filler.

But the set-ups are pretty spectacular, so it's all good.  Just browsing a list of the episode titles is a feast for the mind as each description sounds more sick than the next.  Here are some sample show titles to whet your appetite: "Rampant Rats", "Carrying Her Husbands Urn", "Married to a Doll".  My Strange Addiction is almost Daily Mail-esque in its sensationalized presentation and relentless pandering to gossipy gawkers.  But that's why we love it so.  It's definitely sleazy, but there's some undeniable entertainment value here.

My favorite moments from show come from the clips I've watched online. One of my favorite segments is the one in which a woman carries the ashes of her dead husband everywhere with her, even humorously taking him out to the movies and asking him what he'd like to watch on TV.  Her behavior quickly crosses the line as she begins to dip her hands into the urn and lick her hubby's ashes off her fingers.  Taking the urn to the movies is vaguely acceptable as quirky indie dramedy behavior, but eating the poor fellow is rather fucked up and I hope she was able to break the habit.  My other favorite segment of the show was from the aforementioned "Married to a Doll" episode.  In this show a character by the name of "Davecat" chats about his close relationship with his life-like sex doll named Sidore (whom he's affectionately nicknamed Si-chan).  While clearly eccentric, Davecat is considerably more articulate and self-aware than the show's other subjects.  In fact I actually found Davecat to have a decent presence in front of the camera and I'd love to see a show chronicling the adventures of Davecat and Si-chan.

Have I sunk to a new low by blogging about a TLC show?  Perhaps, but it was totally worth it.