The Dr. Phil show has been on television for 13 years. That's a whole lot of "How's that workin' for ya?" and "You can swing a dead donkey in a candy store but ain't nobody gonna make it rain jelly beans at a Tuesday wedding" talk coming at you through your television set. I'm sure in over a decade of being a television host Dr. Phil has done some good - maybe he's saved a marriage or two or perhaps generously tipped a parking attendant - but his show and his brand of "common sense" help has reached a new level of exploitation that would - should - have even the most jaded reality show producers crying foul. And yet, no.
Yesterday on "a very special episode" Dr. Phil interviewventioned (interview + intervention) Nick Gordon, the long-time partner to Bobbi Kristina Brown. I say long time because Gordon is kinda-sorta Brown's brother through a murky and strange adoption-ish arrangement. He was housed and loved and fed by the late Whitney Houston but grew to love and cherish and maybe even boink his sister from another mister, Bobbi Kristina. But I am not here to judge Brown or Gordon. I am here to judge Dr. Phil and his jerk TV team, and I am here to judge them harshly.
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Gordon's appearance on Dr. Phil's show went surprisingly well, if what you were hoping for was a televised breakdown. Gordon would have received more effective help and empathy in the office of an abnormally long-fingered impatient proctologist than he did from this television doctor, and it would have been more pleasant to watch. I'm no fan of Dr. Phil and his trademark smirk but my television was already set to the channel he appeared on, and after a few minutes of listening to a man crying and begging for the cameras to be turned off I turned around to wonder what horrors I was tuned to. The clip is - in short - a disgusting display of outright exploitation and borderline emotional abuse. Warning: sickening display of "professional" behaviour.
We don't know the circumstances surrounding the tragic accident suffered by the now comatose Bobbi Kristina, nor do we know if Gordon played a role, either in whole or part. He has not be charged nor arrested, and has lived a difficult life, this much is certain. What we do know is that when interviewed by Dr. Phil, Gordon displayed palpable agony while cameras rolled, and despite his repeated requests to have them turned off, was denied the opportunity to exit gracefully.
Dr. Phil tells Access Hollywood as reported by US Magazine: "I went in to Atlanta to do an interview with Nick Gordon and wound up doing an intervention with Nick Gordon." US says '"When the psychiatric expert arrived for his planned sit-down, he discovered from Gordon's lawyers ("who truly have his best interest at heart," Dr. Phil says) that the 25 year-old was 'so high, so out of control, abusing alcohol and apparently Xanax.'"
So hey, Dr. Phil; maybe rebook the shoot for another fucking day or - crazy idea here - forgo it entirely.
I watch reality television but there is a big difference between that genre and the Dr. Phil showbacle, namely that reality television is not real. Any time I've seen a Kardashian ask for a camera to be turned off it is turned off. Whether or not they were merely acting distressed as a fabrication or having a genuine and intense emotional moment requiring privacy, in the end it doesn't matter. The fact is that the request is honoured. Gordon asked for the interviewagationclusterfuckathon to end. Case closed. Stop tape. Pack up yer shit, and go home.
The decision to keep rolling tape denied him agency and displays a shocking lack of common human decency, but oh wait; ratings.
Dr. Phil's outright disregard of this man's repeated requests for a moment of privacy during an episode emotional turmoil is disgusting. He appears distraught and high and he was in no position to consent to an interview in the first place. (Key term: NO POSITION TO CONSENT.) The display was sickening and this man was incapacitated and unable to agree to a television appearance in the first place, but it doesn't matter, because whether it's about having sex or filming a TV show or I-swear-to-God-don't-put-more-macaroni-in-my-bowl-I-told-you-I-am-full, no means NO.
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