I killed cable a few months back and have not regretted it once. In fact, between Netflix and Hulu I have no need for “traditional” TV. And I’ve discovered that I enjoy watching a series one episode after another as opposed to waiting week to week for the next new episode. It doesn’t matter that the episodes might be old or that I don’t get to engage in good old-fashioned water cooler talk. Frankly, no one in my circle of friends watching TV “as it happens” anymore. We’re all in the same boat, happily paddling our way down the online TV stream.
My most recent obsession has been A&E’s Hoarders. As the network describes it, each episode is “a fascinating look inside the lives of two different people whose inability to part with their belongings is so out of control that they are on the verge of a personal crisis.”
This is putting things mildly. By “verge of a personal crisis” they actually mean “verge of being homeless because their funk is so funky they can’t even live in their own home.” Do you hear me? We are talking serious funky funk.
For example, Hanna from Vienna, Illinois who describes herself as “”a cotton-pickin’, ridge runnin’, stomp jumper and I’m damn proud of it.” Because of her hoarding she lost her 15 (yes, 15) children to protective services in 1983 (if I remember correctly). In this Season Three episode, which aired in January (not that I watched it then), the team arrives on Hanna’s (let’s call it) “farm”…and tries to persuade her that her hoarding is detrimental to her own health AND the health of the umpteen animals she keeps on (and in) her property. There are so many chicken, ducks, turkeys and goats that they’ve overrun her home and she’s resigned to living in a single-wide trailer on the property. It too is overrun with chickens, both living and dead. The goats limp through the yard with, what looks like, split hooves and the birds are so tightly caged that some cannot stand up and have lost the use of their legs. She insists that they are all healthy but the team knows otherwise and spends the better part of the episode trying their best to reason with Hanna. As in most of the cases, reasoning doesn’t work well. Hoarding is a psychological disorder and, while the show provides a doctor on-site and offers post-show counseling, I can’t imagine that most of the inflicted are ever saved. Another site has created a great page detailing Hanna’s post-show status and offers contact information for several animal abuse agencies. I highly recommend it if you have any shred of compassion.
The benefit of Hoarders is that I can watch it and, whether inspired by the team or fearful of one day being a victim, I spend the next several hours emptying closets and pitching what I haven’t used in months. The downside is the suddenly sad choice of clothing that I can actually wear. But the old stuff was just that… old. And it was usually too big or too small or so outdated only Jem would wear it. So for that, I thank you Hoarders.
Tommy Karr 