THE PREMISE of “Dr. Phil,” the new talk show starring Oprah protege Dr. Phil McGraw, is that you can either come on his show and confront your problems, or you can hide in shame. One is the path of courage and change, that most celebrated of goals in talk-show television, and the other is the path of cowardice and personal stagnation. The show’s own map of reality covers what territory lies between these two paths. For obvious reasons, it never crosses anyone’s mind how profoundly abnormal it is to address one’s biggest problems on television. It is as if the people who go on this show (and “Oprah” and many others besides) accept television’s own claim that reality is something that by definition takes place in front of cameras and on a sound stage.
What has me waxing philosophic is the use of real-life video on Dr. Phil’s show. The show’s “real people” allow their screaming and fighting to be videotaped. There’s nothing new about this device of sticking cameras in kitchens and cars for a candid look at what’s going on, nor does it make for bad television. Just the opposite. It is hugely compelling. A mother is driving her two children around in the family minivan. She’s dropping bleeped-out F-Bombs left and right; she’s angry at everything and everyone, but especially her ten-year-old son in the backseat. She’s yelling at him, telling him not to give her that look. He feigns ignorance. She explodes: “You look at me with the hatred in your eyes.”
