TV Junkie was definitely worth watching. It satisfied my curiosity about drug use among people who apparently have it all. I've always wondered how someone with half a brain, with a decent job, and a nice family could allow himself to become addicted to crack cocaine. What is he thinking? What is the feeling that he gets from it that drives him to continue to wreck his life and the lives of those closest to him? This film answers those questions.
Frankly, the "reality" TV craze kind of hurts this film. This film is stark reality. Unlike the polished, sometimes scripted and directed "reality" programs we see on television, we see the horrible production of home movies. We see a man who has a very strange obsession of capturing his whole life on video tape. This behavior was almost as disturbing as his drug use. He videotaped constantly. It's almost like he was escaping reality by living through his video camera. I applaud the filmmakers for what must have been a painful time going through the 3000 hours of video tape that they used to make the film.
Since this is the third documentary comprised entirely of home video that I've watched in the past 18 months, it appears that there are some odd people out there who are compelled to capture everything on video. Why do they do it? My bet is that these people rarely watch their tapes as the obsession with filming goes far beyond simply wishing to capture life's events for future viewing.
Watch this movie if you are curious to see the real life of a drug addict. I would have liked to see more of his recovery, but the movie isn't about recovery. It's about drug addiction. Reviewers who suggest that Kirkham purposely got hooked on drugs as a way to make money off of a movie should have their heads examined. He was making plenty of money on Inside Edition. How much money do you think he made from this documentary? Not as much as he would have made had he stayed sober and kept his job. I also doubt that he would subject his children to experiencing the horrors of drug addiction. The man comes across as anything but a hero, and the ends certainly wouldn't justify the means.
