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Famous people try to get clean in 'Celebrity Rehab 2'
It’s hard to watch "Celebrity Rehab" (9 p.m. Thursday, VH1) without feeling a little guilty.
Sure, this show, which follows famous folks who try to kick devastating addictions, has a much nobler mission than most of MTV and VH1’s programming, much of which depends on deluded if not inebriated participants.
But there’s a slightly icky element of voyeurism that accompanies watching “Celebrity Rehab”; it’s as if you’re witnessing a slow-motion car crash from the comfort of your couch, week after week. However responsible these people are for their own problems—and most of them had fame or money or both—that doesn’t really mitigate the pain on display.
Yet that is the point, I guess. Haven’t we all, at some point, wanted to believe that the lives of the rich and famous aren’t all they’re cracked up to be? Well, this show offers proof.
This season, the addictions appear to be more hard-core than they were in Season 1. Model Amber Smith arrives unable to function without a bewildering array of pills. Steven Adler, the original Guns N’ Roses drummer, says he once tried to kill himself by washing multiple Valium pills down with a bottle of Jagermeister—and all he got was a good night’s rest.
Actor Jeff Conaway and his scary Goth girlfriend, Vicki, both of whom were featured heavily in Season 1, are back for another go-round. They’re trying to kick multiple addictions but are seemingly unable to work through their scary co-dependence.
Perhaps Gary Busey, who’s been free of his cocaine addiction for 13 years, is meant to be comic relief, but his behavior is so manic that Dr. Drew Pinsky, the addiction specialist in charge of treatment, has another specialist examine Busey to see if the actor’s 1988 motorcycle crash caused brain damage.
By the second episode, this season of “Celebrity Rehab” starts to seem, in some ways, like a rerun of the first one; Conaway causes maximum drama and keeps trying to leave, vowing to go back on his “meds” the minute he gets home.
Busey, as former addict Daniel Baldwin did last year, attempts to help the residents conquer their demons, but Busey’s often annoying jabbering usually just adds to the chaos. [Note: I've corrected this sentence; it wasn't Stephen Baldwin but Daniel Baldwin who appeared in Season 1 of "Rehab."]
Despite the fact that some participants, most notably Sean Stewart, son of Rod Stewart, appear to treat the whole experience as a paid vacation, others seem more intent on at least trying to get clean. Former “American Idol” contestant Nikki McKibbin, who talks about driving her kids to school while high, does desperately want help, but given a horrifying life history that involves severe abuse, it’s difficult to imagine she can get well without years of treatment.
The patient Dr. Drew and his hard-working staff have their work cut out for them. This year, some of the “Celebrity Rehab” patients seem perhaps beyond hope; it’s not good when the twitchy alcoholic Rodney King seems like one of the more promising cases. Both Smith’s and McKibbin’s mothers were addicted; McKibbin’s mother died not long after taking cocaine with her. It’s dark stuff.
And perhaps that’s the thing that redeems “Celebrity Rehab” in the end. You can’t accuse the show of sugar-coating addiction or the process of recovery. At one point, a detoxing Smith is shown vomiting for quite some time.
When not throwing up, Smith is attractive, but as this sometimes compelling show makes clear, the journey back to sobriety can be anything but.
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