Hoarders Gathers a Big Pile of Viewers for A&E

I’m not a real big fan of non-scripted programming.
If I want reality I’ll go outside, not just turn on the tube.
Give me great scripted shows. Moving dramas. Hilarious comedies. The products of imaginations greater than my own. You can argue with the choices characters make, the direction in which plots twist.
With reality, what you see is what the producers filmed and edited to be interesting. The more bizarre, the more tragic, the more outlandish, the better with which to grab ratings.
Sometimes, it’s infuriating. And granted, it’s often compelling. (One reason I don’t watch is because once it’s on, I can’t turn these shows off. And who has the time? I don’t, and it’s my job to watch, sort of.)
So imagine when I heard about a new series on A&E called “Hoarders,” about people who accumulate unhealthy piles of, well, anything and everything, and can’t throw stuff away. How is that a show?
Of course, tons of people have been tuning in. As its first season drew to a close, it was averaging 2.1 million total viewers, making it the top drawing new series in the network’s history.
I recorded the show on my DVR. Didn’t watch. Then I saw a note about the show from someone at A&E and responded that I’d been meaning to check it. Next thing you know, a DVD arrives in the mail. (I am currently hoarding DVDs, FYI.) The least I could do was pop the disc into my laptop and see what happens.
This episode was from about two weeks ago. It tells two stories, flipping back and forth throughout the hour.
In a preface, the show explains that hoarding is a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire and keep things, even if the items are worthless, hazardous or unsanitary. After a “Law & Order”-like chime, the show says, “more than 3 million people are compulsive hoarders. These are two of their stories.”
One story is about a man named Paul from Mobile, Alabama, who has turned the yard around his house into a junkyard, complete with stripped cars, refrigerators, stoves, tires, a boat and a school bus.
Naturally, the neighbors in his subdivision aren’t happy. Paul’s been hauled into court, jailed for five days for criminal littering, and faces a 90 day stretch if he doesn’t get rid of the mess.
The deeper problem is that Paul’s been collecting junk—scrap metal mostly—as a way of saving for his grandkids and he’s reluctant to let go of his nest egg. He’s especially distraught when his scrap, which he figures is worth $30,000 to $40,000, draws a bid of just one-tenth that from a salvage company.
His brother and his son have come to help him and hired a professional clutter cleaner to keep him out of the pokey.
The second story involves Missy, a hoarder in Atlanta. As a kid she felt bad when people called her a pig, filthy, disgusting, freak. But she learned to live with that. She and her kids use paper bowls and plastic utensils because real dishes would pile up more in the sink and they sleep in the big room because the kids can’t get through the clutter to get to their beds.
It’s when her son seems to be a hoarder as well that she sees it’s time for a change.
Seven-year-old Alex is dyslexic and has ADD. He’s undergoing psychological counseling.  Now he’s the youngest person ever diagnosed as a compulsive hoarder, unable to throw away even the torn boxes his toys came in.
To avoid having children’s services called in Missy brings in a psychologist.
First she tries to convince Alex to give just one of his stuffed animals to a needy child. But he just can’t do it.
So she cleans his room while he’s out, showing him how all of his toys are still there, but each has a home, on shelf or in a box.
“It’s your job to keep this up. You could have your friends over now. You have a lot of room to play,” the psychologist tells him.
“I like it to be clean,” he replies, thanking the doctor and his mom.
It really pulls on the heartstrings.
I bet you’re wondering if Missy can clean up the rest of her house. If Alex keeps his room tidy. And if Paul managed to stay out of jail.
Like hoarding, watching “Hoarders,” is hard to stop, short of an intervention. I’ll try to put it back in its box, but that’s why A&E has another reality hit on its hands.