Broken Bonaduce
Don't expect to have a fun time watching Breaking Bonaduce
starring former child star and now very troubled Middle-aged
man, Danny Bonaduce. This is a raw, painful half hour of
television which starts with the premise of Bonaduce and his
wife undergoing psycho-therapy. The breaking part is -
presumably - what the psychotherapist does to Bonaduce,
confronting Bonaduce with his misdeeds, bad judgement and, all
in all, just what a piece of crap he is. It hardly seems
necessary. Bonaduce is already awash in self loathing and
breaking him further would be a waste of time, as he is clearly
self-destructing perfectly well without any outside help.
He is now struggling through his life's second act and not doing
a very good job of it at all. His wife has caught him cheating
and the therapy is his penance for that since, and perhaps his
last chance to save that marriage. On the advice of this
psychotherapist, he has taken up weight-lifting as as a
healthful way to channel his energy. The very worst that could
happen if he goes overboard is that he gets in very good shape?
Right?
It turns out not. Danny not only takes up weightlifting, but he
also takes up steroids and the psychgotherapist reflects to him
that in retrospect he might not have given the best advice.
That's surprising. You don't mean to say that roid rage might be
a bad thing for the mental health of a client? This
psychotherapist seems a little suspect to me. It looks like he
might himself be indulging in extra testosterone and his face
looks suspiciously smooth and tight. I'm not saying 'face-lift',
but this is Calfiornia, you know.
>From watching the previews, the trajectory of Bonaduce's life as
documented on the show is clearly downwards. It looks like in
upcoming episodes that his marital problems get worse, he starts
drinking again, his anger gets out of bounds, and he loses his
job. Forgive me for asking this, but isn't the point of therapy
to help improve someone's life?
The one bright spot in the former child actor's life seem to be
his own children. The oldest one is entering into acting and she
is as precocious a moppet as her father once was. In a
voice-over Bonaduce says that he wants to show that a child
actor can be raised in a healthy way. As improbable as it looks:
This is exactly what he seems to be doing.
It feels indecent to watch this show. Bonaduce and his family
are clearly suffering and this is such a wrong pretext for
entertainment. Their unhappiness is engrossing, but in the
horrible way that a car wreck is.