The late Adam Goldstein tries to help addicts kick their drug habits on MTV's "Gone Too Far."
TELEVISION REVIEW
Poignant or just plain sad?
The late Adam Goldstein tries to help addicts kick their drug habits on MTV's "Gone Too Far."
The ghost of Adam Goldstein - the musician better known as DJ AM - lingers poignantly over “Gone Too Far,’’ the MTV series about drug abuse that he created before he died of an overdose in August. It isn’t just that he hosts, introducing addicts and their families, explaining the various steps of the rehabilitation process. It’s the fact of his death itself, the way it proves that a rehab stint and a solemn declaration of sobriety isn’t the end of an addict’s struggle, or his story.
The illusion of closure is a weakness of many intervention shows; whether about drugs or weight or interior decoration, they peddle the idea that some good will and a camera crew can turn somebody’s life around forever. As he narrates “Gone Too Far,’’ even Goldstein suggests that he has his demons beat; he comes across as humble and empathetic, but also confidently clean, convinced that his sobriety is the key to his success.
Goldstein also seems genuinely caring, a regular guy in a hoodie who wants to turn his second chance into a vehicle for helping others. In each of eight episodes, he will visit another lost soul, serving as a cheerleader, conscience, and guide. On Monday’s premiere, he visited Amy, a 23-year-old from Philadelphia. Her father, since deceased, had been a heroin addict. Now, she struggled with addiction herself, stealing from her mother and her siblings, slipping in and out of consciousness in her bedroom.
She lived in what appeared an ordinary suburb, with a front porch and a dog and other trappings of normalcy. Surely, this was no accident. Lately, MTV seems committed to scaring straight its preteen audience, convincing devotees of Taylor Swift that bad things can happen to good kids next door. The network has proved that it can be useful, even noble, and still be entertaining; the series “16 and Pregnant’’ is probably the best case for abstinence ever made on TV. “Gone Too Far’’ is interspersed with public-service messages that steer viewers to anti-drug websites, but even the preaching feels hip, wrapped in edgy animation.
“Gone Too Far’’ also feels restrained, much more gentle and tween-friendly than A&E’s unflinching documentary series “Intervention.’’ On Monday, we saw Amy shoot heroin into her hand and arm, but we never saw her hit rock bottom. She seemed willing and eager to get clean - “I know I’m better than this,’’ she sobbed to Goldstein at one point - though when her family finally staged an intervention, she was angry that she hadn’t copped a big final score. In one of the more disturbing scenes, an interventionist allowed her to shoot up at the airport one last time before she flew to a rehab program.
The program, in California, seemed comprehensive, expensive, and effective, almost too much to be true. Within a few minutes of TV time, Amy had a new haircut, a mouth full of reconstructive dental work, and a spacious bedroom in a luxurious-looking halfway house. Her family shared a happy visit. Goldstein dropped by to gush.
But any sense that she’d gotten a miracle cure was tempered by Goldstein’s own fate. In a coda to Monday’s episode, Amy reflected on his death, thanking him for caring so much, forgiving him for his fatal lapse.
“That wasn’t him that night. That was his addiction,’’ she said, and it’s tempting to believe her. Goldstein’s family approved the airing of this series, and it’s clear that they want his good works - and not the circumstances of his death - to be his legacy. In truth, it’s hard to separate the two.
Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com. For more on TV, go to www.viewerdiscretion.net 
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