My name is Maria, M-A-R-I-A, and I am hooked on A & E's reality show about drug addiction, Intervention. Tell someone you are a fan of the show and you get one of two responses: complete disgust ("How can you watch that!?") or a shared enthusiasm, a secret handshake of sorts ("Oh, you too!! I love that show!").

I remember when the show first came on the air in 2005 and thinking that it would only appeal to people like me: the morbidly curious who watches hours of surgical shows and true crime. Instead, 3 years later, the show has a serious following, especially amongst the blogosphere. But the question is: why? Why do we love watching this incredibly dark show? I think we love Intervention for three reasons: its stark realism, lack of morality, and always dependable formula.

Intervention does not give us the glossed out, romanticized Trainspotting view of drug use where the addict falls into the floor over a perfect Lou Reed soundtrack.  Instead,  we watch as bulimics binge and purge and hide their puke from their families in trash bags, meth addicts take a hit of their glass pipe in their childhood bedrooms, alcoholics drink gallon after gallon of vodka or wine as their bodies become covered in bruises from liver failure, and heroin addicts inject needles into their toes in dirty bathrooms.

We see the addicts at their worst: conning everyone in their lives out of money and time, and expertly manipulating their emotions. Their families aren't spared either as often, family members are the source of the addict's pain, a fact that Intervention makes no attempt to hide from the viewer. Often, the family members are portrayed as weak enablers, feeding into their addiction as we, the viewers, watch in horror, inevitably talking about how would be stronger, do it differently. There are no straight villains or heroes here. It's all complicated and we never quite know who to root for.

However, what is most striking about this is that at no point does Intervention make a judgment, (which is refreshing, especially in American culture) which has mostly a fear mongering attitude about drugs. The stories are just facts, it is up to the viewer to decide how they feel. While the on-air interviews and footage are interspliced with facts about the addict's drug use or with facts about the effects of the particular drug, they just exist. The viewer is not given a heavy handed message about the dangers of drug use and there is no celebrity at the end giving a PSA about "just saying no".

Instead, we get a phone number that you can call if you also know an addict. Intervention treats addiction as something that happens and can be dealt with, not as something to run away from.

Intervention, like most addictive programs such as Law & Order, always follows a formula. You know exactly what to expect: the show begins with the audience hearing the addict spell their name; watch the addict treat their family like shit; hear about what happened in the addict's past to make them feel the need to escape so badly, and then you will watch them freak out at the internvetion. At the end, we all know to expect a post script at the end, explaining how the addict is doing – for better or for worse.

At the end of the day, I think we like Intervention because it takes us on an epic tale, every time. We see the addicts fail, and we see them rise.