I want the pie in the sky

One of my current obsessions is a new show, Big Spender, on A&E. (why A&E? no one knows. This is a network that has struggled with its identity since its inception and the struggles show no signs of abating.) The premise of the show is simple, banal even: the in-your-face host tries to help people recognize and then get out from under their enormous debts with a tough-love approach. But what makes this show so mesmerizing are the details. Larry Winget, the host, is a short bald guy who wears cowboy boots, western shirts with loud floral embroidery, an earring in each ear, skull rings, and sunglasses. You can see him (and hear his take-no-prisoners twang) here to get the full effect. If this description sounds freakish, it is, but he is also oddly, umm, sexy? in a weirdly compelling, I-don't-want-to-think-too-much-about-why kind of way. And so the show, low production values and all, is also much more engaging than one might think.

Winget's approach involves trying to get people to see the errors of their finanacial ways and take action immediately. (A representative episode featured a woman who was $100,000 in debt because of an unprofitable cosmetic "business" who was making only $350 a month in odd jobs. Oh, and she drove a Jag.) He makes up debt reduction plans of action, part of which have participants sitting down and cutting up their maxed out credit cards on the spot, which is always insanely traumatic for them. He puts them on a no more excuses budget cutting out luxuries and paying down debt. He gives them homework to do to help them realize the enormity of their problems (such as telling one woman she had to tell her blissfully unaware fiance about all $50,000 of her personal debt) or find solutions (such as instructing another woman to sell her barely-used designer clothes to consignment stores and through a boutique run out of her house) and then leaves them to their own devices for three weeks before checking back in on them and their progress.

This show is fascinating in a train-wreck sort of way. Some participants make real strides and seem to feel the enormity of their situations, while others look right at the camera and say "I can't give up my hair appointments or my pedicures or spending $300 per week on clothes because I deserve to shop and look good." Umm, okay, and what about that $20,000 you borrowed from your grandmother's retirement fund to pay off your credit cards (which the grandmother sorrowfully aknowledges is the reason she hasn't gone on any trips since retiring), only to run them right back up by spending another $25,000? Yep, you deserve something, alright!

As a multiple card-carrying member of the consumer culture, I certainly feel twinges of both guilt and recognition in every episode I watch, which is perhaps the best statement of the show's appeal. On the one hand, I am gratified to see there are people out there who are much worse off than I am. On the other hand, could I cut up my credit cards cold turkey? Could you? Do I suffer from the same vein of entitlement thinking, in on a smaller scale? One of the show's many brilliant strokes are taped interviews with friends and family that Winget uses as part of his (clearly and badly staged) "first" meetings with participants (he supposedly runs into them in stores and takes them away for an intervention which begins in his van with these videos. I told you, very low production values.) These people are remarkably candid about their friend or relative's problem but also, to a person, seem remarkably ill-equipped to help the offender. To me, what is most shocking here is the total lack of financial/fiscal understanding on the part of everyone involved, the offender and the friends and family alike. And this vivid, public revelation is the show's best attribute, as far as I am concerned. So I'm going to continue to watch. So should you.

And I really dig those shirts, man!