Extreme therapies for parents and children
Telecinco has premiered a reality show to heal the family relationships of the participants in a rather bizarre way. In El camino de la verdad (The Road to Truth), five couples made up of very estranged children and parents must travel the Way of Saint James, participating in therapeutic activities that are supposed to help improve their bond. It is very possible that the premise reminds you of one of the most morbid events of recent months. The presenter is Luján Argüelles, already seasoned in this type of format. She disguises cynicism with a theatrical enthusiasm that is very effective for the network. She has the audacity to use people's misery to construct a dramatic spectacle and, on top of that, claim she is fixing their lives. A coach acts as a therapist and proposes a series of confrontational exercises so that the contestants can vent and unlock the pain they carry inside. The result is a melodrama of reproaches, panic attacks, tears, and unbearable shouting, where the viewer swallows the bitterness of the protagonists. A festival of dead grandmothers, run-over brothers, absent fathers, irresponsible mothers, heartbroken children, and neglected offspring. There are terrible stories of abandonment, negligence, narcissism, and family breakdown. What television does is turn all emotional debris into an epic of misfortune. While they make their way along the Way of Saint James as an allegory for a transformation process, the coach sets up a boxing ring where parents and children will have to vomit all their reproaches while punching a sparring partner. The organization of a live funeral is also announced, which is already predictable to be the obituary show. Along the way, some celebrities appear who have been on the cover of gossip magazines for their serious conflicts with their parents and who will give advice on how to manage family miseries.
The result is people lamenting, licking their wounds, and talking about themselves all the time, which is lifelong television sensationalism. Now, however, it is managed from therapy, because many programs use mental health as a new cover for emotional pornography. At the end of the road, the contestants will decide whether to forgive or condemn their parents, and vice versa.
These realities of transformation have been going on for years. Television presents itself as a miracle that can heal people's lives, but all it causes is a spectacle of short-lived excitement and catharsis. During filming, the protagonists believe something is being fixed, until they later realize they are still living in the same old misery.
The path of truth is, paradoxically, very opportune. Alongside the collectible fascicles of the Andic soap opera that the media offer us day in and day out, the program is a drama for apprentices. The television method, however, serves to reveal the psychological deceptions and the shock therapies of the highest order that some charlatans practice.
