“Confessions”
Sunday, 10 p.m. on Court TV
for regular folk
for prosecutors
and criminal attorneys
for criminals
FORGET Richard and Rudy and Gretchen and Colleen. Reality is what happens in the subways, in the homes, in the parks. In life.
And sometimes it’s indescribably ugly and brutal. I’ve just seen that and more on “Confessions,” Court TV’s ultimate reality show, which premiers Sunday night to unprecedented bad press.
“Confessions” shows the actual video taped confessions of the world’s lowest life forms – Daniel Rakowitz, who boiled his roommate’s body after chopping it up, David Garcia who killed his “john,” a one-legged man in a wheelchair, and Steven Smith who murdered a wonderful woman doctor at Bellevue Hospital.
If I were on the edge, would I see this show as my ticket to – literally – my 15 minutes of fame? Possibly.
Just the murderer/rapist/whateverist and the camera. Yes, “Confessions” shows the actual edited confessions without benefit (or should I say distraction) of any talking head host. It is brutal, sometimes boring, and in many cases nauseating. Would I watch it ever again? No, I don’t think so. But then again, I was horrified and nauseated anytime I’ve ever covered a murder trial in real life, too.
Does “Confessions” have any socially redeeming value? Are you on drugs? Since when is TV dedicated to socially redeeming programming? But since it’s real-life and death and not a dramatization of a real life and death, everyone’s gone crazy thinking that it truly signals the end of civilization. Hey! Civilization as we know it ended the day Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake and Jenny Jones got shows of their own.
I watched “Confessions” with an attorney, who hated it, and thought it glorified the worst of us.
I disagree about the glorification – there’s a difference between fame and glory – and if anything it shows how a boring, crazy, violent ass, who has no right to live in the first place, can so easily take away a life of value. However, I do fear this show.
I called Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau, and Queens’ DA Richard Brown. Interestingly, they don’t see that showing these animals confessing on TV as the downfall of mankind, nor its glorification.
In fact, Brown told me, “I assume the confessions would be of great interest. But I believe they’d have no deterrent value what so ever. But I will tell you that the general public find confessions compelling.
“Whenever I’m dealing with something so terrible as a death penalty case, I sit with the victims of the families to try to prepare them. People just have no idea of how rough it will get in court. It’s awful. You can never describe this ugliness to people.”
Now they’ll see it as it actually happened – juxtaosed with a split screen of the crime scene.
How did these tapes get released in the first place? Said Barbara Thompson of Morganthau’s office, “The thing people need to realize is that these tapes are evidence. We can’t control them once a trial is over. The public has the right to see them once there’s a conviction. They are sealed only in acquittals.”
Without a host to guide us along, “Confessions” loses any semblance to entertainment, which the producers insist it is not anyway.
Court TV’s co-creator, Richard Kroehling said, “I’m not interested in turning horror into entertainment. That’s why we took away the safety net found in standard documentaries, [a host for the show]. It’s enough to read the human face.”
Maybe, but I don’t want to read faces this way. Therefore, I won’t watch it, even though listening to the prosecutors in the tiny confession room – “the box” – taking abuse from these animals and keeping their cool is compelling in a way. Me? I’d be more like Detective Sipowitz. One good crack and end the whole thing.
Is “Confessions” exploitive, disgusting, and prurient? Yes. But then again, so are Jerry Springer, and Jenny Jones’ shows. Here, however, we see the criminals after the act – not before a show of this sort has incensed them into committing one.
And, if, God forbid, I were a family member of a victim, I’d be losing my mind right about now