HBO’s Alzheimer’s series: ‘Ambitious, disturbing’
May 9th, 2009
Here are some reviews of HBO’s four-part documentary “The Alzheimer’s Project,” which debuts tomorrow. Maria Shriver is the executive producer.
From Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times:
‘The Alzheimer’s Project’ is an ambitious, disturbing, emotionally fraught and carefully optimistic four-part documentary exploring virtually every angle of Alzheimer’s disease that can be explored on television.
From Nancy deWolf Smith in the Wall Street Journal:
Beneath all the excitement … the subliminal message here is: Be afraid, be very afraid. If the guesstimate is accurate and some five million people in the U.S. now have Alzheimer’s, we may be tempted to consider that this is a tiny number compared to those who will die of cancer or of the four other more-likely causes of death in the U.S. But as the series repeatedly reminds us, it is the baby boomers who are now heading for the age — typically starting from the late 70s — when Alzheimer’s is most likely to be diagnosed. Not only families, but society as a whole will have to look after these patients, and it will cost a fortune. Nobody says so quite so bluntly, but wouldn’t it be better to pay now, to fund more research, so that we don’t have to pay for an explosion of sick people later?
See also:
‘The Alzheimer’s Project’: An unflinching look at a brain stealer – New York Daily News
Alzheimer’s series a learning tool for Shriver — San Francisco Chronicle
Maria Shriver turns spotlight on Alzheimer’s — NPR
(HBO photo from Los Angeles Times)
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May 10th, 2009 at 2:52 am
Anyone who has had a family member suffer from Alzheimers disease, or vascular dementia, knows that no one else should have to pay the price of the disease; no individuals, and no one who loves them. Yes, the expense is enormous.
It also makes perfect sense to find a cure now to save taxpayer dollars later. But mostly, we owe it to those we’ve already lost. Let’s find a cure, to honor their memories.