I am captivated by Breaking Bonaduce–VH1’s “reality” show about Danny Bonaduce (childhood star of The Partridge Family–and if you never saw The Partridge Family then you might as well just stop reading here) and his family.

The premise of the show is that Bonaduce and his wife (who is really pretty and smart and seems cool) go to marriage counseling and we follow along. The tragic thing is that almost immediately the counseling exposes the cracks in this supposedly happy marriage.

What’s fascinating about the show, to me, is the honesty–at least it feels like honesty–with which Bonaduce exposes his foibles. But he doesn’t expose them to his wife, necessarily, it’s more that he needs the camera to give him this voice.

The show is gripping and horrible (especially in that we meet the couple’s children and so understand that whatever their father is doing will come back to haunt them at some point). It is a modern day tragedy and I am hooked and I am filled with sorrow for the family.

I’m also struck with the juxtapostion to The Partridges. I mean, here was a family who had every right to be broken–single mother, loads of kids, rock ‘n roll, slimey manager–but who were complete or who completed each other. They were happy. There were no skeletons, no abuse. But if there had been, they would have dealt with it and it would have been resolved in the next show.

And here is a Bonaduce, a product of this show, who has had more than his share of trauma and drama over the years, with everything to live for and yet what the show portrays is a man who is dying.

I hope he lives.