In June 2009 the second season of
The Cleaner premiered on the A&E cable network. The program can be seen each week on A&E at 9 p.m. (Eastern Time) and is repeated throughout the week.
The night of the series premiere I had an open Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting to attend so I hit the TiVo button and planned on watching it later in the week. On the Thursday night as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and every other channel was covering the death of Michael Jackson, I sat down to watch
The Cleaner.
The Cleaner is about William Banks (played by Benjamin Bratt), a recovering addict who helps others get clean by any means necessary as he struggles with his personal life.
Boyd must balance his unwavering dedication to helping others suffering from addiction with a very dysfunctional personal life. While he works to help others, he is recovering from his own relapse following 25 years in recovery.
Not being a drama critic I will not review the acting surrounding the core of the show; I will only offer observations of the show’s ability to portray the life of addicts and their families' desperate attempts to help. I will point out that many of the people who attend Recovery Worship say that the drama is a bit overdone.
The show does an excellent job at showing what a person in addiction goes through; it also shows the pain that the addict inflicts on his or her immediate family members. Banks and his team use unconventional, and perhaps even illegal means to get a person clean. The program shows that despite the pressure from family, the ultimate decision to seek help must come from the person with the addiction. It also shows addiction for what it is -- an illness.
I asked my colleague Bill Iverson, an intervention specialist at Lost & Found Ministry, to watch the program for his reflection. Bill, who has been in recovery for 30 years and who has assisted families in more than 1000 interventions, also gave the show high marks in realistically portraying the struggle that face addicts and their families.
The Cleaner also accurately portrays the importance of AA and Narcotics Anonymous meetings and some of the core fundamentals of a life in recovery. The show also uses the language of addiction, with such phrases as "one day at a time," "Higher Power," and "sponsor." It would make an excellent teaching tool within a congregation to break down old barriers and beliefs concerning addiction.
The Cleaner would work well in a learning environment together with A&E's program Intervention, which profiles people who suffer from an alcohol or drug addiction.
There is a
discussion kit 
developed by RELEVANT media for A&E that helps leaders develop meaningful worship services, group gatherings and classes utilitzing themes and footage from
The Cleaner. Visit
www.thecleanerdiscussionkit.com for details.
The Rev. Ray Branstiter serves as director of Lost & Found Ministry, Moorhead, Minnesota, and pastor of Recovery Worship, Fargo, North Dakota.