Better Living Through Pharmaceuticals

Last night I watched Kingdom Hospital, which isn’t as great as I hoped, but I haven’t missed an episode yet. They have these ads for anti-depressants and it’s like watching SNL joke ads. You have a politically correct diverse group of adults doing things like climbing out of their minivans with their two kids, boy and girl, and their dog, purebred lab, OR a lady arranging flowers in her immaculate kitchen OR a man with little wire glasses in a slacks, shirt, and tie in a huge corner office with windows, talking about how great this drug is for their depression and meanwhile the voiceover reels off this endless list of warnings and side-effects: “don’t use if you have kidney, stomach, spleen or lung problems, don’t take if you’ve ever had an eating disorder, headaches or backaches, may cause itchy feet, bad breath, nose-bleeds or flatulence, might cause dry mouth, and insomnia, you might not have bowel movements for weeks.” And then you have this person look at the camera and tell you with complete sincerity how much better they feel on this drug.