It is often pointed out that talent is just one element of success in any artistic endeavor, and in fact, is not even at the top of the list.
It might be more accurate to say that the presence of talent does not preclude such success.
That is what stands out to me, as I watch this show. All of the hamsters have obtained - and in most cases, lost, some measure of success, but whether any one of them has talent, and if so how much, is not nearly as relevant as that element that IS way up there on the list - that willingness, ability even, to "put yourself out there," to throw up, to talk about being abused as a child, admit your deepest fears, bare your most gaping wounds, all while that camera is rolling, sending it all out, at the discretion of the editing room, to all those wonderful people out there in the semi-dark of our living rooms.
Maybe that is a talent in itself. There are certainly better actors than Jeff Conaway who would not, could not, do that.
Their motivations for being on the show don't really matter. Whether they are doing it because financial options are running low, and even former tween stars have to pay rent, or whether they do it in hopes of hanging onto what has been, at best, a spot on the C-list, their stories, their experiences do have the same potential to speak to people who need to hear it, and in some cases, I believe that will happen.
And in those cases where it does, where the sight of Jeff's withdrawal actually causes someone who might be thinking of crushing up time-release pain pills and snorting them, to Just Say No and smoke a joint instead, that could be a life saved.
And even the "stretch" among the hamsters, the pretty young girl who claims to have become so addicted to even the consumption of the kindly old plant that it has taken over her life, she too has a story to tell, and a lesson to teach: People with a predisposition to addiction can become addicted to anything.
It is about addiction itself more than it is about being addicted to what, to the relative safety or merit of one substance or another.
As the obnoxious Baldwin brother points out, it is not like they are going to go do a couple of lines of coke, hang out with their friends at a club, and come home.
The "resident tech" uses alcohol as an example, as she tells the group that it is not about a moral judgment, simply a fact of life, of culture, that people drink alcohol - but they cannot.
Which allows us to further hope, that if our young person who is persuaded by Jeff's anguish to leave the painkillers alone discovers that even the joint he chooses instead is doing anything more to - or for - him than his great grandfather's evening glass of port, then he would do well to put down the joint, and steer clear of the port as well.
In that sense, I think the show has the potential to save lives. Probably not a lot of lives, but to somebody, that life is the most important one of all.