"The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's"

Pros

• Successfully blends scientific findings with stories of families affected by Alzheimer's.
• Explains scientific information in an understandable way for non-scientists.

Cons

• Tone is a bit dark, and due to the sadness of some situations, the show can be hard to watch.

Description

• "The Forgetting" is a Primetime Emmy Award winner.
• The 90-minute program offers closed captioning.
• The program can also be viewed online.

Guide Review - "The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's"

This landmark program produced by PBS was inspired by the book, "The Forgetting: Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic" by David Shenk. The DVD successfully weaves scientific information with real stories of families who have been affected by Alzheimer's disease.

The scientific information is clearly presented in ways that are easily understandable to lay people. Both causes and treatments of Alzheimer's disease are explored, including what discoveries are on the horizon.

The stories featuring the families are sometimes hard to watch due to their realism and tragic nature. One family stricken with early-onset Alzheimer's focuses on Fran, who developed the disease in her 50s. Her mother developed the disease at age 39; her sister Maureen developed it at 58; and by the time the program finished filming, her brother Butch had also learned that he has Alzheimer's.

"The Forgetting" was filmed in 2004. I learned that since then, two of the featured couples have died, and in both cases, the caregiver died before the person with Alzheimer's died. This highlights the serious risks that caregivers face when caring for a loved one around the clock.

Overall, I thought "The Forgetting" was very well done, although the tone was a bit depressing. However, I think that the producers were simply being truthful to the subject matter and, if anything, the dark tone made me all the more dedicated to helping people facing this disease and to become even more involved in efforts to increase research funding so that some day, a cure can be found.