ada
the leading man is my tpye
Nonureva
Really Surprised!
Stevecorp
Don't listen to the negative reviews
mtilley-05420
This is the first year this series has been available to me. At this point I have watched 6 or 7 shows. I have been totally enjoying the show until the last one I saw. the addict got help but it then showed the Cleaner and his wife having sex on the screen. In my opinion it was completely out of context, unexpected (I could have been watching it with family), it did nothing for the story of that episode. Things left to the imagination would be more suitable. Anyone who needs a porn fix - they have shows for that. That way we are given a choice as to exactly what we wan to watch. I believe it took away from the show. The Cleaner will be taken off my viewing list.
jrw-12853
William Banks is an ex-addict who turned his life around by making a covenant with God to help addicts if he can live a life free of addiction. William and his crew engage in interventions with primarily drug and alcohol addicts. I found the show to be absolutely riveting. It is refreshing to see CBS doing a show that showcases a man talking to God throughout each episode. William Banks offers a black and white crystal clear point of reference on the rights and wrongs of substance abuse. The pilot episode was a little hard to get through, but, after that I couldn't stop watching until I had seen every episode. The Cleaner is a truly unique drama. In the present stench of a drug legalizing culture, The Cleaner is a well deserved breath of clean fresh air.
Moviefile
This makes for uneasy viewing as one must ask should psychological or chemical addiction be turned into entertainment? This series skates close to trite clichés, but overall it does succeed in concentrating on the sufferers' problems. William Banks is 'The Cleaner'; himself a past drug addict, he now works as an interventionalist, trying to help others whose addictions have reached a point where they are no longer in control of their own lives. Banks is no paragon either as he is a very controlling individual and has swapped his chemical addiction for a spiritual relationship with God whom he talks to about his problems, and a career which gives him power over others. He is also trying to win back his family who mistrust him after fifteen years of hell, and while he has moved back in with them, he sleeps apart from his wife at the start of the series. Banks has three employees who have all had their own addictions in the past and work for him for their own reasons, he also runs a residential clinic where clients are detoxed. Background plot isn't too soapy as, if it were it, would detract from the message. Banks has teenage children who want to see him reunited with them and their mother. Problem is the job which means that he takes off at short notice day or night and so manages to alienate his family as they come a poor second when there is a client who needs help.William Banks is a hard man to like though, and he has demons of his own. You cannot fault what he does, but he is abrasive and pushy and talks to his family and employees as if he is the only one who is capable of knowing what is right. Is he in fact a messianic megalomaniac or just an ordinary man trying to save his own soul? Just a man with a calling? There are those would would equate his conversations with the almighty as evidence that the men in white coats will not be far away. However if this helps him to keep on the straight and narrow then as therapy maybe he has found his own personal answer.The ensemble cast is good, Benjamin Bratt has one of those voices you could listen to all day, and fills the William Banks role very well. His employees (played by the talented Grace Park, Esteban Powell, and Kevin Richardson) all bring depth to their parts, but, and this is a big but, the writing does not endear the characters to us. Hopefully if and when there is a season two there will be more character development, and we will come to understand and empathise with the characters. To date the series has failed spectacularly in that respect and the writers are to blame as there is real potential here.My view is that this is a worthy effort to portray the nature and effect of addiction, on the addicts themselves and their family and friends, and goes some way to showing the physical spiritual and moral degradation that people fall into. Many, it is true, are beyond help and in spite of attempts to help will eventually succumb, only a quarter of clients are cleaned which is a sobering statistic.
Kenny Belliveau
William Banks was an addict himself. He could never find a means to cope with it. He almost lost his entire family, until one man helped him. Since then he has sworn his life to the same thing. He wants to help others, he wants them to be clean. He knows they are on the wrong path, a path to nowhere. William sees they are heading for disaster, so he tries to interfere before it is to late. Things may not always work out for the best, but William is likely to do all he can.Benjamin Bratt is amazing as William. He just seems to fit. William is now a man of faith but he is still in jeopardy of being broken, of falling from something back into the life he used to have. William is on edge, living everyday as though it could be his last, he wants to help, he is just not always sure he can.He would love to be able to help everyone, but people need to be willing to help themselves first.The Cleaner is one of the best T.V shows I have ever watched. It is deep, moving, powerful and dramatic. It is all you can ask for in a series and teaches you a few life lessons along the way.
