Entertainment

Atlantic 2’s ‘Good Television’ makes satisfying theater

Reality Tv seems almost too easy a target for satire, but “Good Television” mostly avoids the pitfalls. This debut work by veteran Atlantic Theater Company actor Rod McLachlan offers disturbing food for thought along with a sharply mordant sense of humor.

It concerns a reality show called “Rehabilitation,” about addicts who receive a full-court intervention — any resemblance to A&E’s “Intervention” is, presumably, strictly intentional. And the more telegenic the addicts are, the better.

“The network has been on my ass for a cute young male subject,” complains Bernice, the hard-edged, under-the-gun showrunner played by Talia Balsam (the former Mrs. Sterling of “Mad Men” and real-life wife of series star John Slattery).

Bernice thinks she’s found what she’s looking for in the form of Clemson (John Magaro), a rural, teenage meth addict. His harried sister Brittany (a terrific Zoe Perry) is desperate to get him help, even as their older brother Mackson (Luke Robertson) is mainly interested in financial compensation.

Connie (Kelly McAndrew), the producer responsible for selecting the subjects, is less convinced. The only one involved in the show with a background in counseling addicts, she smells trouble. But she’s reluctantly persuaded to travel with her colleagues to South Carolina, where they come face to face with some complicated family dynamics.

Things come to a dramatic boil there with the sudden reappearance of the siblings’ long-estranged abusive father (Ned Van Zandt).

Skillfully directed by Bob Krakower and featuring excellent performances, “Good Television” occasionally dips toward melodrama. But in dramatizing the cynical machinations involved in producing sensationalistic TV, “Good Television” makes for good theater.