Have just watched the first two episodes. Am surprised that amidst all the "their houses look like shit!" posts nobody has mentioned S.B (? sorry if I've got those initials wrong) the single Mum who had escaped DV, was trying her absolute best to avoid repeating the cycle with her kids and found work during the course of the show (and looked like she had a much cleaner home than I do...) I imagine that she is probably far more representative of most of the people in that neighbourhood than the others we've seen.
I always feel very torn by these kinds of things. Agree that the situations are far more complex than we can possibly know (it's TV, it's for entertainment/shock value) and that breaking the cycle of inter-generational abuse and chaos is extremely hard. Those who have said that they/their parents worked their way out of poverty - yes, but poverty isn't the only issue with most of the families we're seeing.
OTOH I agree with rainy who posted way upthread that we simply can't just attribute criminality to a poor upbringing. Our legal system doesn't work that way, for a good reason.
And Holey I completely agree with your last paragraph on the treatment of addiction, but I do know (through volunteering) people in the UK who have kicked heroin addiction and completely reversed the courses of their lives - help is available but it's very much a question of wanting enough to access and use it.