Louis Theroux: Law and Disorder (2009)

The four documentaries in this set are perhaps best described as hard-hitting journalism. The focus has become less about the people and more about a specific socio-political situation, and the desire to expose the inner workings of institutions. The situations are fascinating but very distanced from the reasons I started watching Louis in the first place.

Law and Disorder in Philadelphia
The intrepid reporter and his crew spend time with the Philadelphia PD as they go about their business in a violent, hate filled urban slum. America has these kinds of TV shows but I've never watched them, simply because I'm not interested. This one did nothing to change my mind about the format.

Law and Disorder in Johannesburg
This is similar to the episode above but the environment in which it takes place makes all the difference when it comes to punishments; in Philly people got shot or beaten, but in Joburg people get set on fire. Also, the level of corruption of the individuals who are supposed to uphold the law is higher.

A Place for Paedophiles
Louis enters the Coalinga State Hospital in California to interview inmates, all of whom are convicted child abusers. Most of the offenders are open and candid about their crime, which was something I really wasn't expecting. I also wasn't sure I wanted to watch this one at all, but afterwards I felt it was important that someone was willing to give an insight into that world because allowing something to remain hidden is a sure-fire way to allow it to continue unchallenged, especially with regards to how the government deals with it.

The City Addicted to Crystal Meth
Yikes. Meth is bad shit. Louis travels to Fresno, California to meet the addicts, the sellers, the families of the victims and the struggling police officers whose job it is to curtail the availability of the drug. It’s pretty shocking, and presents an almost polar opposite view of California than the media usually puts out.

3 trips in a police car out of 5

Louis Theroux: The Strange and the Dangerous (2009)

Five compelling documentaries that range from light-hearted fun to uncovering deeply unsettling activity. If you watched any of the Weird Weekends you’ll notice a slight shift in Louis’ methodology this time around. He still relies heavily on that awkward pause in the hope that his target will fill it with candid info, but he’s less passive than before. When children are involved he’s more inclined to struggle with an urge to speak out in favour of common sense, which is something many of the people he meets are deficient in.

Gambling in Las Vegas
Louis hits the Casinos in search of addicts. He tries to understand why they do what they do by throwing some of his own money on the line. It’s not particularly revelatory, but it’s fun in an inimitable Theroux way.

The Most Hated Family in America
Louis boldly goes where no sane person has gone before, through the doors of the Westboro Baptist Church. He struggles to attain any kind of truth or reason beneath the assault of cheaply made signs, weak arguments, dismissive dogma and angry Christians that need to get laid.

Under the Knife
Vanity and shallowness of character go under the microscope. Three months at the gym or fifteen minutes under the knife? Will Louis take the plunge and have his love handles sucked out for the sake of journalistic integrity?

Behind Bars
Louis enters San Quentin to interview both prisoners and guards in the hope of finding out how an individual can carve out a life in such an impersonal environment. It’s depressing. He even eats prison food! That’s what I call taking one for the team.

African Hunting Holiday
Louis travels to a park in South Africa where tourists can pay a set amount of money to kill their animal of choice in a controlled environment with no fear of personal risk. The more endangered the animal the higher the cost. I found this one very upsetting. To everyone who took part in the activity: I wouldn't even piss on you if you were on fire. Bastards.

4 holes in the bank balance out of 5

The Best of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends: Volume Two (2002)

Louis is a journalist but unusually for someone in that profession he's a likeable guy. What sets him apart from his peers is that he celebrates the weirdness of people, and enthuses about things meaningful to them. He’s non-aggressive and reassuring. He can encourage people to open up in unique ways, while remaining respectful of boundaries. Quite often he’ll get attached to people; he calls them friends and seems to genuinely care about their well-being.

He’s been accused of feigning naïveté but it's hard to make a judgement call on whether that’s true or not. I think perhaps people feel sorry for him, so they give him the exposé he seeks. Doing so also helps them feel superior. He’ll partake of an opportunity to play up a situation but he’s always honest about his feelings, chooses his words carefully, and his methods of eliciting responses are a far cry from the manipulation that the people he interviews often rely on to preach their own agenda. They do a better job of ridiculing themselves than he ever could.

In this collection he meets a happily married Southern Californian couple that host swinging parties in their home; he meets Afrikaner separatists in post-apartheid South Africa (there’s a tension filled interview during that episode that I’d have run a mile from; it seems that scrawny Louis has balls of steel); he meets professional wrestlers from the WCW and gets subjected to actual physical and mental abuse for his troubles; and then he gets hypnotised... or not. He's not quite sure.

Like Volume One the box contains just five episodes (two from S2, two from S3, and a bonus episode from a series called 'When Louis Met...' which saw him visit British celebrities in their homes).

5 episodes, approx 55 minutes each.

4 black and white arguments out of 5

The Best of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends: Volume One (2001)

Louis is a British investigative journalist that didn't much care for the big story of the day. He set out instead to explore American subcultures; he interviewed the people that front them and the people that hide behind them. He didn't take the usual cold, distanced, analytical approach or rely on researchers to do the work for him, he went gung-ho and joined in with activities to better understand his subjects and their unique kind of weird; he got his hands wet, his feet dirty, and his cock out… literally. In some cases he even moved in with them for the duration, and put himself in real physical danger.

The episodes included in Volume One are pretty varied. He enters the porn industry; he visits some right-wing patriots that shunned city life to live in the hills, with guns, and await the NWO invasion; he travels South to meet some shady characters and has a go at Gangsta Rap; he meets some spaced-out UFO enthusiasts, including one guy who claims to channel messages from a higher being while in a trance.

The Weird Weekends series ran for three years. This first collection contains just five episodes (three from S1, one from S3, and a bonus episode from a similar series called 'When Louis Met...' which saw him visit British celebrities in their homes).

What’s sadly missing is the final episode of S1, wherein Louis gathered together a number of the people he'd met throughout the year for Xmas dinner at his own home. He took a fundamentalist Christian to a porn shoot, and gave a guy who lives alone in an underground hut in the hills (Mountain Mike) a chance to spend time at a recording studio and play live for a bar full of people.

5 episodes, approx 55 minutes each.

5 positively peculiar people out of 5