Louis Theroux Documentaries That You Need To Watch Right Now
The documentarian has released several gripping and eye-opening episodes. These are the best Louis Theroux documentaries to watch right now.
Over the span of two decades, Louis has created eye-opening episodes, investigating marginalised, unorthodox and unaccepted ways of living.
Louis Theroux first landed on the scene on Michael Moore’s television show TV Nation. Louis has said that the documentary maker hired him because:
“the level of incompetence that I brought to the job was, for him, a big plus… he realised this bookish English person, when contrasted with a Ku Klux Klansman or a Millenarian cult member in Montana, was quite funny”.
It is his unassuming nature and relaxed interview style that has gained him international fame, winning two BAFTAS and releasing two books to his name. But the best thing about his documentaries? He fully gets involved. From getting liposuction to making a cameo in a porn film, we’re always left wondering what Louis Theroux’s wife thinks of his documentaries.
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With a career spanning two decades, Theroux has created some brilliantly insightful documentaries. So, here are the ones you need to watch right now.
The Most Hated Family In America
This documentary takes a look at the infamous Westboro Baptist Church whose main belief is that the US government and its citizens are immoral due to homosexuality being legal. Moreover, the Phelps family picket the funerals of Iraq war veterans as a protest against the acceptance of homosexuality. Situated in Topeka, Kansas, their unpopular methods have unofficially made the the most hated family in the USA.
In 2011, Louis Theroux also made a follow-up documentary on the church titled The Most Hated Family In America In Crisis. In it, he explores the issues that the family had faced since his last visit as some members of the family had decided t0 defect.
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Making the series somewhat of a trilogy, Louis returns in 2019 for a third documentary on the family called Surviving America’s Most Hated Family. It explores the family as well as two new members to the church, one of whom is Steven Holroyd. Steven moved from the UK to join the church after watching Theroux’s previous documentaries.
America’s Most Dangerous Pets
Spending time with the owners dangerous animals in the USA, Louis talks to people who keep big cats, bears and chimpanzees in America. One of whom is Joe Exotic, the subject of the recent Netflix documentary Tiger King. Operating a park where he kept big cats, Joe Exotic is now in prison under two counts of murder-for-hire, eight counts of falsifying records and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act.
The series has some seriously eccentric characters which has spurred some seriously impressive Joe Exotic Memes. Since the Tiger King series hit Netflix, viewers have prompted Louis to give his opinions on the man.
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As a result, he later commented:
“The most troubling thing he said was probably that if the park went bankrupt he would kill all the animals.”
A Place For Paedophiles
In this Louis Theroux documentary, Louis travels to California to spend time at the Coalinga Mental Hospital. A hospital which holds more than 500 paedophiles. Many of those housed at the institution finished prison sentences yet remain too dangerous to release back into society. Louis spends time with those inmates undergoing treatment.
Savile
In the 75 minute documentary, Louis hears from the victims of and revisits his encounters with Jimmy Savile whose crimes came to light after his death. Louis sets out how he and everyone else failed to uncover Savile’s crimes. Louis first met Savile in 2001, filming the documentary, When Louis Met Jimmy. His second documentary came after Savile’s death. In it, he questions how it was possible for him to get away with rape and child abuse on such a scale for so long.
Image Source/ The Guardian