Louis Theroux: Forbidden America

The white supremacy thing is pretty dull. Weak men with weaker minds. This story is pretty cringy and probably doesn't need any more noise around it.

Episode two focuses on how rappers deal with their content glamourising the issues that have caused them personal pain and is very real. This episode provides great insight into why this medium of story telling is so important.

Episode three is also good but has elements of baiting interviewees for the answers Louis wants. Nonetheless it contains some important messages and is worth a watch.

All in all Louis has made something which make you consider different perspectives and that's not nothing.

I've seen most of Louis's documentaries over the years but I get the feeling he is losing his touch a little. He still asks the right questions but makes it too personal so the interviewees often end up swearing at him or kicking him out. His moral tone and inquisition gets on peoples nerves. The outcasts of society are an easy target. Perhaps a different or fresh approach is the way forward. And not in the USA again please.

Episode 1: Nothing very new here. There are some racist right wing people in the US... The sky is also blue. The BBC wouldn't let him, but maybe he needs to balance it out and look at some far left violent nutjobs like Antifa.

'Forbidden America' follows Louis Theroux's familliar template, travelling to meet strange, often troubling people and letting them tell their own stories, for good or ill. One problem with the model is that his interviewees are often very aware of the context within which they operate; which makes the documentaries less exploitative, but also more perfomatative; the subjects all have their own reason for appearing. In this series, he meets violent rappers, white supremacists, and workers in the porn industry. At least two of these are familliar subjects for Theroux, and he's arguably more directly judgemental here than he has been hitherto. In places, the series is insightful, but as human beings, his protagonists aren't always that interesting, even though their societal role may be: they often come across as narcissitic and opportunistic grifters, whose personalities don't take that long to dissect. There are always moments of interest in Theroux's work; but also limitations to the personal approach.

Having been a fan of Louis Theroux's documentaries for years, I was waiting for this one.

I felt like it was less smart and less edgy than most of Louis' earlier work.

Felt kinda strange also to have Louis travel all over the world right after saying (for example) "He lives in Budapest" -> boom, he's over there.

But mostly, I felt like Louis looked tired of doing what some people call "his freak-show". He didn't seem very enthusiastic and/or interested in his subjects.

In his documentary series, the main protagonist is actually the presenter. In this case, Louis became very early on the "normal people's view" on the situations he puts himself in. This time, I didn't feel that connection.

But I guess after so many years, it's normal. Can't blame him.