The BEST episodes of Louis Theroux
Every episode of Louis Theroux ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Louis Theroux!
The documentary work of British-American journalist Louis Theroux.
#1 - Under the Knife
Season 2007 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/7/2007
Louis Theroux: Under The Knife sees Theroux following patients having cosmetic surgery in California, before receiving liposuction himself.
#2 - Louis and the Brothel
Season 2003 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/9/2003
Louis Theroux travels to the US to visit a newly opened legal brothel in Nevada, the Wild Horse where he spends time hanging around in the background, getting to know the husband/wife owners and some of the girls, especially Hailey who tries to convince Louis to "party" with her in exchange for interviews.
#3 - Law and Disorder in Johannesburg
Season 2008 - Episode 4 - Aired 12/7/2008
Louis Theroux travels to Johannesburg to investigate the increasing amount of crime there. Many citizens are turning to private security companies, with brutal methods, to help protect them and their property.
#4 - Law and Disorder in Lagos
Season 2010 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/10/2010
Louis Theroux journeys to Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, to investigate the nature of law and order in the rapidly expanding city. There he follows the Government-run paramilitary task force KAI (Kick Against Indiscipline), notorious union leader MC, and young gang members known as "Area Boys" who unofficially run neighborhoods for money.
#5 - Miami Mega-Jail (1)
Season 2011 - Episode 3 - Aired 5/22/2011
Louis visits a notorious section of Miami County Jail, where some of the most volatile inmates are housed in cage-like dwellings and living under a gladiatorial code.
#6 - Miami Mega-Jail (2)
Season 2011 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/29/2011
Louis meets an alleged triple murderer facing a possible death sentence. He also follows a group of younger inmates attending a military-style boot camp.
#7 - The Most Hated Family in America
Season 2007 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/24/2007
In The Most Hated Family In America, Louis meets the Phelps family, the people at the heart of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church. The Phelps have rabid anti-homosexual beliefs, and often campaign at the funerals of American soldiers. They believe that every tragedy in the world is God's punishment for homosexuality. Subtle they are not. Theroux hangs out with the family in Kansas to find out whether there are other sides to their nature. But with any family who run websites like godhatesfags.com and godhatesamerica.com it's going to be difficult. As ever, Louis sticks manfully to the task, but the Phelps' family commune is not a place to be if you're a free-thinking liberal. Explosive stuff!
#8 - A Place for Paedophiles
Season 2009 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/19/2009
Louis has gained access to Coalinga Mental Hospital in California, which houses more than 500 convicted paedophiles who have been deemed unsafe for release.
#9 - Savile
Season 2016 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/2/2016
In light of the unmasking of Jimmy Savile as a predatory sex offender, and 15 years on from the BBC documentary When Louis Met Jimmy, Louis Theroux sets out to understand how a man who was at the centre of British entertainment and charitable fund-raising for decades was able to get away with a long litany of crimes.
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#10 - America's Most Hated Family in Crisis
Season 2011 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/3/2011
Following up on his 2007 documentary, The Most Hated Family in America, Louis Theroux returns to Topeka, Kansas, for a week-long visit with the Westboro Baptist Church. He again joins the Phelps family on their controversial pickets where they try to antagonise communities with offensive slogans and anti-gay placards. But four years on from Louis's last visit, there are signs of disarray in the Phelps clan. A series of defections of family members has shaken up the church.
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#11 - Louis, Martin and Michael
Season 2003 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/16/2003
Genial TV host Louis Theroux sets out on a personal quest to meet the ultimate pop idol - Michael Jackson - and examine the often bizarre world that surrounded him and those that worshipped him.
#12 - Ultra Zionists
Season 2011 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/3/2011
Louis Theroux spends time with a small and very committed subculture of ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers. He discovers a group of people who consider it their religious and political obligation to populate some of the most sensitive and disputed areas of the West Bank, especially those with a spiritual significance dating back to the Bible. Throughout his journey, Louis gets close to the people most involved with driving the extreme end of the Jewish settler movement - finding them warm, friendly, humorous, and deeply troubling.
#13 - America's Medicated Kids
Season 2010 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/18/2010
Louis meets parents who have turned to medication to keep their children under control.
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#14 - Louis and The Nazis
Season 2003 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/21/2003
Louis travels to California to mix with the White Aryan Resistance, including 11-year-old twin sisters who have been taught to sing racist pop songs by their mother.
#15 - The City Addicted to Crystal Meth
Season 2009 - Episode 2 - Aired 8/9/2009
Documentary in which Louis Theroux visits Fresno in California's Central Valley to take a look at how crystal meth addiction is affecting the local community. As he infiltrates the town, he experiences the reality of meth abuse, with addicts inviting him into their homes to see them take hit after hit of their favourite drug. He talks to the local police and meets a couple who have sustained their marriage despite a 25-year meth addiction and losing custody of their five children. He also witnesses arrests of families doing meth together, and sees the work being done to combat the destruction caused by the drug.
#16 - Twilight of the Porn Stars
Season 2012 - Episode 1 - Aired 6/10/2012
In 1997, Louis explored the psychological effects of having sex in public and on film. Now he returns to discover an industry in crisis due to the deluge of free internet porn. He also asks some of the new performers how they cope in a business that offers less money, more insecurity and more stress than ever before.
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#17 - Behind Bars
Season 2008 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/13/2008
Louis Theroux: Behind Bars sees Louis immerse himself in San Quentin Prison by exploring the relationships between prisoners and their guards.
#18 - America's Most Dangerous Pets
Season 2011 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/30/2011
According to some reports, there are now more tigers in captivity in the US than in the wild in the whole of Asia, as well as large numbers of lions, bears and chimpanzees. Travelling to America's heartlands, Louis Theroux spends time with an Oklahoma man who has bred and collected over 150 tigers, visits the woman who privately owns one of America's largest collections of chimpanzees, and finds himself in uncomfortably close contact with a number of big cats and dangerous primates.
#19 - Drinking to Oblivion
Season 2016 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/24/2016
Louis visits King’s College Hospital in London where he meets patients suffering with alcohol addiction and the medical staff trying to assist them. He spends time with the patients and their families to discover the effect of the addiction on their lives and loved ones.
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#20 - By Reason of Insanity (2)
Season 2015 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/29/2015
In the second episode Louis spends time with patients whose personalities are so intertwined with their illness that it makes them more difficult to treat. In doing so, he examines the grey area between criminal actions and medical symptoms, and investigates how we define insanity.
#21 - Gambling in Las Vegas
Season 2007 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/20/2007
This programme follows Louis investigating the high rollers and those who manage casinos in Vegas. Dr Martha Ogman was one of the main characters of the show and as the interviews with her took place it became evident that she was clearly addicted to gambling. Near the end of the programme it was revealed that in just seven years, she had lost in excess of $4 million. All in all Louis was $4,590 up from $3000 at the end of what he called his "blowout night" playing Baccarat in addition to turning $500 into $700 on his first foray into gambling at the Blackjack tables. As an interesting aside, the money gambled was his own, not part of the production budget.
#22 - By Reason of Insanity (1)
Season 2015 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/22/2015
Louis immerses himself in the world of Ohio's state psychiatric hospitals, meeting patients who have committed crimes - at times horrifically violent - while in the grip of severe mental illness. They have been found not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered by the courts to secure psychiatric facilities to receive the treatment that it is hoped will, one day, lead to their reintegration back into society.
#23 - Law and Disorder in Philadelphia
Season 2008 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/30/2008
Louis Theroux investigates the high crime rates in one of the United States' largest cities, Philadelphia, mainly from the perspective of the local police as well as people affected by, and possibly involved in, crime in the city's low-income neighborhoods.
#24 - African Hunting Holiday
Season 2008 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/6/2008
In this episode, Louis visits South African game, where near-extinct and other African species are bred to be hunted by western tourists.
#25 - Transgender Kids
Season 2015 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/5/2015
Louis travels to San Francisco to learn about the children, as young as three, who say they were born in the wrong body. He also visits the Child and Adolescent Gender Center at UCSF Hospital to meet the pioneers in the medical profession assisting them with their transition.
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