The BEST episodes of Louis Theroux season 1
Every episode of Louis Theroux season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Louis Theroux season 1!
The documentary work of British-American journalist Louis Theroux.
#1 - Under the Knife
Season 1 - Episode 6 - 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 1 - 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 Lagos
Season 1 - Episode 14 - 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.
#4 - Miami Mega Jail: Part 1
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 5/22/2011
In the first episode of this two-part series, Louis spends time in one of the most notorious sections of Miami County Jail: the fifth and sixth floor of 'Main Jail', where many of the most volatile inmates are incarcerated. Held in large cage-like dwellings for up to 24 men, the inmates have developed a strange and violent jail culture. The men - who remain in the cells almost all the time and may only leave for yard time twice a week - live under the sway of a gladiatorial code. They fight each other for food, for status, and often just to pass the endless hours of confinement. Trips to the infirmary are a frequent occurrence as inmates are viciously attacked and beaten, but the guards say they are powerless to end the abuse.
#5 - Miami Mega Jail: Part 2
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 5/29/2011
Louis Theroux concludes his exploration into Miami Mega-jail, one of America's largest and most violent of jails, a holding pen for almost 6000 un-convicted inmates. Louis goes deeper into the jail system, meeting an alleged triple murderer facing a possible death sentence. He also follows a group of forty or so younger inmates who have escaped prison by pleading guilty and agreeing to attend a four month military style boot camp. Among them is a 14-year-old boy facing a possible ten year sentence for armed robbery if he can't survive the boot camp's relentless and brutal training and indoctrination programme. Many will drop out and receive prison sentences, but for a handful this will be their second chance at life.
#6 - Law and Disorder in Johannesburg
Season 1 - Episode 10 - 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.
#7 - The Most Hated Family in America
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/1/2007
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 1 - Episode 11 - 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 - Extreme Love: Dementia
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/26/2012
Louis travels to Phoenix, Arizona - the capital of dementia care. He spends time at Beatitudes, a residential institution, and also with those looking after loved ones at home to try to understand the struggle of living in a world of encroaching shadows - and of keeping relationships alive in circumstances that can be among the strangest and most challenging imaginable.
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#10 - Savile
Season 1 - Episode 28 - 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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#11 - America's Most Hated Family in Crisis
Season 1 - Episode 16 - 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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#12 - Louis and the Nazis
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/21/2003
Louis Theroux travels to California to meet the man dubbed "the most dangerous racist in America"; Tom Metzger. Louis meets him, his family and his publicity manager as well as following him to skinhead rallies and on a visit to Mexico.
#13 - Ultra Zionists
Season 1 - Episode 15 - 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.
#14 - America's Medicated Kids
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/18/2010
Louis meets parents who have turned to medication to keep their children under control.
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#15 - Louis, Martin & Michael
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/16/2003
In 2001, Louis Theroux decides to set out on a journey to interview Michael Jackson. When Michael comes to the UK, Louis approaches Uri Geller but gets turned down. He then finds out that ITV has been granted an interview and Louis sets out for LA to meet a close friend of the Jackson family, promoter and magician Majestik Magnificent, who claims he can set up an interview with Joe Jackson, Michael's father. However nothing seems to go easily for Louis and his target seems further away.
#16 - The City Addicted to Crystal Meth
Season 1 - Episode 12 - 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.
#17 - Extreme Love: Autism
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/19/2012
Louis visits one of the best schools in America for autism. He meets the students and their families to get a glimpse of what life is like for them and to experience the pleasures and the strains of one of the most extraordinary kinds of relationship.
#18 - Twilight of the Porn Stars
Season 1 - Episode 22 - 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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#19 - Behind Bars
Season 1 - Episode 7 - 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.
#20 - America's Most Dangerous Pets
Season 1 - Episode 19 - 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.
#21 - Drinking to Oblivion
Season 1 - Episode 26 - 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.
Watch Now:Amazon
#22 - By Reason of Insanity: Part 2
Season 1 - Episode 24 - 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.
#23 - Gambling in Las Vegas
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/4/2007
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.
#24 - By Reason of Insanity: Part 1
Season 1 - Episode 23 - 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.
#25 - Law and Disorder in Philadelphia
Season 1 - Episode 9 - 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.