The WORST episodes of Louis Theroux
Every episode of Louis Theroux ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Louis Theroux!
The documentary work of British-American journalist Louis Theroux.
#1 - The Settlers
Season 2025 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/27/2025
Fourteen years after his first visit, Louis Theroux meets some of the growing community of religious-nationalist Israelis who have settled in the occupied West Bank.
#2 - A Different Brain
Season 2016 - Episode 2 - Aired 5/15/2016
Louis visits the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust where he meets some of the estimated one million people living with the long-term effects of a brain injury in the UK. He spends time with those affected by this life-changing condition in order to understand the struggles faced by the individuals and their families. He also meets the staff assisting the patients in learning to walk, talk and eat again as well as come to term with their new life.
#3 - Talking to Anorexia
Season 2017 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/29/2017
Anorexia, the pathological fear of eating and gaining weight, is now the most deadly mental illness in the UK, affecting around one in every 250 women at some point in their lives. In recent years, the number of people being admitted to hospital because of their condition has risen dramatically but with many struggling to make a full recovery, being diagnosed with the eating disorder can sometimes mean a life-long battle. In this film, Louis Theroux embeds himself in two of London's biggest adult eating-disorder treatment facilities: St Ann's Hospital and Vincent Square Clinic. He meets women of all ages and at various stages of their illness, accompanying them through an enforced daily routine of scheduled eating, weigh-ins and group therapy sessions. As he spends more time with patients both on and off the wards, he witnesses the dangerous power that anorexia holds over them, leaving some unsure about whether recovery is achievable or even wanted. And as Louis seeks to understand what lies behind this mysterious illness, he finds himself drawn into a complex relationship between the disorder and the person it inhabits.
#4 - My Scientology Movie
Season 2017 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/5/2017
Louis Theroux is in America to interview members of the Church of Scientology - but they do not want to speak with him. So he meets disaffected former members of the controversial organisation and uncomfortably recreates some extreme experiences. All the while, Louis is being oddly shadowed by people who might be the very folk he wouldn't mind having a word with...
#5 - The Night in Question
Season 2019 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/4/2019
Louis Theroux heads to American college campuses and comes face-to-face with students whose universities are accusing them of sexual assault. As reports of sexual violence have dramatically increased in recent years, the government has urged US colleges to enforce a stricter code of sexual conduct amongst students. Employing specialist administrators to carry out investigations into alleged misdemeanors, they now have the power to permanently exclude those they deem ‘responsible’. For the victims of sexual assault these new processes, which require less stringent levels of proof than criminal cases, have allowed accusations that might have never been heard in a court of law to be vindicated. But alleged perpetrators believe the attempt to be more vigilant about rape and assault has turned into an overreaction that tramples on due process, and harms innocent people. At the start of this journey, Louis meets a neuroscience major called Saif Khan, who has been accused of raping a fellow student. His University is investigating the claims separately even though Saif has been found not-guilty in a court of law. Though Saif continuously pleads his innocence, Louis is drawn into an increasingly complex world, where separating fact from fiction becomes increasingly challenging. He also meets young women whose claims of sexual assault have previously fallen on deaf ears, who believe that a new approach to handling allegations of sex crimes is not only necessary but long overdue. One such student is Mollie Johnson, whose experience is a powerful reminder that there is now a broader understanding of what sexual assault looks like.
#6 - Mothers on the Edge
Season 2019 - Episode 2 - Aired 5/12/2019
Louis Theroux returns to the UK to spend time in specialist psychiatric units which treat mothers experiencing serious mental illness whilst allowing them to live alongside their babies. Immersing himself on the wards, he meets women who have been admitted with a range of serious conditions - including depression, anxiety and psychosis - often triggered by birth or the strains of motherhood. As he follows the patients and their families both in hospital and recovering back at home, Louis explores what lies behind their recent crisis and discovers the immense challenge in caring for two people in the most vulnerable state of their lives.
#7 - Surviving America's Most Hated Family
Season 2019 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/14/2019
Thirteen years since first encountering one of America's most notorious hate groups, award-winning film-maker Louis Theroux makes a long-anticipated return to Kansas to spend time with the Westboro Baptist Church - a hugely-controversial Christian ministry that for years has picketed at military funerals and other high-profile events with deliberately provocative and homophobic placards. Immersing himself in the strange world of Westboro, Louis explores what happens when a hate-group largely populated by one family loses its patriarch.
#8 - Selling Sex
Season 2020 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/12/2020
Louis Theroux meets the women legally participating in the new sexual economy, exploring whether selling sex can ever be a healthy way to make money.
#9 - Shooting Joe Exotic
Season 2021 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/5/2021
A decade on, Louis revisits Joe Exotic - 'gay hillbilly', convicted felon and cult figure. He digs deep into Joe's background, meets Carole Baskin and asks what made the Tiger King.
#10 - 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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#11 - 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.
#12 - 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.
#13 - 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.
Watch Now:Amazon
#14 - 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.
#15 - 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.
#16 - 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.
#17 - 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.
#18 - 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.
#19 - 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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#20 - 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.
#21 - 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.
#22 - 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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#23 - 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.
#24 - 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.
#25 - 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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