The BEST episodes of Taboo
Every episode of Taboo ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Taboo!
Around the world there are people of different cultures who take actions and decisions that seem out of the ordinary to the average westerner. Considered taboo, these people and their stories are now being known.
#1 - Drugs
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/2002
Take a trip from traditional acceptance to modern rejection, exploring how drugs are used in ancient cultures and why they are prohibited in modern ones.
#2 - Food
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/30/2002
Taboo investigates the fine line between what is food and what is forbidden. It looks at the eating of durian, insects, cobra, fugu, and dog.
#3 - Witchcraft
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/28/2002
Take a secret look at our darkest ritual - black magic. Explore the nature of power itself, and how it both elevates and corrupts our species.
#4 - Gross Food
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/31/2007
A look at food customs that are practiced in some cultures but rejected in others. Included: the lethal fugu in Japan; a six-course insect meal in rural Vietnam; tarantulas and bear claws at a dining club in Manhattan; deadly serpents in Hanoi.
#5 - Extreme Fighting
Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/17/2012
"Extreme Fighting" looks at different cultures' interpretations of acceptable violence.
#6 - Freaky Remedies
Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/24/2012
Unconventional medicines are examined. Included: a treatment for asthma that entails swallowing a whole, live animal.
#7 - Living with the Dead
Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 6/17/2012
Though many people are disturbed by the sight of dead bodies, there are those who deal with death as a matter of course—for occupational, cultural, and sometimes questionable reasons.
#8 - Altered States
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/4/2004
The use of mind-altering drugs is examined.
#9 - Gender Benders
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 10/18/2004
People who push gender boundaries are profiled, including transvestites and eunuchs.
#10 - Initiation Rituals
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 8/5/2007
Different cultures' initiation rituals. Included: a Brazilian tribe's bullet-ant glove; an urban Australian subculture's practice of suspension from fishhooks.
#11 - Skin Deep
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 8/5/2007
Spotlighting the Latmul tribe of Papua New Guinea and a coming-of-age ritual that requires teenage boys to have their skin repeatedly cut so that it resembles crocodile skin. Also: Maori tattoos.
#12 - Sexual Identity
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 8/8/2007
Profiling people who push gender boundaries. Included: transsexuals in San Francisco; Thai katoey or “ladyboys”; Samoan fa'afafine.
#13 - Signs of Identity
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 8/15/2007
Profiling young women of Ethiopia's Hamar tribe who voluntarily submit to brutal beatings to show loyalty to male relatives as they participate in a coming-of-age ceremony. Also: the Japanese horimono; branding.
#14 - Trials of Faith
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/3/2007
Exploring how far some people will go to test their faith. Included: Christians who subject themselves to suffering similar to that of Jesus Christ in the Philippines; Thai believers who impale their flesh with various objects to get closer to Chinese gods that watch over their land; a group of U.S. Christians that put their lives at risk to affirm their faith.
#15 - Extreme Performers
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/11/2007
Profiling performers who engage in extreme entertainment. Included: bullfighters in Mexico; members of a North American sideshow; a transsexual beauty pageant in Thailand.
#16 - Extreme Rituals
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/24/2008
Rituals that mark the passage from one phase of life to another are examined. Included: boys leap headfirst from a 70-foot-tall tower on an island in the South Pacific; a young girl tattoos her face before marriage in Papua New Guinea; a man in West Africa participates in a bloodletting ceremony that will ready him for priesthood.
#17 - Teen Sex
Season 9 - Episode 4 - Aired 7/8/2012
Whether we like it or not, teenagers are having sex. How their families – and their societies – deal with the sexual development of young teens, in particular, their daughters, varies wildly according to their culture and beliefs.
#18 - Extreme Collectors
Season 9 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/15/2012
Since ancient times, humans have expressed their passions and their personalities through their collections. But when a collection crosses the line from passion to obsession, ignoring legal, moral and taste boundaries, then it becomes taboo.
#19 - Misfits
Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/27/2010
Misfits are people who live outside of their cultural norms. Some are born into that situation, while others seek it. Meet Dave, an Australian man convinced his right leg didn't belong on his body, so he deliberately froze it beyond recovery, forcing doctors to amputate. In Bangladesh, river nomads make their living with snake charming and traditional healing. Viewed as sorcerers and sham artists by many, they are shunned and often not welcome on land.
#20 - Odd Couples
Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/10/2012
Unconventional relationships are the focus. Included: a three-way marriage; a woman who dates a man nearly three times her height; a gay man who's married to a woman.
#21 - Secret Lives
Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/3/2012
Do we really know who our co-workers, loved ones, and friends are? Maybe not as well as we think. Taboo opens a window into the lives of individuals leading a double life with surprising secrets.
#22 - Forbidden Love
Season 7 - Episode 6 - Aired 6/12/2011
Love can come in many different and bizarre forms. In Washington State, we meet a man with objectum sexual, who has an emotional, romantic and often sexual attraction to his car, named Vanilla. In Germany, we'll introduce you to the founder of the Objectum Sexual International Forum, who is in a loving relationship with the Berlin Wall. And we'll meet a married couple in California whose concept of monogamy has an odd twist she works as a professional sex surrogate.
#23 - Prison Love
Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/23/2011
Love behind bars with some of the most dangerous criminals on earth. In Texas, an inmate in solitary confinement gets married with the help of a radio host as surrogate groom, while the prisoner listens over the radio. In California, a pregnant woman has a white wedding at the county jail, with a glass wall separating the couple as they say their vows. In Tennessee, a man serving life for murder marries a woman he met over the Internet, but the marriage has little hope of being consummated.
#24 - Hoarders
Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/16/2011
In every city, there are hoarders. A Florida woman shares her house with nearly 400 pigs, as they continue to multiply. In Pennsylvania, a man's obsession with vinyl records has driven him to collect around two million records, with thousands more purchased every month. In England, we meet a male hoarder whose apartment is filled with clutter piled three feet high, and a female hoarder forced out of her home due to her inability to throw items away.
#25 - Addiction
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 5/9/2011
Delve into the lives of those haunted by addiction. Meet a 15-year-old South Korean boy in rehab because he’s hooked on video games. It’s an addiction shared by millions of Koreans, even spurring the government to intervene with a specialized rehab facility. In California, a woman is addicted to anonymous sex meeting countless partners in parking lots to satisfy her insatiable appetite.