The BEST episodes written by Louis Theroux
#1 - Under the Knife
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 6
Louis Theroux: Under The Knife sees Theroux following patients having cosmetic surgery in California, before receiving liposuction himself.
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#2 - Louis and the Brothel
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 1
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.
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#3 - Miami Mega Jail: Part 1
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 17
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.
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#4 - Law and Disorder in Johannesburg
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 10
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.
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#5 - Law and Disorder in Lagos
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 14
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.
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#6 - Chris Eubank
When Louis Met - Season 2 - Episode 2
Louis joins the ex-boxer at home, in the ring and on a trip to buy jodhpurs. Eubank attempts a tongue twister and pontificates on being a role model for children.
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#7 - Miami Mega Jail: Part 2
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 18
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.
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#8 - The Hamiltons
When Louis Met - Season 1 - Episode 3
Louis follows the former Tory MP and his wife as they try to make a living as "objects of curiosity". The film features Louis on the sofa with a tipsy Christine, and following Mr and Mrs Hamilton when they are arrested over an alleged sexual scandal (both were cleared later).
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#9 - The Most Hated Family in America
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 5
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!
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#10 - A Place for Paedophiles
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 11
Louis has gained access to Coalinga Mental Hospital in California, which houses more than 500 convicted paedophiles who have been deemed unsafe for release.
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#11 - Wrestling
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 2 - Episode 6
In his final challenge, Louis Theroux investigates the most extreme American wrestling organisations. He hangs out with the WCW wrestlers of Monday Night Nitro and considers joining the Independent Wrestling Federation, who use barbed wire to spice up their shows.
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#12 - India: Enlightenment
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 3 - Episode 2
Louis Theroux explores the weirder fringes of society, travelling to India, land of spirituality, where he hopes to find the meaning of life.
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#13 - Self-Fulfilment
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 3 - Episode 1
Louis Theroux explores weirder fringes of society, arriving in Las Vegas on the trail of personal motivators who claim to be able to use hypnosis to help people's relationships with the opposite sex.
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#14 - Ann Widdecombe
When Louis Met - Season 2 - Episode 1
A prickly encounter with the Conservative politician in which Louis upsets her by asking about her possibly non-existent sex life and hears about her love of poetry and cats.
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#15 - Louis and the Nazis
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 3
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.
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#16 - Louis, Martin & Michael
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 2
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.
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#17 - UFOs
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 1 - Episode 2
Louis Theroux continues his journey through the fringes of American society, visiting the deserts of the south west where UFO sightings are often reported.
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#18 - Infomercials
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 2 - Episode 1
Louis Theroux explores the weirder fringes of American society. Theroux tries his persuasive selling skills on the Home Shopping Network in Florida, a television channel devoted to non-stop, around-the-clock selling. He enters a world of inventors, pitchmen and visionaries, all obsessed with making their product the next big thing.
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#19 - The City Addicted to Crystal Meth
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 12
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.
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#20 - Head for the Hills
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 1 - Episode 4
In Idaho, Louis meets right-wing patriots and militia enthusiasts who are preparing for what they believe is inevitable global catastrophe.
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#21 - Whites
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 3 - Episode 3
Louis Theroux continues his exploration of the weirder fringes of society. He visits whites-only communities in South Africa that are refusing to accept the end of Apartheid and also meets white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche.
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#22 - Paul & Debbie
When Louis Met - Season 1 - Episode 2
Louis joins Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee in their home beside the River Thames and on the road as the magician appears on Celebrity Ready, Steady, Cook and his wife launches a ballet company.
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#23 - Max Clifford
When Louis Met - Season 2 - Episode 4
Louis meets the PR guru/media manipulator as he handles Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell and child star Declan Galbraith and organises a charity do involving Westlife.
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#24 - Porn
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 1 - Episode 3
Louis Theroux investigates the world of the male porn performer. With his finely-honed physique and classy English accent, he doesn't have to wait long before landing his first part, playing the all-important part of park ranger.
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#25 - Swingers
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 2 - Episode 2
Louis Theroux continues his exploration of the fringes of American society. He visits Southern California, home to a group of people known as swingers. There he meets Gary and Margaret Lee who host parties at their home but only for swinger couples, so Louis goes searching for a date.
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#26 - Part 2
Louis Theroux: By Reason of Insanity - Season 1 - Episode 2
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. In the second episode of this two-part series, 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.
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#27 - Part 1
Louis Theroux: By Reason of Insanity - Season 1 - Episode 1
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. In this first of two parts, Louis spends time with patients attempting to come to terms with their crimes and the clinicians entrusted with helping to make them safe. And he investigates the difficult question - when is a patient with a serious crime in their past ready to be returned to the outside world?
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#28 - Black Nationalism
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 2 - Episode 3
Louis Theroux travels to New York, the epicentre of the radical black nationalist movement, to meet proponents of black nationalism. American black nationalist groups have been branded anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynist and even racist by the mainstream press. As he follows their work, he tries to separate myth from reality and wonders whether he will be welcomed.
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#29 - Gangsta Rap
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 3 - Episode 6
Louis Theroux continues to explore the weirder fringes of society, traveling to New Orleans in the hope of becoming the first white, middle-class gangsta rapper. He meets up with rapper Mellow T and interviews Master P before penning his own rhymes about his love of red wine, his Fiat car and Shepherd's Bush.
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#30 - Choosing Death
Louis Theroux: Altered States - Season 1 - Episode 2
Louis Theroux spends time with those preparing to take a lethal but legally prescribed overdose and meets a controversial group educating others in how to end their lives.
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#31 - Extreme and Online
Louis Theroux's Forbidden America - Season 1 - Episode 1
Louis Theroux meets the latest incarnation of the American far right: a political movement born out of the internet and increasingly making its presence felt on the political stage.
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#32 - Behind Bars
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 7
Louis Theroux: Behind Bars sees Louis immerse himself in San Quentin Prison by exploring the relationships between prisoners and their guards.
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#33 - Keith Harris and Orville in Panto
When Louis Met - Season 2 - Episode 3
Louis meets the ventriloquist who no longer enjoys the TV light entertainment limelight (and can't hide his bitterness about that) but is still earning a good living. He has a flash car, an ex-model missus, a large home and a role in Crewe's pantomime.
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#34 - Demolition Derby
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 2 - Episode 4
This week, Louis Theroux tries to infiltrate Michigan’s demolition derby industry and drive in a race himself. He seeks advice from drivers Jon Lipka and Rick Arnold and cousins Kevin and Steve Hanna, who find him a car and get him ready for his first competition. But after seeing them in action, Theroux begins to wonder if he is up to the challenge.
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#35 - Body Building
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 3 - Episode 4
Louis Theroux continues to explore the weirder fringes of society. He travels to California, home of the body beautiful, to see if he can join the world of extreme body building.
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#36 - Christianity
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 1 - Episode 1
Louis travels to Dallas, at the heart of the American bible belt. There, born-again Christian evangelists offer to have him saved for the Lord as the highlight of a live TV show.
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#37 - Jimmy Savile
When Louis Met - Season 1 - Episode 1
Louis visits 73-year-old Jimmy Savile, the miner who became a TV and radio star.
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#38 - Off-Off Broadway
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 2 - Episode 5
Louis Theroux spends time in New York among the subculture of off-Broadway performers in his latest foray into the weirder fringes of American society. Only a small proportion of actors make a decent living and Louis soon finds himself struggling to get work alongside the thousands of out-of-work actors. To improve his chances he joins a talent grooming agency, puts together a portfolio and has acting and voice coaching lessons. But as he discovers, an actor's lot is not an easy one.
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#39 - Gambling in Las Vegas
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 4
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.
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#40 - Love Without Limits
Louis Theroux: Altered States - Season 1 - Episode 1
For hundreds of years, romantic relationships in western society have been based on the idea of monogamy: two people, together, for ever. But with nearly half of all US marriages ending in divorce, perhaps the traditional model is no longer fit for purpose. In Love Without Limits, Louis travels to Portland, Oregon, the heart of a movement seeking to rewrite the rulebook on how we conduct intimate relationships and experience family life. Portland, whose city motto is 'Keep Portland Weird', is seen as the US capital of polyamory and ethical non-monogamy, the practice of openly and transparently having multiple relationships that go further than just sex. Louis embeds himself with families who have made the bold decision to open up their relationships in a number of different ways, whether inviting others into existing relationships or allowing partners to seek romance elsewhere. He discovers that for many, more partners means more love and more happiness. But for others, multiple relationships have led to jealousy, upset and broken hearts.
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#41 - Law and Disorder in Philadelphia
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 9
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.
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#42 - Take My Baby
Louis Theroux: Altered States - Season 1 - Episode 3
Louis explores open adoption in California, where babies are matched with paying parents
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#43 - Looking for Love
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 3 - Episode 5
Louis Theroux's continued exploration of the weirder fringes of society takes him to to Bangkok, where he has an appointment at a marriage agency where Western men are introduced to Thai brides. He begins to wonder if love is what these men are really looking for.
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#44 - African Hunting Holiday
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 8
In this episode, Louis visits South African game, where near-extinct and other African species are bred to be hunted by western tourists.
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#45 - Dark States: Trafficking Sex
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 30
Houston, the fourth largest city in the US, is widely considered to be the number one hub for human trafficking in North America. The US Department of Justice estimates that at least one in five of all the country's victims are trafficked through the city, and most of these people will be forced to work in the sex industry. In Dark States - Trafficking Sex, Louis spends time with American women working in the city's illegal sex industry and explores the often complex dynamic between prostitute and pimp. He discovers a subculture that plays by rules that are morally challenging to most people and seeks to understand what stops these women breaking free. Louis also embeds with law enforcement on undercover operations and meets Vice Division officers tasked with persuading the working women to speak out against their pimps.
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#46 - Dark States: Murder in Milwaukee
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 31
Milwaukee is said to be one of the most racially divided and impoverished cities in the US. With spiraling gun crime and homicide rates, this Midwestern city encapsulates America's complex and troubled relationship with guns and the increasing disharmony between African-American communities and the police. In this episode, Louis spends time with the Milwaukee Police Department as they patrol District 5, home to some of the nation's deadliest streets, with a homicide rate over twelve times the national average, and follows the homicide division as they investigate one of the city's many killings. He also embeds with a family who have recently lost a loved one to gun crime, and he meets a local social activist, once a criminal and gang leader herself, who has turned her life around and is coming up with her own solution to the blight of gun crime. On the streets of Milwaukee, Louis discovers a community who is often misunderstood by, and mistrustful of, the police. Arriving at a time of heightened tension between the police and the African-American community due to a recent police shooting, Louis hears from both sides of the debate and uncovers hope in a desperate city.
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#47 - Talking to Anorexia
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 32
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.
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#48 - My Scientology Movie
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 33
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...
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#49 - Altered States: Love Without Limits
Louis Theroux - Season 1 - Episode 34
For hundreds of years, romantic relationships in western society have been based on the idea of monogamy: two people, together, for ever. But with nearly half of all US marriages ending in divorce, perhaps the traditional model is no longer fit for purpose. In Love Without Limits, Louis travels to Portland, Oregon, the heart of a movement seeking to rewrite the rulebook on how we conduct intimate relationships and experience family life. Portland, whose city motto is 'Keep Portland Weird', is seen as the US capital of polyamory and ethical non-monogamy, the practice of openly and transparently having multiple relationships that go further than just sex. Louis embeds himself with families who have made the bold decision to open up their relationships in a number of different ways, whether inviting others into existing relationships or allowing partners to seek romance elsewhere. He discovers that for many, more partners means more love and more happiness. But for others, multiple relationships have led to jealousy, upset and broken hearts.
Watch Now:Amazon
#50 - Weird Christmas
Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends - Season 1 - Episode 5
Louis hooks up with four "weird" people, starring in the first season of his "Weird Weekends" documentary: fundamental Christian Randy James, reverend Robert Short, porn-star J.J. Michaels, and survivalist Mike Oehler, and spends Christmas with them.
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