User Reviews

Louis and his team have managed to balance the obsurdities of the political playforms that they are inhabiting whilst imbuing the audience with a fear of the power that they can have in the age of mass information.

The elements of comedy leave a designed, purposeful sour taste in the mouth.

Louis Theroux: Forbidden America - Extreme And Online (2022) is a documentary in which the eponymous presenter talks to various people involved with far-right politics in America and aims to understand how they package their fringe ideals in more apparently palatable ways in order to reach a wider and younger audience. I won't name any of the people involved here as I don't want to platform them in any way shape or form, something which the documentary arguably does simply by virtue of their inclusion in it. The picture is incredibly frustrating because of the hateful and immature people Louis interviews, people whose every word almost makes you want to reach out and punch them through the television screen. A lot of these people present their bigotry as 'edgy humour', which means that they're either insidiously trying to plant the seeds of hate into an unassuming - and potentially vulnerable - audience or that they're idiots who don't realise the real-world damage they do when they 'jokingly' spread hate. In either case, they're terrible people who don't deserve the platforms they have. There has been some discussion as to whether or not the documentary goes far enough in decrying the disgusting opinions of its interviewees. While I agree that Louis' more laid-back, less confrontational approach can lead to some scenarios in which these vile people are allowed to simply share their views, I don't think that the documentary itself sits on the fence. Louis is clear in his opinion (or, rather, observation) that these individuals are sexist, racist and homophobic bigots that balk at the term 'white nationalist' yet spew 'white nationalist' propaganda at every turn. By allowing them to talk mostly unchallenged, Louis gives these people the chance to dig their own graves. His intermittent interruptions and moments of confrontation make his own stance clear, provoking his subjects to the point that their veneer of non-bigotry just falls away and they reveal how hateful and fragile they really are. At the same time, though, I do agree that his approach won't do much to affect the audience of the piece. In many ways, he allows the audience to make up their own minds about the people he interviews. This does have the potential to backfire, as it relies on its audience being level-headed individuals who already think these people and ideals are dangerous and stupid; it does little to change the minds of viewers who may actually agree with what these far-right scumbags are saying. Worse, it presents these individuals to a wide audience who may have never even heard of them and, potentially, offers them a platform to reach a whole host of new people. In this respect, perhaps the documentary could've done a bit more work to ensure its audience doesn't accidentally start to align with its subjects. At the same time, though, talking down to its viewers may also have had a similar effect, turning people off of the documentary's message because they feel that it's manipulating them to feel a certain way. In general, the documentary isn't all that insightful and, instead, opts to portray the far-right in its own words in the hope that it trips itself up and reveals its truly hideous underbelly. Arguably, it ought to have compounded its own opinion on the matter by taking a more confrontational approach to the material. Still, I don't think it intentionally sits on the fence or anything like that; Louis' opinion is made clear within its opening moments. Ultimately, this sort of subject matter is something you have to tread very lightly around, yet it's an important topic to explore because people need to be aware of this sort of stuff if they're ever going to stand a chance fighting against it. I will just quickly mention that the documentary comes incredibly close to blaming the internet, specifically gaming culture, for some of these issues, rather than the people who take advantage of those things to spread their inexcusable toxicity. It just about avoids this, though. While it could've done more with its subject matter, this is still a respectable documentary that keeps you gritting your teeth throughout its entire duration. 6/10.

I really enjoyed watching this. Politics is taken so seriously (especially now) but if you can take a step back and look at the big picture, this is objectively hilarious. It is such an interesting clash of characters. Louis Theroux is very good at making documentaries, I'm not going to even try and deny that, but I don't think he really knew what to do with these guys. Louis is a 50 year old upper class liberal journalist, he takes politics very seriously and finds these guys racism, sexism, homophobia, antisemitism etc very offensive, and these right wing trolls are all about 20 and think offending 'old out of touch condescending liberals' is the funniest thing in the world. It is really fun to see them go back and forth. I don't know if anyone is going to learn and grow from watching this, but it is pretty funny.

I love Louis Theroux, I've watched his output and listened to him in interviews but I've never seen him fail to cajole or win over whoever he is interviewing.

Maybe this is indicative of the forces that are rising in the USA - interestingly I just finished reading It Can't Happen Here by Lewis Sinclair which is a novel depicting a rise of Fascism in a pre-WWII and it is scarily prescient of not just Trump and other right wingers but the politics of the left which are leading to the disaffected whites turning towards demagogues.

That is the story I was Louis Theroux to tell, I want him to hold both sides accountable but maybe that is far beyond the remit of the BBC - actually, if the BBC will pay for Adam Curtis' work as a politically neutral film maker they would surely fund Louis to do the same.

A thought just popped into my head, I saw recently a comment made by Theroux in the media which didn't click until just now. He said something along the lines of "Racists were easier to deal with when they had swastikas tattooed on themselves." Or something to that affect and now I understand his frustration at not being able to get under the skin of these racists he interviewed in Extreme and Online. The old ways are gone, there are new rules and the way Baked Alaska et al trolled him on his own show was... dank?

Louis Theroux is without a doubt one of the best documentarian's in the world, but just leave these idiots be.

Within near enough every conversation he has the subject tries to explain their views, but go on talking and completely contradict what they've said in the space of minutes.

This Nick guy obviously has his own agenda and it's simply to become famous and rich whether it be through a good or bad way. The guys a pup and simply another Alex Jones wannabe.

The Alaska guy is just a wind up merchant whose found friends through gaming!

They're all the same and it's been done to the hilt and is becoming boring. A couple of reviewers have stated that it's only one side of the story, and whereas that's true, it's because the far-right just can't shut up and want screen time.

Just let the country burn, Louis. Let it burn.

This episode does not capture contemporary internet culture in the nuanced way we expect from Louis. He covers alt-rightism well, but doesn't balance it with far-left examples to give the full picture of political division in the wake of Trump et al. It is nonetheless an enjoyable look at alt right extremism.

Such a shame. I've been a long time admirer of Louis Theroux, so it's sad to see him become a soldier of the left. It's tired and lazy to go after the 'far right', which is clearly rising across the whole of the world. Maybe aim the camera at the left for once.

Long time watcher of Louis docs, but it's clear as day his agenda in interviews now to make the interviewee look like a muppet. Rather than giving them a chance, he can't accept a salute as appearing as a nazi salute, as something accidental. Not cool Louis, can't blame the other guy for ending the interview. You gotta know when not to continue repeating asking a question when you got a direct answer.

Find it funny that people high vote this episode just because of the subject and spin, instead of the content. Louis comes out so desperate to expose some controversial content, or trigger some exaggerated response, that it makes him look more like a clown that the people he is interviewing.

I place my bets that in the next iteration of this episode Louis will go after random twitter users that retweeted pepe memes.