Saturday, July 3, 2010

The Louis Theroux Collection

I was recently gifted the Louis Therous Collection and was eagerly looking forward to watching it - given the interesting theme of exploring a variety of sub-cultures and Louis Theroux looking mighty intelligent, as also to better understand the "genzo" style of journalism.

Each of the series featured within the collection (across 2 themes - exploring subcultures & following 'celebrities') turned out to be complete wash-outs. I am appalled by the total lack of preparation on the production house' (BBC-2) and the presenter' (Louis Theroux) parts in respect of most the subculture they have undertaken to 'document' and with each of them being satisfied with portraying only the most cursory, basic understanding of each subculture to its audience. Most of the identified subcultures were of interest to me and I would have thought that covering a wider spectrum of views within each subculture and delving into each of them in greater depth ought to have been the obvious choice. In my mind, most have turned out to be meaningless documentaries. And this ought to be an insult to the average TV and/ or documentary viewer' intelligence and time (not to mention money, as the BBC continues to be financed by license fees approved by the Parliament).

(I am biased about the follow-the-celebrity bits, 'cos none of the ones featured in the collection are of any interest to me. So no opinion on them)

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