Documentaries

Hey y’all. So over the last two nights I’ve watched two cracking television documentaries. One from my main man Louis Theroux and another from the old school Sir Trevor McDonald. Louis focused on mental illness in America and Trevor spent three months with some of the most notorious mafioso in American history. Both of them placed themselves in awkward and dangerous positions to give the audience the most reliable representation of some fascinating albeit unstable people.

One of the most interesting part of Louis’ documentary was his relationship with a guy called Jonathon. Although you find out really early on that he killed his father, Jonathon seems like a passive and well mannered man. I think Louis is as fascinated with Jonathon’s case as the audience is. It’s shocking to see how mental illness and how the shear amount of drugs that patient’s consume can turn someone who has done something so horrific into a numb and emotionless human being.

Although Trevor McDonald’s documentary focuses on something completely different, the interesting characters still come to the forefront. In the documentary you meet several mob members who have ratted on their companions and bosses in order to escape long prison sentences. One ex-mob member even admits to raking in $10 million a week! The documentary explains how the glamorous lifestyle depicted in movies is nowhere near what it is like in reality, it really is an enthralling watch for anyone who is gangster crazy like I am.

They’re both in two parts so I recommend you cram these two episodes in before next week. After this week’s episodes I’m going to go with Trevor 1 – 0 Louis purely down to the subject matter they covered. Can Louis pull back an equalizer next week?

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Jack