Episode One: Infomercials
Louis tries his persuasive selling skills on the Home Shopping Network in Florida, a television channel devoted to onstop, around-the-clock selling. He enters a world of inventors, pitch men and visionaries, all obsessed with making their product the next big thing.
Episode Two: Swingers
A sub culture of middle-class couples in Southern California embraces all the core values of America except one - monogamy.They call themselves "members of the lifestyle", or swingers.Gary and Margaret, member of a multi-national company and home-maker respectively, run a regular swing party out of their suburban home. Gary explains that "a lot of the people who come here…have been around the block a few times.They like to pull into a different driveway every once in a while," and tells a bashful Louis: "Embarrassment is something you’re probably going to have to deal with and get over - how else are you going to get anything done?" Gary outlines the rules: no heavy drinking, no drugs, politeness and niceness. Anyone can attend the parties as there is no screening process. Louis seems to have passed the initial test but there is a golden rule - if he is to come to the party, he has to come as part of a couple.
Leaping in at the shallow end, Louis visits the Sybrian Club, where single guys are welcome.The manager suggests he spend some time with Cara, one of his hostesses, who encourages Louis to go to one of the parties with her. But Louis decides the Sybrian Club isn’t his kind of place - instead, he places his own newspaper ad for a single woman into swinging: "English TV presenter, 28, seeks swinging partner for entree into the lifestyle. Me: 6’2", 160 pounds..." Responses are soon flooding in…
Episode Three:The Black Nationalists
Louis Theroux arrives in Harlem, New York, in the aftermath of the shooting of Armadou Diallo, an unarmed black man, by four white police officers. He was shot at 41 times, hit 19 times.The question was why and Louis sets out to find out more. "Many of the inhabitants of Harlem believe that white people are devils…. I could really sense the anger".Louis’ main point of contact in the Black Nationalists subculture is the Reverend Al Sharpton, who rallies against police brutality, but has also run for mayor. Explaining the background of the National Action Network Headquarters, Rev Sharpton takes Louis on a tour of Harlem and says: "The hot idea of integration in America is a myth, it doesn’t exist…Just because of the colour of your skin you can do things I can’t do in a city I was born in". Next stop is Khallid Muhammed, dubbed by the media, "the most dangerous man in America" who unnerves Louis with his reading of his keen, narrow looking Nordic features, his interesting nose and cheekbones. Louis then visits the Israeli School of Universal Practical Knowledge. "They believe that blacks are the true Israelites, that their history has been suppressed by the white mainstream and that all English monarchs until early modern times were black."
Louis prepares to join Al Sharpton in his march on Wall Street to protest at the Diallo shooting. Vowing to keep protesting until the guilty policemen are brought to justice, Reverend Sharpton is arrested and Louis joins in a second sit-down protest as the armed police read them their rights over the loud hailer…
Episode Four: Demolition Derby
As well as lying at the heart of American car manufacture, Michigan is also home to demolition derby, the epitome of car destruction. This week, Louis Theroux tries to infiltrate this subculture by driving in a derby himself. He seeks advice from ice deliverer and demo derby driver Jon Lipka, who warns him that a scared person isn’t going to be a good driver. After watching Lipdka in competition,Theroux begins to wonder if he is up to the challenge.Episode Five: Off Broadway
Louis Theroux meets the real-life Kids from Fame when he investigates the world of off- Broadway theatre. As he immerses himself in the sub-culture of actors struggling to make it in New York, he discovers some of the less-dignified jobs they take to make ends meet.James Lorenzo, an actor who has been trying to make it in the business for some 15 years, takes Louis to a photo shoot to start building the essential portfolio of head-shots. Keen to show his versatility, Louis is photographed in hard hat and vest for the YMCA look, then leather jacket and gel for the Grease effect. At his next stop,TVI, where acting is a business, actress Nicole Greenwood leads Louis through the process of looking for acting work - and is brutally honest about his chances. Louis is gutted to be told he is definitely not the leading- man type, but more of a character actor, and is dreading the audition he knows he has to face.
Louis says: "I decided to set my sights low and auditioned for a Norwegian cruise liner. It was either that, or applying for a job as a dancing chocolate bar in Hershey, Pennsylvania." To his horror, the cruise liner gig turned out to be a very desirable job, with talented performers at the audition: "I humiliated myself utterly…it was my moment in the spotlight, I was singing With A Little Help From My Friends and I basically had a panic attack. I found it particularly humiliating as I can carry a tune and play the guitar.
"All in all, it was quite an eye opener.There’s something both quite sad and quite funny about these people’s struggle - they’re all desperately looking for an A-grade gig, aiming to be the next Tom Cruise but, in the end, they’re really happy to get a toothpaste ad."
Episode Six: Professional Wrestling
Louis Theroux investigates the world of extreme professional wrestlers in the southern United States where wrestling is more like avant-garde theatre than an Olympic bout. The participants are very athletic, the outcome is predetermined and it's very big business with millions of fans. But, as Louis discovers when he meets the AIWF in Southern Carolina, their style of wrestling is also gory. They hit each other over the head with chairs wrapped in barbed wire and throw drawing pins down on the mat to roll around on. They're not actually trying to hurt each other, but they want to make it look as if it hurts, so they use hidden razors to make the blood flow - a practice called juicing, as in juicing an orange.Most of the wrestlers are well paid and the world surrounding this sort of wrestling radiates good energy. Louis explains: "There's an atmosphere of Am-Dram weekends; the audience is mainly male, but of all ages, including lots of kids, like a pantomime crowd...there is a warm, fuzzy feeling to the people involved."
However, as Louis confesses: "I'm a physical coward and didn't fancy being thrown around in the ring." So it was a mistake to ask his trainer, 'Sarge', how they faked the bouts - he found himself being manhandled by angry wrestlers and forced to exercise until he threw up. "It's not something I'd choose to do if the camera wasn't there, but I have a job as a journalist."
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