On Monday night, I watched the first instalments of two different two-part documentaries that made me realise that I had actually watched content about two ends of the same spectrum - neither end comfortable.
Both documentaries were thought provoking and worth watching – if you didn’t see either programme, look them up on the ITV player/BBC iPlayer respectively.
Trevor McDonald’s documentary involved him touring the States and meeting some ex-Mafia cronies, either informers in hiding, or those that had been convicted of grievous crimes (and had done their time and were back in society). The people Trevor met were hard men that would act violently without hesitation and kill without remorse – in other words, genuine psychopaths.
In theory, the documentary had an agenda of de-glamourizing the Mafia but it annoyed me because what it showed was a bunch of nasty, unrepentant people that were clearly still very wealthy as a result of their criminal activities. What was worse, these characters would occasionally complain about their lot or suggest regrets that they had shafted their colleagues.
Trevor McDonald is a television journalist that I hold in high regard but he didn’t really challenge or confront the characters he was interviewing – still he was probably scared of them and you can understand why.
So, Mafia “made” men and enforcers are at the glamorous, almost socially acceptable, end of psychopathy but at the other are the kinds of sad souls that Louis Theroux interacted with.
Louis’ documentary saw him granted access to Ohio’s secure psychiatric hospitals where he interacted with people that committed violent crime but were not held accountable by reason of insanity.
These people were confined and loaded with drugs for years on end. With conditions like paranoid schizophrenia, or extreme bipolar disorders, some of those interviewed had killed or hurt others and were decidedly odd – hearing voices, experiencing hallucinations, or believing they were Jesus. But while these people were psychotic, you had some sympathy for their plights and respect for the institutions’ best efforts to create lives for them.
Louis Theroux did a good job of observing and challenging those he interviewed in a delicate way so as to illustrate their problems but without exacerbating them. In my opinion, he added much more value to his documentary than Trevor did to his.
My reflection is that the institutionalised psychotics and the psychopathic gangsters may not actually be that different in terms of the risks they pose to society (both dangerous) but whilst one group deserves help, the other warrants no such allowances.
The concluding parts of both documentaries will be aired in the not too distant future, I’ll be watching and my recommendation is that you think about doing the same.
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- Trevor McDonald Meets the Mafia (ITV 9:00pm)
- Louis Theroux: By Reason of Insanity (caught up via the BBC iPlayer)
Both documentaries were thought provoking and worth watching – if you didn’t see either programme, look them up on the ITV player/BBC iPlayer respectively.
Trevor McDonald’s documentary involved him touring the States and meeting some ex-Mafia cronies, either informers in hiding, or those that had been convicted of grievous crimes (and had done their time and were back in society). The people Trevor met were hard men that would act violently without hesitation and kill without remorse – in other words, genuine psychopaths.
In theory, the documentary had an agenda of de-glamourizing the Mafia but it annoyed me because what it showed was a bunch of nasty, unrepentant people that were clearly still very wealthy as a result of their criminal activities. What was worse, these characters would occasionally complain about their lot or suggest regrets that they had shafted their colleagues.
Trevor McDonald is a television journalist that I hold in high regard but he didn’t really challenge or confront the characters he was interviewing – still he was probably scared of them and you can understand why.
So, Mafia “made” men and enforcers are at the glamorous, almost socially acceptable, end of psychopathy but at the other are the kinds of sad souls that Louis Theroux interacted with.
Louis’ documentary saw him granted access to Ohio’s secure psychiatric hospitals where he interacted with people that committed violent crime but were not held accountable by reason of insanity.
These people were confined and loaded with drugs for years on end. With conditions like paranoid schizophrenia, or extreme bipolar disorders, some of those interviewed had killed or hurt others and were decidedly odd – hearing voices, experiencing hallucinations, or believing they were Jesus. But while these people were psychotic, you had some sympathy for their plights and respect for the institutions’ best efforts to create lives for them.
Louis Theroux did a good job of observing and challenging those he interviewed in a delicate way so as to illustrate their problems but without exacerbating them. In my opinion, he added much more value to his documentary than Trevor did to his.
My reflection is that the institutionalised psychotics and the psychopathic gangsters may not actually be that different in terms of the risks they pose to society (both dangerous) but whilst one group deserves help, the other warrants no such allowances.
The concluding parts of both documentaries will be aired in the not too distant future, I’ll be watching and my recommendation is that you think about doing the same.
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