After months of waiting, Louis Theroux finally returned to our screens last night with the first episode of his new hotly anticipated BBC docuseries, Forbidden America.

Titled ‘Extreme And Online’, the episode saw the esteemed documentarian come face-to-face with some of the far-right’s most prominent social media stars. 

And while the horrific beliefs and opinions of the film’s subjects didn’t make for an easy watch, viewers were quick to praise Theroux’s talent for letting their horrific ideologies speak for themselves.   

“Louis Theroux’s ability to maintain his composure is truly a super power,” read one Twitter response.

“Louis Theroux has a fantastic way of letting people expose themselves for exactly what and who they are,” added another. 

And a third response read: “Louis Theroux is an absolute master at his craft. The silent pauses to allow those being interviewed to bury themselves, is genuinely amazing.”

While there’s still two more episodes left in this new series, it’s safe to say Theroux’s fans are pretty excited to see him back in action. But what else can we expect from Forbidden America? 

Exploring the impact that social media and the internet has had on American society, the documentary sees Theroux travel the “length and breadth” of the United States to meet an assortment of content creators: “young and inflammatory” far-right streamers; rap stars who share their chaotic and sometimes violent lives with thousands of online fans; and porn performers who earn a living via online subscription services using their new power to call out the behaviours of alleged industry predators.

For Theroux, whose most recent documentaries have largely been set in the UK, returning to America to explore the country’s rapidly changing online culture felt like a natural move. 

“I started out making programmes in America and made my name there in some respects with Weird Weekends, and there’s something about the stories there that have this sort of outlandishness – a sort of eccentricity and vibrant colour – while also containing a lot of troubling and toxic themes that felt very different to what I’d been doing,” Theroux explains.

“So I thought, let’s go back to America and do one of those sort of slightly weird American cultural stories.”

The first episode in the series – which aired on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer at 9pm on 13 February – came about as a result of Theroux’s interest in the ‘Trump phenomenon’, and the people on the edge of the movement using social media to not only support Trump, but spread their incredibly extremist views. 

Indeed, the episode sees Theroux come face to face with a number of far-right internet personalities, including Nicholas Fuentes – a far-right commentator who uses his platform to spread a series of white nationalist, antisemitic and misogynist views, and is considered too extreme for even the right-wing of the Republican party.

While Theroux has dealt with plenty of unsavoury characters in the past, his interactions with Fuentes were made more complicated due to a new factor – social media.

“The side effects of social media and the internet in general is that everyone’s more visible – the line between the private and the public has been erased, to a great extent,” Theroux says. 

“And in this case, it means that the people in my documentaries can see everything that I’ve posted on social media, and I can see everything that they post, and that’s ongoing. So, while I’m filming with them, very often they’re filming me; they’re posting and writing about me.”

Explaining how Fuentes had released a video during filming in which he described Theroux as “pretentious” among other things, the documentarian reflected on what it was like to have his own presence become part of the documentary’s narrative.

“I tend to think it’s quite positive, in the sense that it creates a transparency in his processes and my processes,” Theroux explains. 

“I think there’s something interesting about when you’re doing a story and the story pushes back at you. I’m a sort of protagonist in my programmes and when I’m having to wrestle with my subjects in some way, it creates a powerful sense of drama.”

He continues: “And while these are important stories, I also want them to reach people and make sure they’re compellingly told, and I think that aspect helps with that.”

While the characters and subject matter that Theroux takes on in Forbidden America aren’t always the most palatable, the documentarian has yet again managed to present a narrative that is compelling, challenging and interesting to watch – and will leave you feeling informed about a part of the world which often feels too big and overwhelming to understand.  

Louis Theroux’s new series Forbidden America continues on Sunday 20th February at 9pm on BBC Two and iPlayer

Images: BBC