Louis Theroux: Under the Knife

Hey doc I want something that'll make every shirt I own look terrible on me , I just want to wear capes and togas what do you have? PEC IMPLANTS ON STICK MEN.

Louis, using his almost child-like personality, interviews many different people involved in the plastic surgery industry. From the doctors that perform the surgery, to their secretaries, to people receiving the surgery and their friends. At the end you feel almost strange having watched it as people have gotten the surgery for what almost anyone would say is the wrong reason but their lives seem to work out for the better. Interesting to say the least.

I appreciate Theroux's dedication to the job but didn't find this very informative and it was the least entertaining of the stuff I've seen of his so far. Still worth a watch just not on par with some of his other stuff. Also, every guy with the weird chest enhancement thing looked so damn weird.

Oh God, this one really freaked me out. In the sequence where Louis got the surgery done, I had to cover my eyes like a teenage girl at a horror movie, and as for the men who'd had too many operations, the uncanny valley effect was beyond disconcerting.

A good look into the lives of the shallowest of people, but Louis plays it safe and fails to confront any of his subjects on their actions.

Should be screened as a double feature with BURN AFTER READING.

One of the more entertaining Theroux documentaries, primarily for the butchered freaks who think their continuous body 'enhancements' make them look anything other than cheap extras on a Star Trek set. You get to hear their reasons and those of their doctors, but it's really hard to relate to this 'California culture', where image is everything, no matter how warped it may be. The final scene of the boyfriend taking back his girl after she's had a full body MOT is deeply disturbing.

I was kind of leery about watching this one, because I expected to find it depressing. But it wasn't so bad. There were at least a couple of cases where the plastic surgeries were undeniably successful, and you could argue that they were worth having. Louis even had liposuction done on himself, and was forced to admit that he was basically pleased with the results. But some of the interview subjects did confirm stereotypes like obsessiveness and low self esteem.

Full marks to Theroux for undergoing liposuction while simultaneously conducting an interview with the doctor performing the operation.

Plastic surgery is so grose. I mean what the fuck, a man with boobs? I dunno, most of the time I was disgusted.