Louis Theroux’s Tough Love: Autism

Last week, Louis Theroux returned to our screens in an endearing, important documentary on the highs and lows of parenting an autistic child. Theroux, as always, was an intelligent but […]


Last week, Louis Theroux returned to our screens in an endearing, important documentary on the highs and lows of parenting an autistic child. Theroux, as always, was an intelligent but balanced observer and this is exactly his brilliance. Theroux’s awkwardness is what makes him so accessible: we’ve all had that moment, which he has many of, in which you uncomfortably observe a child behaving badly and its parents’ attempts to control it – I spent my Spring Break in this situation. Therefore, I related to Theroux, I understood his reactions and as a result I stopped checking Facebook every 5 minutes and actually concentrated for an entire hour. 

The most endearing moment involves Theroux and a severely autistic boy called Brian, who has trouble talking and relating to new people, sitting in the back of the car dancing along to some salsa beats. Brian looks happy, but so does Louis; happy that he’s broken through to a child whose reactions are particularly temperamental. Theroux may be objective when it comes to not passing judgement, but that isn’t to say he doesn’t get involved with the children. Nonetheless, the harrowing difficulties of autism come to the fore when a couple of days later, Louis and Brian meet again and Brian seems to have no recollection of the moment that they shared or even of Louis himself.

In contrast to Louis’ experiences with Brian, Theroux’s interaction with a family who have a pair of autistic twins seemed not to offer any light. The mother exhaustedly admits that “I just try and make them happy, because, God forgive me, I don’t get a lot of enjoyment from them”. Her twins are particularly insular which reminds the watcher that there are many different variations of autism and that the sufferers cannot be lumped together. Once again, we see the brilliance of this documentary in its objectivity and relativity, in particular, Louis Theroux’s approach to the different children and different families.  Theroux is not trying to offer a solution but exploring the many faces of a condition that affects 1 in 88 children.

On the other side of the spectrum, Louis meets Nicky, whose mother claims his autism was miraculously bettered by a church visit. Once again, Louis disregards his previous propensity to push statements such as this and allows the viewer to form their own opinion. Nicky has graduated from New Jersey’s Development Learning Centre, which all these children attend, and the programme closes on Nicky’s first day at a ‘normal’ high school. Nicky offers light comedic relief, in what is an undeniably heavy hour, through relatable teenage reactions with his mother and a brilliant moment when he teases Theroux about his Wikipedia entry.

Theroux has been quoted in an article in The Telegraph as saying that “I’m as proud of these shows as I am of anything I’ve ever done”. And so he should be. In revealing the sad and hopeful truths of autism to the public, Theroux has revealed a different side to his own journalistic skills. He himself admits that to “take a presenter known principally for his tongue-in-cheek approach to interviews and let him loose among the mentally ill … doesn’t exactly sell itself”. But it works. Instead of being a static observer, we see Theroux grow from uncomfortable to almost at-ease among these distinct and unique children and it teaches us all a necessary and universal lesson about acceptance.

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Photo: ©  bbc.co.uk