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I only made it through one full episode (Costa Rica) of season 1, which was interesting and fairly entertaining. The episode showed various sections/blocks of the prison complex, and featured interviews with a number of prisoners and guards, as well as the Minister of Justice. . I turned off the second episode (Bogota, Colombia) when Raphael Rowe had to spend his first night in his cell, telling the audience how he could not sleep due to his "dangerous", pot-smoking cell mates possibly trying to kill him, mind you, in full view of the camera crew.
Had this series simply attempted to show an outsider's view of various foreign prisons, and real interviews with prisoners and guards, it might have been interesting. Pretending to actually be locked up, "fearing" for your safety, while being surrounded the entire time by a full camera crew and likely security is simply unbelievable and downright silly. Inmates on camera freely brag about being the drug dealers for their particular prison block, try to extort money from the host and threaten to kill him with a knife, if he refuses to pay. The host refuses to pay and turns to the camera assuring the audience that "these guys are serious".
I have watched other prison documentaries, where the host interviewed inmates, as well as guards and administrators, on camera. Prisoners always kept the answers short and to the point, never volunteered any additional information, and certainly never said or did anything incriminating while the cameras were filming. Had the host actually been "incarcerated" while being secretly filmed and recorded, this show might have had some entertainment value. Of course, neither the host nor prison officials would likely have agreed to those terms.
score 2/10
jrandolff 4 January 2019
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4559596/ |
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11-1-2021 02:02:04