I take reviewing fairly seriously, and so it is with some reservation that I admit that after seven of the thirteen episodes that make up Gangland: Season Six I could hardly take anymore. I felt like I was getting dumber. I think I can safely tell you that you really really don’t need to buy Gangland: Season Six. Here's why.
I could imagine, if you’re flipping channels and see Gangland, you might stop to watch half an episode. And the premise of Gangland is certainly interesting enough. Each episode focuses on a specific street gang, going over their history, their most infamous crimes, their methods of recruitment, their lingo, styles and tats, and the crimes that they favor. Sounds good to me.
I can even imagine that this show was good in Season 1, when they had episodes about the Aryan Brotherhood, The Bloods and Crips, Hell’s Angels, The Latin Kings, etc, although I never watched that first season. But by the first episode of season six they were at episode 62. Just how many interesting and storied street gangs are there? How much more is there to say about gangs in this format?
The first episode of Season 1 aired on November 1, 2007, and the premiere of Season 6 premiered November 5, 2009. In other words, they produced more than sixty 42-minute documentaries in two years: even half hour sitcoms only produce 48 episodes in the same time frame. They had to churn out a lot of episodes very quickly, and it’s no wonder that many of the episodes have almost nothing to say about their subject. That excuses the producers to some extent, but doesn’t make it a worthwhile view.
Some episodes are certainly better than others: a couple are almost interesting. There is usually about five minutes of information per every 42 minute episode, but the better episodes, including “Skinhead Assault” and “Sex Money Murder” have 10-15 informative minutes. The episodes are mostly made up of interviews with current or former gang members and police experts. But how much can you believe? If anyone is likely to lie about the extent of crime more than policemen it’s gangbangers. Oh yeah, and there are lots of really terrible reenactments.
But more than anything, what makes Gangland almost unwatchable is the style. I’ve never watched anything and imagined how much more pleasant it would be to watch with commercials. The pace is unacceptable. Not only is it edited at a speed Paul Greengrass reserves for fight scenes, but almost every single cut is emphasized by a swooshing or clanking sound effect. The narrator does his best Christian-Bale-as-Batman imitation, there are blink and you’ll miss them wipes accompanied by horror movie screams, and the music never stops pounding, although it flips between stock songs like a Girl Talk b-side.
Visually, the post-production team plays with Adobe After Effects like a kitten with a string, lens flaring, washing out colors, polarizing, and even when they show a photograph they jump cut in and out multiple times (accompanied by a metal-door clanging sound effect, of course). Not that it really matters, because the faces are all blurred out, both in footage and photograph, so that even in the tenth of a second you see the image you’re only looking at a swastika emblazoned bomber jacket with a white blur above it.
That said, in the seven episodes I watched I did learn a couple interesting things: a bit of info about the history of bike gangs, a little something about the functioning of prison gangs, some history of the white supremacy movement. But the sensationalist approach which eschews fact for vague pronouncement, and the literally headache inducing style (I actually had to take a Motrin after the first two episodes I watched) make it far from worth your time. If you’re really interested, read up on the gangs on Wikipedia. You’ll learn five times the information in one tenth of the time. And it’s free.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The bonus feature is one fifteen minute track of extra footage: 3 minutes on New York City gangs, 3 minutes on West Coast slang, 3 minutes on the origins of biker gangs, 3 minutes on “The Hood”, 3 minutes on wounds and scars. These seem to me like they were inter-show ads for History Channel, and they’re done in the same brain-exploding style. And I suppose it looks good. Not very special.
"Gangland: Season Six" is on sale November 16, 2010 and is not rated. Documentary. Starring Various.
