"60 Days In" on A&E

Discussion
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The story moved okay (despite not much development of any side arcs).
But to comment on Acid’s production critique . . . I think they really rushed the endings and briefing stuff. Granted they needed to extricate everyone as fast as they can. That’s all well and good, but I thought we should have at least 5-10 minutes of notes review and such from each inmate on their exit briefing. But it was like 30 seconds each. Perhaps less a statement on the sloppy production and more a spotlight on just how little info was actually obtained. That said, I really would have liked to hear Abner and all of them break down things more and give insight. I suspect they had long 4-5 hour roundtables with each of them and just turned it into a 30 second chop job, though. Whatever. Maybe they want to do that on the reunion.

I really think the reunion should be a multi-part too.
I can tell already that I’m going to only continue to hate Steve (whose existence I’d completely forgotten, hahaha) and especially David even more.

At least Steve was pulled immediately.
David . . . holy fuck. Does he not understand that everything he did was ON CAMERA. Stop your bullshit lying, Dude. It only makes it worse. The ONLY proper move at this point is humility and atonement.

And, yeah, it was really refreshing and impressive how open and honest Abner was about seeing how jail pulled him back into a character he is afraid of. We can shit on him for the earlier episodes (I think this is more a play by production than him) of dropping the "I’m a chaplain, but . . . " card all the time. After looking at the full picture I really think a guy with that kind of honesty and heart actually does have the power and drive to make a difference in the lives of people he interacts with.

And, damn, I am really surprised how well Mark grew throughout the season. He said he wanted to be the Season 5 Hero. . . . well, he kinda was. I mean, his path was a little choppy, but that’s to be expected. Abner had the experience inside to integrate right off the bat.

Did I mention how much I hate David?
Uggh.

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All that said… I don’t know how much time was left for the program if it had played out to the end, but… I really don’t think there was going to be anything more achieved than they got the first couple days anyway.

It could just as appropriately been called “60 Days of Twiddling Our Thumbs”.
Absolute clusterfuck, hahahaha.

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Do you guys see any way this show can continue in this current format?

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This. It did feel rushed and I’d bet money it’s because they didn’t really come up with much. Consider what complaints did air. The guard was a dick and wouldn’t give you a razor? That’s weak. Means what was cut was much weaker.

As to my production theory, did a little Wikipedia research.

Season 1: 12 eps plus a reunion ep.
Season 2: 12 eps plus a reunion ep. And 3 “specials” (Where are they now?)
Season 3: 13 eps plus a reunion ep.
Season 4: 12 eps plus a reunion ep. And 1 “special” (Where are they now?)
Season 5?

(wait for it)

Season 5: 10 eps plus a 2 reunion eps.

On a documentary type show like this, I’d say each ep could cover 3 or 4 days of production. 2 less episodes means they missed out on possibly 8 days of filming. So maybe these people were in there 52 days? I’d bet 50 days in probably. It’s doubtful, but I hope they cover this on the reunion eps.

So Gunnar, it looks like you’re going to get your wish. This reunion lasts 2 episodes.

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Can it continue in the same manner?
I think absolutely not.
They can’t follow the same formula each time and expect anything other than meltdown and disaster every time.

I think the actual USEFUL data obtained from this season applies not to reform of the prison itself, but to reform of the show/ program. The inmates aren’t idiots. They’re going to follow and look for the same pattern that was set for 5 seasons now.

Camera crew in our jail doing a TV series? Oh, cool, let’s find the rats.

— The only way to reasonably mask the obvious is to start the TV part, cameras, interviews, etc. a couple weeks prior to intake of any participants and extend it a few weeks past. And, I don’t know if there are times in the year/ cycles where inmates moving in and out is at a higher volume, but do it then so the participants are less of an anomaly.

— Treat the participants the same as the inmates. It wasn’t long before the inmates noticed that they all got 15-20 minutes at a time for interviews while the plants got 1-2 hours each time.

— Participants should be treated as solo cases. They should NOT be told of any others in the program and they should not even have the expectation or assumption that there are any. If you think you’re ready for this shit, you need to be ready and willing to do it on your own. I don’t recall any case of participants actually helping each other in any way. They’ve only ever brought each other down.

— There seems to be (though it’s damn hard to know the reality as we just see cropped edits) a serious deficiency in actual training. I know it’s not like you can just learn a script and go in to conquer, but so many of these fuckers just seem to go right in and do EVERYTHING wrong, and I think a lot of that lies on training. Along with that, there should probably be a better application of SCREENING such participants. Some of these dopes just seem to be morally bankrupt sociopaths and that ain’t good. If your ego exceeds your concern for the lives of others (yes, David and Angel, I’m lookin’ right at your dumbasses) you are NOT right for the program.

— There needs to be check-ups and communication between Participants, Production, and the Facility (Sheriff, Warden, or whoever is in on the plan). I was blown away this season by the isolation of the three branches from each other. Why did the Sheriff and his buddies just step back like some overlord alien observers while the TV crew had critical life-threatening information? It’s completely irresponsible and dangerous. I realize they need to be discreet and handle such communications and meetings in proper manner, but they can’t just all exist in separate vacuums.

I think, ultimately, what this all really shows is that there is not much of a symbiotic marriage for “entertainment” and “covert operations”. Giving TV companies input and influence on such programs will only ever reduce and compromise the effectiveness of them. TV should realistically only be a by-product, if factored at all.

Do the undercover operations and sell the footage and rights to turn it into a show after the fact. Hell, I’d actually prefer that. You can always add the interview overdubs and whatnot long after the program has completed.

But in short, I think this season killed the series completely and I don’t think it can or should recover (as much as I love it and hope it continues, haha). And A&E and everyone else should truly be scared shitless of doing another. It’s like some fucked up calculus curve that keeps inching closer and closer to an axis. EVERY new season has an INCREASED chance that someone’s going to get completely mangled beyond repair or killed. And it doesn’t matter how many release forms everyone signed, it’s still going to be legal Hell and an absolute shitstorm for EVERYONE.

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God damn,Gunnar…we gotta make you the showrunner…

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When I have more time I’m gonna come back and comment on some of these…some real good ideas there…

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Hopefully he and Rob Zombie have their own reality show for this.
SKATE COPS – David and Rob team up with Neighborhood Watch and Dept. of Parking Enforcement to find, capture, and prosecute rogue skatepunks practicing skateboard related activities in unauthorized areas or in an unauthorized manner.

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I’m so fucking excited for the reunion show! I’ve been thinking about it non-stop since last week’s finale. Damn, I can’t wait to see David in the hot seat. I know how it’s going to play out, though. I’m sure he’s yet again going to double down and act like a fucking asshole, but it kind of makes me feel good to know that everyone in the program and everyone that watches is going to hate him. And shit like that DOES come back to your job too, if you’re in such lines of work. Even if he doesn’t get canned, everyone he works with will also know what a punk he is.

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God damnit I gotta wait til tomorrow to watch it…my shit is set to record though…that’s great that its 2 hours…1 hour wouldn’t be nearly enough…pretty sure David will double down …really looking forward to hearing from that chode Steve…let the Doughboy loose on his azz!!!

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Wow, that was a good one. All 2 hours in one night!

Steve came out in full on cunt mode. Can’t believe he thought petty insults would endear him to the group. He was properly admonished by all.

I can’t believe David humbled up. I think seeing the clips changed his attitude real fast. They did let him off the hook on the police admission aspect though.

However, I still think these producers are stupid to shoot these things before the show has aired. They would be much more contentious if people saw the full show. It’s a timing thing, but they could do it. I once produced a live-to-tape show that we shot on Tuesday evenings and aired the next day on Wednesday evenings. It’s a tough schedule, but we did that for 10 episodes straight. Certainly they could do that with a week’s time.

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Yeah, I was surprised to see David humble up too.
I could really feel his frustration, though, and think he went into straight survival mode as he could sense what a disaster it was for his job that everyone was going to know what a bitch he was. He got a free pass on the selling out the program to the guard, but I guess there really wasn’t anything further they could do on it other than scream, “Dude, you are such a fucking liar!” Also, I think he made it harder to really address specifically because he sorta half-confessed but said maybe the guy put the pieces together and so forth. Without the guard there, they’d just be talking in circles anyway. So, partial redemption for this dude. And Abner and all of them really handled it with class in forgiving the dude.

Man, I really love Doughboy. Dude was such a real motherfucker. I love that he made no bones about fumbling in the beginning and not knowing what he was doing. And I love how he straight up confessed to not only being surprised that he somehow ended up as “second in command of the whites” but terrified as well.

Steve ---- TOTAL FUCKING RETARD!!! Putting aside for a bit the fact that he completely shit the bed with respect to this mission/program, if you are a supposed professional in ANY field, just how in the fuck would it ever be a good idea to say that you were high as fuck when you started your assignment?

I love how easily all of his bullshit was shot right down too.

Responding to his claim that he was getting connected in with the Aryan Brotherhood ---- “What? The Aryan Brotherhood? We don’t even have Aryan Brotherhood in our jail! We have the ‘WOODS’.”

Then when he bragged about his massive expose’ on the sprayed letters with some LSD or heroin or whatever, Abner coolly responded, “Yeah, a dipper.”
“A dipper?” (Steve, confused as fuck.)
“Yeah, it’s called a dipper. They’ve been doing it for like 15 years. Everyone knows about that. It’s nothing new.”

Back to fact that they did NOT see the episodes before the reunion – very disappointing. One thing that I thought was major bullshit and I was hoping would be outed in the reunion was that JAZMYN STOLE SHIT FROM BROOKE AND THEN BLAMED IT ON OTHER INMATES. That shit is fucking dirty as all Hell and I really wanted her to have to account for it. I can’t really think of another case like that, but that one was bothering me all season and I was really looking forward to it being addressed.

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Doughboy definitely came out looking the best in the whole fiasco…no question …he was honest and humble and was able to laugh at himself…Abner was cool and gave the “I’m a pastor” rhetoric a rest during the reunion…or at the least they did a good job of editing…

What more can be said about Steve…without question to most useless douche in the history of the show…that officer to the left of the warden really wanted to cause him physical harm…they all called him out real well and his apologies were just hollow…he should be embarrassed for life over that…

The girls were almost non-entities…in the season and in the reunion show…

David showed some slight contrition but still needed up looking like a total arrogant dick…

I’m glad this mess of a season is over…aside from Doughboy I never want to see any of those people again in any capacity…

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I have to echo your sentiment about the season being over, Queer.
It was such a clusterfuck from day one and it seemed like basically 60 days of thumb-twiddling for the most part. I mean, they had, what 3000 hours of footage from two separate jails and they had barely 5 hours of sub-interesting programming that resulted from it?

Definitely the weakest season to date.
I really am curious to see if they try to do another and what changes they would make to it.

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Yeah, they tried one “twist” too many. Beyond that, I think they need to let the show take a break. Let people (inmates) forget about before they try it again.

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You’re sending a handful of civilians into a fucking jail.
We don’t exactly need to engineer surprises and plot twists, do we?

On that topic, though . . . I’d really like to know the process that went into choosing STEVE. In the ramp-up episodes, it seemed to me that the Sheriff was talking about him like he was his personal superstar. I don’t remember exact verbage, but the Sheriff seemed really proud and I thought it sounded like he hand-picked this guy.

I hate that he told everyone in the reunion that he was stoned when he began.
Because now I kinda have the urge to go back and re-watch the early episodes.
I’m sure it wouldn’t be rewarding or revealing, though. I wouldn’t know if he was high during the reunion as well. I think he’s just a complete waste and a total idiot, high or not.

I hope he never gets another paying gig as an investigator and ends up working at McDonalds . . . . where he’s still underqualified.

[quote=“acid_cripple, post:380, topic:6446, full:true”]
Yeah, they tried one “twist” too many. [/quote]

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Sounds like they DID do a major retooling for the next round.

7/30 they’re launching “60 Days In: Narcoland”. The description is a bit vague, but it mentions the plants being both “on the street” and inside jail, so, I’m not sure what to expect but I think it’s going to be quite different fro the usual formula. Hopefully they learned from the last few clusterfucks. We’ll see…

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I’m actually surprised this is coming back…I thought they had exhausted all possibilities of the show continuing…a re-tool was definitely necessary…I’m gonna check it out of course…

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https://www.aetv.com/shows/60-days-in-narcoland/videos/preview-60-days-in-narcoland?playlist_slug=60-days-in-narcolands-preview-playlist

Here’s the teaser.
I’m skeptical to say the least.
I really don’t know how they’ll tie in the “outside” stuff. It’s not like you can walk around with a camera crew and knock on the crackhouse . . . “Hello, fellow drug addicts! My name is Joe Sly and I’d like to buy some drugs!”

The idea of having them integrate with the outside drug world BEFORE busting them and putting them into jail is possibly intelligent as it actually makes their backstories more tellable, repeatable, and believable, but . . . I don’t know if that is even what is implied. It also makes for a really sketchy situation as there is far less control on the outside.

The other thing that is funny is . . . . uhhhh, don’t people already DO this shit? Isn’t that what undercover narcotics officers do? I realize it’s a tight wire they gotta walk when trying to marry actual “criminal justice/ social change” campaigns with the need for marketable television. It will be interesting to see if they CAN make this new format (whatever the fuck it is) even work.

This is definitely the most jaded/skeptical I’ve been for a season.
I suspect it’ll be a lot of weird padding where they interview supposed druglords and dealers and such with their blurred hooded faces and scrambled voices . . . yadda yadda yadda.

Should we just start counting sharks or give it a chance?
Fuck it, I’m doing both.

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Fonzie is ready to go skiing I think but I’m gonna watch any way…