TV REVIEW : ‘Asylum’s’ Look Inside Seems Rather Pointless

“Asylum,” an “America Undercover” documentary airing at 10 tonight on HBO, is an exercise in pointless voyeurism.

Billed as a “graphic, uncompromising look at life inside an institution for the criminally insane,” “Asylum” never misses a chance to zoom in for a close-up of a patient in anguish. You want tears, pain? No problem, this show will find ‘em.

“Asylum” was shot at Patton State Hospital, an institution for the criminally insane near San Bernardino. Many of the patients suffer from manic depression and schizophrenia, which triggered or contributed to their crimes. They were sentenced to Patton after being judged “not guilty by reason of insanity”; over time, most will be released and only 12% of those will commit another crime.

Director Joan Churchill never misses a chance to label each patient via subtitle with their crime-- murder , infanticide, arson --and their type of illness. The patients talk to the camera and there is some patient-staff interaction, rehabilitation sessions and parole evaluation sessions recorded, but, to harp on a point--what is the point? Merely recording images does not a documentary make.

* “Asylum” also airs Friday, next Tuesday and March 19 and 24.