The 50 Best Documentaries on Netflix to Watch Now
It's no secret that we're living in the golden age of the documentary. (Which, by the way, will absolutely continue in 2024.) If you're looking to enjoy the best of what the genre has to offer, Netflix has a stellar catalog of documentaries. To make the selection process easier—since navigating the streamer's swelling library is damn near impossible nowadays—we rounded up 50 of our favorites.
Below, you’ll find gripping crime thrillers, such as Why Did You Kill Me, Unsolved Mysteries, and Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia. Want to see what it takes to become one of the greatest athletes in the world? Check out Beckham and Formula 1: Drive to Survive. We even have selections for our fellow melomaniacs, who will enjoy the hell out of The Greatest Night in Pop and The Sparks Brothers.
Whether you want to brush up on world history, relieve the glory days, or simply learn something new—this list has a film for you. Happy streaming.
Beckham
In Beckham, the great David Beckham breaks down his career—from his early days with Manchester United, to his stint with PSG (Paris Saint-Germain). Along the way, we learn about his courtship of Victoria Beckham and how international fame shaped their lives.
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The Greatest Night in Pop
The Greatest Night in Pop brilliantly details the historic recording of “We Are the World.” One night in 1985, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner, Willie Nelson, and many more teamed up to record the anthem as a fundraiser to fight starvation in Africa. The Greatest Night in Pop takes you behind the scenes and into the studio where it all began. Come for the music history—and stay for the vintage footage of your favorite artists.
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World War II: From the Front Lines
World War II: From the Front Lines uses colorized, archival footage to retell the horrors of World War II, as told by the people who lived it. All sides of the conflict are displayed in this stunning documentary, painting a full picture of one of the most devastating battles in world history.
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Sr.
Don't sleep on the deeply personal Sr., where Robert Downey Jr. explores the life of his father—who was a legendary director in his own right—during his final days. As Downey Jr. told Esquire in an interview about the film, "There’s a little bit of God’s grace in here."
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Bill Russell: Legend
What else is there to say about Bill Russell, who won about a zillion rings with the Boston Celtics? A lot, apparently. In Bill Russell: Legend, the legendary filmmaker Sam Pollard explores the life and legacy of one of basketball's first true stars.
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Stutz
In Stuz, the great Jonah Hill profiles his also-great therapist, Phil Stuz. If you're currently in therapy, you'll find Stutz to be a pretty fascinating exploration of some unconventional methods of psychotherapy. If not? Maybe you might finally be inspired to give it a try.
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Formula 1: Drive to Survive
Here at Esquire, we've finally converted to the cult, fandom, mass obsession, bandwagon—whatever you want to call it—of Formula 1. Featuring the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris, the series captures honesty, beef, and emotion in a way we'll never see from our ultra-guarded athletes stateside.
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White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch
The saga of the once-exclusive retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch, is so captivating that you'll swear you smell the inside of the store while you watch it. (Or is that Hollister?)
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Our Father
Our Father is a Netflix-branded true crime batshittery at its best. Or worst, really. In the film, a woman takes an at-home DNA test and finds out that she has multiple half-siblings. The story unravels with a scheming fertility doctor at the end of it all.
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Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King
The Internet is ripe with scams and Netflix is determined to catch every single one. In Trust No One, a Canadian crypto founder mysteriously dies, leaving $215 million of his customer's cash lost and unreturned. The story gets even more complicated when conspiracy theorists and Internet sleuths begin to believe that he faked his own death and ran away with the stash.
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Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
The Boeing 737 MAX incidents shook the nation back in 2019, when two massive planes crashed due to component failures and killed roughly 346 people. News reports about faulty autopilot software and corporate corruption ended in Boeing's heavily sullied reputation, but not its demise.
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Dancing with the Birds
Deep in exotic forests around the planet, Birds of Paradise dance, shake their feathers, and collect the prettiest rocks they can get their little beaks on just to attract a mate. Dancing with the Birds, produced by the creators of Our Planet, gets up close to capture some of the most beautiful performances from some of nature's most bizarrely captivating creatures.
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The Sparks Brothers
They're a band and they're brothers. That's how Ron (keyboards) and Russell Mael (vocals) describe themselves in the opening of The Sparks Brothers, a documentary about the quirky Los Angeles pop/rock duo. Spanning over 50 years and 25 studio albums, Sparks developed a cult following in the U.S. and recently made a big resurgence after they wrote the score to the (polarizing) film Annette.
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14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible
Six months and six days. That's how long it took Nims Purja to climb the world's 14 highest mountains, all above 8,000 meters. The journey is brilliantly documented in 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible. After you've watched the film, make sure to read our interview with Purja.
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The Tinder Swindler
The Tinder Swindler is absurdist true crime at its best. The film follows the sins of Simon Leviev, who allegedly posed as a billionaire diamond heir on Tinder so he could exhort money from women. Guess what? He's still out there. Somewhere.
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Pelé
Early in 2021, we saw the definitive portrait of arguably the greatest footballer of all time: Pelé. The film is both a celebration of the electric Brazlian and an unflinching look at the mistakes he made during his career.
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Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami
Throughout the 1980s, Willie Falcon and Sal Magluta controlled the largest cocaine smuggling organization on the East Coast and one of the biggest in the world, making more than $2 billion in cash by bringing cocaine into the U.S. from Colombia via Miami. Through interviews with their close friends and co-conspirators, this docuseries details everything from the early days of the operation to the various trials, convictions, murders, bribes, and escapes in this notorious case.
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Schumacher
This German sports documentary on the life of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher is an inside look at his early years, his rise to prominence, and his current rehabilitation at the family’s home following his 2013 skiing accident.
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Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed
When you think of Bob Ross, you probably think calming, joyful brushstrokes, trees and nature, and maybe even of his signature afro. But a new Netflix doc paints a more sinister portrait of the beloved painter’s legacy, examining the complicated legal battles that have ensued over the use of Bob Ross’s name following his 1995 death.
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My Octopus Teacher
The 2020 Oscar winner for best documentary, My Octopus Teacher follows one man on his journey to develop a relationship with an octopus off the Cape Town coast. It’s as strange as it sounds, but also a fascinating and utterly unique look at nature.
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The Innocence Files
The Innocence Project is a nonprofit legal organization that works to reverse wrongful convictions and exonerate innocent individuals through the use of DNA testing. The Innocence Files is a limited series that tells the stories of these heartbreaking cases, exposing the inequality and deceit embedded deep in the criminal justice system.
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Seaspiracy
We really, really need to do a better job taking care of the ocean (and the Earth at large). But when one documentarian sets out to prove just how much damage we're doing to the sea, he uncovers much more than he bargained for. Seaspiracy is a damning look at what we've done to the Earth in pursuit of getting what we want.
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Why Did You Kill Me?
The murder of Crystal Theobald came with some big consequences for those who committed the crime. When a family uses social media to track down her killers, vindication starts veering into the extreme.
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Operation Varsity Blues
The 2019 College Admissions Scandal is very recent history—in fact, the trials and sentencings in the case are still ongoing today. But that didn’t stop Fyre director Chris Smith from documenting the scandal—which is the largest college admissions scheme ever prosecuted—for the world to watch. Operation Varsity Blues refocuses the attention from convicted actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman onto Rick Singer, who was the mastermind behind the whole scheme. It’s a fascinating doc about the specifics of the scheme, but also the broader inequalities and injustices baked into the American college system.
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Murder Among the Mormons
Murder Among the Mormons is a comprehensive deep dive into a lesser-known, shocking tale of deceit in the very niche Mormon rare document dealing world in 1985 Salt Lake City. The unprecedented crimes of one man—who murdered two people to try to save his reputation—are traced and explored in this shocking docuseries from directors Tyler Measom and Jared Hess, who both grew up in the Church.
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Last Chance U: Basketball
The creators of Last Chance U and Cheer have done it again this season in Last Chance U: Basketball. Heartfelt, dramatic, and funny, too, this docuseries follows the hopeful D1 basketball players at East Los Angeles College, who are some of the best personalities we’ve ever seen in the series.
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The Ripper
This doc is not about the infamous Jack, but another British murderer. The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter William Sutcliffe, terrorized Northern England through the '70s and '80s, evading capture for years largely due to the sexism and classism of the police at the time.
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Surviving Death
This truly wild documentary is a journey exploring the possibility of life after death—from near death experiences, to mediums, to reincarnation. It's a spooky, ghost-filled series with a fascinating cast of characters, but whether you leave convinced is up to you.
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Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer
Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer chronicles the crimes of notorious California killer Richard Ramirez in the '80s. Told primarily from the perspectives of the homicide detectives on the case, this doc focuses on the frustrating investigation that dragged on for months before Ramirez was finally captured.
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American Murder: The Family Next Door
In case you’re one of the few who does not know about the Watt family murders (don’t feel bad—you’re not alone), this 90ish minute documentary uses found footage to unravel the devastating deaths of Shannan Watt and her two daughters. What starts out as a heartbreaking disappearance quickly takes an even more gruesome turn, especially when you consider that it’s Shannan’s social media videos that narrate a large part of the documentary.
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David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
Just that name alone should sell this film. Attenborough has been doing environmentally-focused documentary work for years, and in a time where we really could be paying more attention to our environment, his Netflix documentary is a must watch. Not only does it offer some keen perspective on Attenborough’s life, but it highlights just how much nature has changed since the natural historian has been alive.
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The Last Dance
The 10-part Michael Jordan docuseries united the quarantined world in ways few other things did. But if you missed the weekly cultural moments (and memes), binge it all now in one go.
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Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting An Internet Killer
Deeply disturbing and incredibly wild, Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting An Internet Killer tells a tale that begins when a video of a cat murder is posted online. While the sleuths of the internet set out to find the killer, the attention he receives leads him to post even more gruesome videos. It’s a dark and twisted binge.
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The Staircase
Practically every true crime podcast has covered the legendary, haunting case of Kathleen Peterson, but if you aren’t a junkie yet and you’re looking to get into true crime, The Staircase is the place to start.
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Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia
This new three-part documentary dives into the underground New York of the mob in the '70s and '80s, and the FBI agents who infiltrated the crime organization. It's gory, suspenseful, and enlightening. And here’s some light reading about the current president for when you’re finished.
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Unsolved Mysteries
Who doesn’t like falling down the rabbit hole of a cold case? This July, Netflix rebooted the long-running network TV staple, which was the zenith of the true crime, interviews-and-re-enactments genre. Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries was a huge success, having fans playing couchside detective all over again.
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Athlete A
Over 500 women have accused Larry Nassar, a former trainer for USA Gymnastics, of assault. In Athlete A, directors Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk seek justice for those women. The documentary hones in on the story of Maggie Nichols, who came forward about Nassar’s abuse in 2015—as well as the local newspaper reporters who made Nassar’s crimes a national story.
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Ugly Delicious
Here’s a general rule of thumb: If culinary legend David Chang digs a restaurant, chef, or anything edible, really—best to put it on your radar. Follow Chang’s adventures in Ugly Delicious, where he adds some Food World 101 lessons along with visits with his favorite chefs and trips to out-of-the-way spots. (Plus one excursion at Outback Steakhouse.)
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Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich
There were few 2019 news stories bigger than the arrest and suicide of Jeffrey Epstein, one-time high-society financier and convicted sexual offender. And while this four-part docuseries includes interviews with Epstein’s former colleagues and associates—and particularly chilling deposition footage of Epstein himself—director Lisa Bryant focuses on the stories of the survivors, women who were drawn into Epstein’s circle and are brave enough to share their accounts with the world.
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Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness
Hey all you cool cats and kittens, you think you're about to watch a documentary about the treatment of animals? Not so fast. What starts out as a documentary looking into America's roadside zoos turns into an absurd tale of polygamy, feuds, and a murder-for-hire plot. There's a reason 34 million people watched Tiger King in its first 10 days on Netflix.
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Crip Camp
Crip Camp takes a look into a summer camp that revolutionized the disability movement. Focusing on a group of teens attending the camp, the deeply affecting documentary explores an era when disability rights were tragically ignored.
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Salt Fat Acid Heat
American chef Samin Nosrat travels the world to explore and drive home the importance of the four basic tenants of cooking. As interesting as it is relaxing, come for the complexity of culinary science, stay for Samin's intoxicating personality.
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Cheer
Even if you have no interest in cheerleading, this docuseries will take hold of your heart and never let go. It follows the story of the Navarro College competitive cheer squad as they go through the emotional highs and lows of being part of a longstanding legacy. Here's to hoping you make it on mat.
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Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez
The Netflix docuseries covers the downfall and conviction of New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, but it also goes into some unexpected places, including speculation of his mental health and sexuality. The documentary features interviews with friends, NFL players, and insiders that tell the story of how a football player turned into a deadly criminal.
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The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Often regarded as the British counterpart to America's Jon Benet Ramsey, the docuseries traces over the baffling disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann, who went missing while on vacation in Portugal with her family. Unlike Ramsey though, McCann was never found, prompting an onslaught of theories that targeted everyone in the area, all the way down to McCann's parents.
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Evil Genius
If you've ever heard rumblings about a bank heist that resulted in a pizza guy being blown up with a collar bomb, Evil Genius tells the full, insane story about what happened back in 2003. If you haven't heard about this case, process that first sentence and read on. Evil Genius is the four-part documentary that unwraps all the mystery behind the murder of Brian Wells and the string of events that led him to become involved in a deadly Pennsylvania bank robbery that made headlines across the nation.
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Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened
In 2019, there were two documentaries released about the disaster that was the Fyre Festival. The Netflix version looks at the fallout for mastermind Billy McFarland and the effect this festival had on the people in the Bahamas who helped put it all together. In one of the more memorable moments, McFarland's business partner, Andy King, explains how he offered to go far and beyond the call of duty to get some boxes of Evian water bottles past customs.
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Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes
Before creating Zac Efron's portrayal of serial killer Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, filmmaker Joe Berlinger interviewed journalist Stephen Michaud about his revealing conversations with Bundy while he was in prison.
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Get Me Roger Stone
Before he was indicted in the Mueller Probe, Roger Stone had a long career as a right-wing dirty trickster, dating back to his work with Richard Nixon. “I live a pretty Machiavellian life and I’m a skeptic. I tend to believe the worst of people because I understand human nature,” Stone says in the doc. “That’s why one of Stone’s Rules is that ‘Hate is a stronger motivator than love.’”
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The Black Godfather
Clarence Avant grew up in the segregated south and went on to become a hugely influential behind-the-scenes figure in the entertainment industry. Director Reginald Hudlin interviewed more than 75 people over three years, including Quincy Jones, Kamala Harris, Bill Clinton, Bill Withers, and Barack Obama.
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