One of the best things about docuseries is that there are so many different types of stories to immerse yourself in. The format might immediately make you think of true crime, but there are also many multi-episode stories about sports stars, feats of nature, and even ways to help you improve your own life. The best are the ones that sort through the facts in engaging ways, ensuring you’re discovering something you might not have known before — while also getting caught up in what’s happening on-screen.
Whether you’re interested in learning more about cultural icons or you’re looking to break open the story of a twisted crime case, we’re here to help. And because you’ve likely torn through others like Making a Murderer and Cheer already, this list features a selection of more recent offerings, all sure to have you racing to your remote to hit “Next Episode.”
Fans of sports docuseries are likely already familiar with the work of director Greg Whiteley, since he previously brought us Cheer and Last Chance U. Wrestlers is his latest, following the owners, athletes, and fans of the professional wrestling league Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), a training organization that helped kickstart the careers of superstars like John Cena, Dave Bautista, and more. As a sport, wrestling is famous for being an incredibly theatrical form of entertainment, but Wrestlers makes a point of digging into what happens outside the ring, showing the grueling competition and personal troubles athletes grapple with as they vie for success. It also provides a look at the industry itself as the new owners of OVW try to keep the league financially profitable, resulting in a clash between the business and the creativity of the sport, making the series as engaging to watch as any wrestling match.
Maybe you’re a longtime NFL fan, or maybe you only got into football after Taylor Swift started making appearances at all those Chiefs games. No judgment — if anything, that just means there’s never been a better time to check out Quarterback, an inside look at the lives of three high-profile quarterbacks: Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings, and Marcus Mariota of the Atlanta Falcons (who now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles). At the time of filming, all three are at very different stages in their careers (Mahomes is a well-established legend in the making, Cousins is up-and-coming, and Mariota is in his first year in Atlanta), but the series is unique for just how much access it gets to their lives off the field.
In the late ’90s, David Beckham’s fame reached astronomical heights, due in part to his success as a footballer (the British kind, of course) and, in a perhaps even larger part, to his marriage to Posh Spice herself, Victoria Beckham. Their relationship became a tabloid magnet, meaning that their business, both personal and professional, became the world’s business. Directed by Fisher Stevens, Beckham is as much a retrospective of an accomplished athlete’s career, full of all the typical highs and lows, as it is an exploration of the meaning of celebrity and the toll such brutal media attention takes on people. Both Beckhams go on record about everything from their most extravagant outfits to the 1998 World Cup debacle, which infamously earned David a red card. Over four episodes, this series makes for a probing look at the intersection of sports and celebrity.
It feels like an understatement to say that Arnold Schwarzenegger has had a long and varied career. Not many celebrities can match him, probably because not many have gone from bodybuilding to acting to politics. Arnold allows Schwarzenegger to tell his own story, with the three-part docuseries providing an intimate and wide-ranging look into his childhood in Austria, his journey to America, his steroid usage, his rivalry with Sylvester Stallone, and his (at the time) unprecedented tenure as governor of California. He also addresses darker periods in his history, including an explosive Los Angeles Times story published in the lead-up to his gubernatorial run and infidelity during his marriage to Maria Shriver. Consider Arnold a complete portrait of the man at its center.
Chimp Empire is confirmation that complicated family dynamics exist in the animal kingdom, too. Director James Reed (who won an Oscar for his 2020 nature documentary, My Octopus Teacher) tracks a complex social hierarchy between two warring chimpanzee clans in the Ngogo community in Uganda, highlighting a startlingly humanlike generational struggle as a group of younger apes bide their time as they wait for the aging alpha to cede power. Complete with backstabbing, betrayals, and silky narration from Mahershala Ali, this docuseries is a fascinating and immersive watch.
It might not surprise you to learn that Steven Spielberg, the director who brought us Jurassic Park, is an executive producer on this eight-episode series that uses modern CGI to bring prehistoric creatures back to life. The computerized re-creations of Tyrannosaurus rexes and saber-toothed tigers are blended into footage shot in natural habitats, creating a collection of uncanny, hyperrealistic scenarios. (Expect a lot of big, cinematic dinosaur fights.) The scale of the series is as enormous as the creatures it spotlights, as Life on Our Planet ambitiously sets its timeline across billions of years, extending to a period as recent as the Ice Age. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, this docuseries explores how Earth has continuously remade itself, time and time again.
The tragic case of the Murdaugh family is one of the most baffling and unbelievable true crime stories in recent memory. Composed of six episodes total, the first season of Murdaugh Murders weaves a twisty, interconnected web, shedding light on the powerful South Carolina family, whose legacy began to crumble following the suspicious deaths of several people close to them. At the center of it all is Alex Murdaugh, a former lawyer who, since the series originally aired, has been found guilty of murdering his wife and son. The second season examines the highly publicized trial and what led to his conviction, bolstered by interviews with jurors, witnesses, and other key players.
This haunting series explores the story of Lori Vallow, a mother accused and later found guilty of killing two of her children. Over three episodes, Sins of Our Mother delves into Vallow’s upbringing, her multiple marriages, her relationship with her children, and how she eventually met her fifth husband, Chad Daybell. He was the leader of a radical Mormon sect that vehemently believed in the coming apocalypse. What begins as a story of a couple with troubling beliefs ends in a string of murders that leaves several people dead, including Vallow’s fourth husband and Daybell’s ex-wife. Director Skye Borgman uses accounts from those close to Vallow and Daybell to piece together this often outrageous story of crime and religious fanaticism.
You’ll certainly recognize the name Bernie Madoff as synonymous with the financial crisis, but Joe Berlinger’s four-part series makes a strong case that there’s still more to learn about the man behind the Ponzi scheme. The episodes track Madoff’s rise from a stock trader in the ’60s to the fraudster who infamously cheated investors out of billions of dollars, but Berlinger crucially points out that Madoff wasn’t doing any of it alone — behind him was a team of people willingly helping him commit myriad crimes. The series is often jaw-dropping, shining light on just how many times Madoff should have been caught, how greedy and shameless he and his associates were, and the broken system that allowed them to get away with it for as long as they did.
Dan Buettner has dedicated decades of his life to learning about people who live to be 100 years old and over. In Live to 100, he visits areas of the world identified as “blue zones.” He meets healthy centenarians who aren’t intentionally striving to keep themselves alive longer in the way that many Americans do. Set against the beachy backdrops of places like Okinawa, Japan, and the clear blue waters of Ikaria, an island off the coast of Greece, Buettner meets seniors who spend their days gardening, eating off the land, and celebrating community. It’s tough to watch this series and not be inspired by the joie de vivre on display: These people are not merely existing but truly living.
In 2020, Ruthie Shatz and Adi Barash directed Lenox Hill, a medical docuseries set inside the titular New York hospital during the early days of the pandemic. Emergency: NYC is Lenox Hill’s natural successor, a high-intensity series that widens its focus across all five boroughs as first responders answer the city’s calls. The series doesn’t limit itself to the patients, turning the camera on the crews who make sure people in need get help in transit, as ambulances and helicopters bring them where they need to go. There are relieving successes and devastating failures, and Emergency: NYC doesn’t shy away from any of it. It doesn’t treat the members of these emergency crews as nameless workers, showing their own fears and anxieties about their lives and jobs and creating a sobering study of humanity across eight episodes.
