From Katrina: Come Hell and High Water to Tiger King to The Tinder Swindler, documentaries can help deepen our understanding of the real-life stories that captivate us. After all, the headlines can only go so far — documentaries look to uncover the full picture. The only problem has always been the wait for them.
Enter Instadocs, a new fast-turnaround documentary series that takes you to the very center of the loudest headlines, immersing you in the facts and feelings of the moment. From executive producers Josh Tyrangiel (Vice News Tonight, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Atlantic), Connor Schell (30 for 30, The Last Dance, O.J.: Made in America), and showrunner Steve Yaccino (Giuliani: What Happened to America’s Mayor?, Killer Lies: Chasing a True Crime Con Man), Instadocs will tackle a wide range of gripping current events, crises, and cultural moments. Every installment will move at the speed of each real-life story and arrive at the height of the conversation.
“The best documentaries don’t just capture history — they shape how we understand it,” Tyrangiel says. “With Netflix, we have the infrastructure to match the speed of the world we’re documenting. Instadocs is about giving audiences something they’ve never had before: depth and craft at the moment it matters most.”
Produced by Words + Pictures, the series debuted on May 30 with an installment focused on the bombshell overturning of Alex Murdaugh’s double-murder conviction by the South Carolina Supreme Court. The second Instadoc — about the booming world of predicition markets — is out now. Below, learn more about each installment of Instadocs so far.
On May 13, 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned Alex Murdaugh’s double-murder conviction, citing Colleton County Clerk Becky Hill’s “jury interference.” Murdaugh was granted a new trial that could take place in the next year. Instadocs: Alex Murdaugh, Unconvicted features interviews with South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, the creators of Trial Watchers, as well as jurors — including Myra Crosby — whose shocking dismissal from the jury contributed to questions about Hill’s misconduct. Hill denies any jury interference. Learn more about Instadocs: Alex Murdaugh, Unconvicted here.
Prediction markets are a legal but controversial way to gamble on the outcome of almost anything, from the World Cup and Taylor Swift’s wedding to elections, weather, and armed conflict. Tens of millions of people are diving into these markets — with all sorts of consequences. The Prediction Games drops viewers into the sizzlingcenter of betting fever, tracking the fortunes made and lost, with interviews with those who own the game, including Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan and Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, plus regulator Michael Selig, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Learn more about Instadocs: The Prediction Games here.
This July, President Trump disappeared without anyone noticing. Flying back from a NATO summit in Turkey, he boarded Air Force One, then slipped off the plane into a catering truck, and secretly boarded a different aircraft — leaving traveling reporters to fly on, unaware the president was no longer with them.
Instadocs: The Decoy Plane unpacks the incident through the eyes of the traveling press corps with firsthand accounts from Gram Slattery, a White House reporter for Reuters; Alex Brandon, a White House photographer for The Associated Press; plus perspectives from Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Carol Leonnig of MS NOW; The Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe, who was part of the reporting team that broke the story; former Secret Service agent Robert McDonald; and former Air Force One crew member Wanda Joell. Beyond showing the lengths the Secret Service will go to protect the president, this installment reveals the cost of that mission: to get him home safely, a plane full of reporters and the public they answer to were left flying blind.
Learn more about Instadocs: The Decoy Plane here.
