Netflix documentaries have at all times been stable, however within the final 12 months they’ve taken issues to a brand new stage. Nonetheless, it may be tough to seek out the greatest stuff, which is why we have made this checklist.
We’re beginning with the the most effective new documentaries launched within the final 12 months. After that we have divided the rest of our picks by style. We’re updated for January.
There’s quite a bit to get by way of. Good luck and joyful watching!
The Finest New Documentaries on Netflix
Netflix
Break Level is the newest in what appears like a zillion documentaries exploring the day-after-day drama of sports activities. You already know those I imply — All or Nothing, Drive to Survive. Cricket has one, AFL has one — there’s even a golf one approaching Netflix later this 12 months.
Break Level focuses on Tennis and — fortunately — picks the most effective athletes to give attention to. Watch this for the legendary Nick Kyrgios on the very least.
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Pepsi, The place’s My Jet? is certainly one of my favourite varieties of documentary. It is an offbeat documentary on a weird matter with a forged of actually charismatic and insane folks.
The premise: Within the mid-’90s Pepsi had a degree system designed to encourage folks to drink extra Pepsi. One advert confirmed off a Harrier Jet you could possibly purchase with 7 million of those factors. John Leonard, a 21-year-old enterprise scholar, discovered a loophole that allowed him to purchase factors for 10 cents and tried to power Pepsi to make good on their advertising and marketing promise. Chaos ensues.
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With the Qatar World Cup actually happening proper now, there could not be a greater time to get caught into FIFA’s murky behind-the-scenes habits. This can be a actually stunning documentary. Be warned: The allegations listed here are so wild you would possibly even really feel compelled to cease watching the World Cup.
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Untold is the newest from the oldsters behind Wild Wild Nation.
It is a sports activities documentary collection, with every episode going in-depth on controversial sports activities matters. The primary episode focuses on Malice on the Palace, the infamous basketball match the place Ron Artest waded into the gang and wailed on followers again in 2004.
Untold is now in its second season, and it’s absolute must-watch stuff. The brand new episodes are arguably higher than the stellar first season. Possibly the most effective sports activities documentary collection on Netflix
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Pretty much as good as Netflix documentaries are, there’s been a bent to pull out true crime into these bloated multiepisode collection. Fortunately Our Father is the alternative of that. It is a lean, completely executed documentary targeted on Donald Cline, an Indiana fertility physician who used his personal sperm to inseminate a ridiculous variety of girls towards their will.
That is an unbelievable piece, a kind of tales that simply escalates and escalates to the purpose the place your jaw drops in disbelief.
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Preserve Candy: Pray and Obey (2022)
There are a whole lot of Netflix documentaries about cults gone mad, however Preserve Candy: Pray and Obey is likely to be essentially the most disturbing of the lot. Not like Homicide Among the many Mormons, which nearly handled its matter like a screwball comedy, Preserve Candy is a really grim story a few grim human being in Warren Jeffs. It is a unbelievable documentary, and among the many greatest Netflix has produced, but it surely comes with a really hefty content material warning.
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Keep on Board: The Leo Baker Story (2022)
Skateboarding as a sport makes for a fantastic documentary matter. Dogtown and Z Boys, All That Mayhem — completely legendary. Keep on Board: The Leo Baker Story is one other in a protracted line of classics.
It focuses on Leo Baker, the skater who got here out as trans and needed to give up competing on the Olympics within the course of. Superb, should watch stuff.
Michael Putland/Getty Photographs
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story (2022)
It is nearly not possible to overstate how well-known Jimmy Savile was within the UK — notably within the Eighties. He was past a family title, in some ways he felt like an eccentric uncle to the nation.
Which made revelations that he had sexually assaulted lots of of underage ladies and boys all of the extra horrific. This was an individual the entire of Britain had invited into their properties.
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story does a fantastic job of going by way of the archives, combining footage that’s completely weird in hindsight, and including unbelievable interviews with a number of the main gamers in British TV throughout Savile’s heyday. An enchanting, albeit disturbing documentary. Be warned: This can be a tough watch.
Netflix
Our Nice Nationwide Parks (2022)
Barack Obama is making a beeline for David Attenborough’s job. And we do not hate the concept!
Our Nice Nationwide Parks is a world-class nature documentary within the fashion of nice BBC exhibits like Planet Earth. They’ve nailed it right here. When you’re a fan of that sort of present, that is utterly unmissable.
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The Most Hated Man on the Web (2022)
Netflix has been on fireplace with its documentaries these days, and The Most Hated Man on the Web is the newest. From the producers of Tinder Swindler and Dont F**ok with Cats, it is a three-part documentary that tells the story of Hunter Moore, probably the most infamous purveyors of “revenge porn.” Positively value watching this one.
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The Lady within the Image (2022)
The Lady within the Image is the newest true crime documentary from Netflix. It is up there with the service’s best possible work.
It appears like, after a interval of needlessly bloated multiepisode documentaries, Netflix has began trimming the fats, releasing lean, extremely compelling documentaries once more. First Preserve Candy: Pray and Obey and Our Father, now this.
The Lady within the Image tells the story of a younger lady, murdered at age 20. To say an excessive amount of would spoil the influence, however this can be a layered, brutal documentary with infinite twists. It must be seen to be believed.
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The Tinder Swindler (2022)
A documentary targeted on Shimon Hayut, aka the “Tinder Swindler,” a conman who used courting apps to defraud a number of girls throughout Europe to fund a lavish life-style.
A barely completely different matter in comparison with most true crime documentaries on Netflix. Positively value a gander.
True crime
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I’ve watched loads of true crime documentaries on Netflix, however nothing has come near The Keepers. A staggering story, advised throughout generations, that is respectful of the victims, but compelling all through.
It is a story in regards to the unsolved homicide of Catherine Cesnik, a nun who taught at a Catholic college in Baltimore, however The Keepers goes additional than you would possibly anticipate and exposes a possible coverup of intercourse abuse allegations.
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The true crime documentary style is completely saturated at this level, however The Staircase stands out.
Specializing in Michael Peterson and the demise of his spouse Kathleen, The Staircase is greater than only a homicide thriller. It is a drawn-out epic that takes place over literal many years, a documentary that follows Peterson and examines his each transfer, however one way or the other nonetheless stays goal.
It is a good time to look at or revisit this one, since HBO Max has simply launched a drama miniseries primarily based on it.
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Home of Secrets and techniques: The Burari Deaths (2021)
One of many more moderen true crime documentaries from Netflix, this can be a good one.
Specializing in the weird deaths of 11 members of the family in a single home in Burari, Delhi, India in 2018, Home of Secrets and techniques delves into the theories behind of the strangest suicide/homicide circumstances in current reminiscence. Unmissable stuff.
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This Is a Theft is about Netflix because it will get. A four-part collection specializing in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, that is basically a documentary about an artwork heist. Keep in mind Evil Genius? (Which can also be on this checklist.) This Is a Theft could be very a lot in that fashion. The primary episode takes some time to get going, however be affected person — this one has a payoff.
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Homicide Among the many Mormons (2021)
A few of Netflix’s more moderen true crime documentaries have been a bit bloated and… sorta unhealthy?
Fortunately Homicide Among the many Mormons is a return to kind. Positively watch this one.
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Who Killed Little Gregory (2019)
Who Killed Little Gregory is a documentary targeted on the horrific homicide of Grégory Villemin. It is arguably the most effective true crime documentary on Netflix. It is a few homicide, and makes an attempt to unravel that homicide, but it surely’s additionally a lesson in media illustration and the horrific sexism Grégory’s mom needed to face within the wake of her son’s homicide.
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American Homicide: The Household Subsequent Door (2020)
There are a whole lot of true crime documentaries on the market (and on this checklist) however American Homicide: The Household Subsequent Door stands out.
It tells the story of Chris Watts, a seemingly common man who murdered his spouse and youngsters. The entry to footage is staggering and it is edited and produced in a singular approach, utilizing textual content messages and social media posts to inform the story. It is a horrific reminder of the banal, extremely widespread existence of home violence.
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Making a Assassin (2015-2018)
With the swath of true crime documentaries and podcasts that got here in its wake, it is simple to overlook that the world as soon as misplaced its collective thoughts over Making a Assassin. In a whole lot of methods it created the template that many Netflix documentaries now observe. An actual authentic.
Sports activities
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In 2020, within the midst of a pandemic, Netflix dropped this piece of sports activities doc perfection.
The Final Dance focuses on the Chicago Bulls throughout their ’97-’98 NBA title-winning season, however actually it is a leaping off level for a documentary that tells the life story of its central star, Michael Jordan.
Consequently, many criticized it for being somewhat too Jordan-focused, however The Final Dance was an occasion documentary that lived as much as the hype.
Netflix
This Oscar-winning documentary is an absolute belter.
Icarus begins out as an expose on the influence performance-enhancing medication have on sports activities efficiency, however a sequence of occasions drags director Bryan Fogel into an internet of geopolitics and conspiracies. To say extra would spoil it, however Fogel finally has created a documentary that had a really actual influence on our notion of sports activities as an entire. In that respect, Icarus is a literal recreation changer.
Netflix
System 1: Drive to Survive (2019)
Absolutely the gold commonplace for long-running sports activities documentaries. Drive to Survive is so good, and so common, that it is impressed an entire new stage of curiosity in System 1, particularly within the US. This present is nice at elevating the characters that occupy the game. Extra exhibits like this, please.
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Athlete A is a good function size expose on Larry Nassar, the workforce physician of USA Gymnastics, who had been sexually abusing feminine athletes for many years.
Be warned: This one is harrowing.
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14 Peaks tells the story of the Nepalese mountaineer Nimsdai Purja and his objective of climbing all 14 mountains above the peak of 8,000 meters (26,000 toes) in a single 12 months. It is unbelievable. Should-watch stuff.
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Netflix might need burned the true crime documentary into the bottom, but it surely’s on fireplace on the subject of sports activities. Dangerous Sport is the newest entry into this burgeoning subcategory, and it is superior. Specializing in unusual controversies in sports activities historical past, Dangerous Sport is much less about main gamers doing main issues, it is about what occurs when sport goes unhealthy, will get down within the filth. All of those episodes are nice. Hoping for a season 2.
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The River Runner is sorta like Free Solo for kayaking. Take into account {that a} praise.
Specializing in Scott Lindgren, a kayaking legend who was a pioneer of the game, this can be a conventional story of an excessive sports activities star overcoming odds, but it surely runs somewhat deeper than that. Preventing towards a mind tumor and his personal private demons, Lindgren is a compelling case examine. Should watch stuff.
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Naomi Osaka has turn out to be probably the most well-known and talked-about athletes on the planet. This fascinating documentary explores completely different phases of her profession and affords unbelievable entry into the lifetime of a younger lady scuffling with the pressures of sport and fame. A must-watch.
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When you’re in search of a barely extra uplifting documentary, you could possibly do far worse than The Pace Cubers, a take a look at the world of aggressive… Rubik’s Cubers? It is brief, however packs an unbelievable emotional punch. Put together your self, this one would possibly break you.
Nature/science
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Seaspiracy follows within the footsteps of a number of documentaries targeted on the influence of meat consuming on the surroundings. This time the worldwide fishing business is within the crosshairs. As anticipated this one has stirred up a little bit of controversy from all stakeholders — PETA, Greenpeace and conservation teams can not seem to agree if Seaspiracy is correct or honest. Watch it and make up your individual thoughts.
Netflix
My Octopus Trainer (2020)
My Octopus Trainer follows Craig Foster, a filmmaker who spent a 12 months snorkeling and interacting with an octopus off the coast of South Africa. It is a nature movie, certain, but it surely’s concurrently a documentary designed to encourage awe within the viewer. Briefly, octopuses are unbelievable. Little aliens on Earth, basically. That is the story of a relationship between people and nature, but it surely’s additionally an inspiring name to motion: Do not ignore the marvel that exists throughout you.
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David Attenborough nature documentaries are so pervasive, they’re susceptible to self parody, however Our Planet is — I consider — the excessive watermark. Solely Planet Earth, one other Attenborough doc, comes shut. However I desire this one.
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Time might uninteresting its influence, however when Tiger King was first launched on Netflix, your complete world could not cease speaking about it.
Tiger King explores the unusual underbelly of massive cat breeding, specializing in a forged of unforgettable (and finally harmful) characters. It drags its viewers to bizarre locations. Season 2 is now obtainable and whereas the present has misplaced a whole lot of its chew, it is intriguing to meet up with this forged of untamed human beings doing wild, utterly outlandish issues.
Politics/historical past
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thirteenth by Ava Duvernay is a staggering documentary that tells the story of American slavery and its long-lasting impacts, a lot of which nonetheless resonate at this time.
Within the wake of the Black Lives Matter motion, this ought to be necessary viewing.
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Within the wake of the Capitol siege, the Fb/Cambridge Analytica controversy nearly appears like historical historical past, however that does not make this documentary any much less essential. If you have not seen it, then watch it.
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Operation Varsity Blues: The Faculty Admissions Scandal (2021)
Lately launched, Operations Varsity Blues: The Faculty Admissions Scandal has a reputation so long as a few of Netflix’s current documentaries. Fortunately, this is not as bloated as, say, the current Cecil Resort doc, but it surely might nonetheless use some trimming.
Operation Varsity Blues targeted on the FBI investigation into faculty admissions that put actress Felicity Huffman into jail. Its director, Chris Smith, beforehand labored on the Fyre Competition documentary. This is not fairly as compelling, however remains to be effectively value watching.
Sundance
Knock Down the Home (2019)
No matter your views on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Knock Down the Home is an unbelievable underdog story that can not be missed. Specializing in progressive feminine candidates through the 2018 congressional major campaigns, it is an insightful take a look at the democratic course of. It is an inspiring reminder that we have to battle in an effort to make the voices of unusual folks depend.
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What Occurred, Miss Simone? (2015)
Not gonna say a lot right here. Nina Simone is a legend and that is possibly the most effective documentaries I’ve ever seen.
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Overlong and bloated, Wild Wild Nation is however probably the most fascinating documentaries I’ve ever watched on Netflix.
It tells the story of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who tried to construct a huge sprawling commune, for what was basically a intercourse cult, in america. It is a unusual story that one way or the other turns into stranger with age. Very similar to Tiger King, the story plumbs depths you will not consider. At instances it is a slog, however Wild Wild Nation is completely worthwhile.
Netflix
I completely adore this documentary. 5 present acclaimed administrators (together with Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola) assist inform the story of 5 well-known film administrators from the ’30s and ’40s who did frontline work through the Second World Battle. It wraps their legacies alongside the influence of the battle itself into a really compelling story of Hollywood’s golden age.
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An Oscar winner for Netflix, this documentary is the primary produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Larger Floor Productions workforce.
American Manufacturing facility tells the story of Fuyao, a Chinese language firm that constructed a manufacturing facility in Ohio that inhabits a now-closed Normal Motors plant. It’s important to watch this film.
Netflix
Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Wealthy (2020)
By this level all of us have some kind of understanding of Jeffrey Epstein’s story however Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Wealthy does itself a fantastic service by specializing in the tales of the survivors of his abuse.
The Cinemart/Hulu
Fyre: The Best Celebration That By no means Occurred (2019)
Hulu additionally has a fantastic Fyre pageant documentary, however I desire this Netflix one. Not like many Netflix documentaries, that are stretched and bloated into multipart episodes, this documentary is sharp, direct and stable gold your complete approach by way of.
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