Best biography, documentary, & western shows streaming, ranked.
Your next watch, decided. Every show ranked by quality — not popularity. No more arguing about what to watch tonight — share a WatchList with your partner.
- #1100#1100
MAXPlanet Earth
2006– · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary · Family
4 EmmysBest Documentary SeriesA documentary series on the wildlife found on Earth. Each episode covers a different habitat: deserts, mountains, deep oceans, shallow seas, forests, caves, polar regions, fresh water, plains and jungles. Narrated by David Attenbo...
MAX - #499#499
Paramount+1883
2021–2022 · Series · 1 seasonWestern · Drama
The post-Civil war generation of the Dutton family travels to Texas, and joins a wagon train undertaking the arduous journey west to Oregon, before settling in Montana to establish what would eventually become the Yellowstone Ranch.
Paramount+ - #1297#1297
NetflixGodless
2017– · Series · 1 seasonWestern · Action · Drama
3 EmmysIn the 1880s American West, murderous outlaw gang leader Frank Griffin hunts for ex-protege Roy Goode. Frank's chase leads him to La Belle, New Mexico--a town inhabited, after a mining disaster, almost entirely by women.
Netflix - #1896#1896
NetflixDavid Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
2020 · Movie · 1h 23mDocumentary · Biography
3 EmmysThe story of life on our planet by the man who has seen more of the natural world than any other. In more than 90 years, Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the wild places of our planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. Addressing the biggest challenges facing life on our planet, the film offers a powerful message of hope for future generations.
Netflix - #2096#2096
NetflixPrime VideoMan on Wire
2008 · Movie · 1h 34mDocumentary · Biography · Crime
1 OscarA look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century".
NetflixPrime Video - #2995#2995
MAXThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion
2020 · Movie · 1h 15mDocumentary
30 years later, we're bringing the Banks family back together. Join Will Smith and his former co-stars for a funny and heartfelt night full of music and dancing in honor of the show that ran for six seasons and 148 episodes.
MAX - #4494#4494
MAXCapturing the Friedmans
2003 · Movie · 1h 47mDocumentary · Biography · Crime
Documentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes.
MAX - #5194#5194
NetflixTo Kill a Tiger
2023 · Movie · 2h 8mDocumentary
Ranjit, a farmer in India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the victim of a brutal gang rape. His decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of, and his journey unprecedented.
Netflix - #5593#5593
MAXNavalny
2022 · Movie · 1h 39mDocumentary · Biography
1 OscarFollows the man who survived an assassination attempt by poisoning with a lethal nerve agent in August 2020. During his months-long recovery he makes shocking discoveries about the attempt on his life and decides to return home.
MAX - #6093#6093
MAXCameraperson
2016 · Movie · 1h 42mDocumentary · Biography · History
Exposing her role behind the camera, Kirsten Johnson reaches into the vast trove of footage she has shot over decades around the world. What emerges is a visually bold memoir and a revelatory interrogation of the power of the camera.
MAX - #6193#6193
NetflixThe Last Days
1998 · Movie · 1h 27mDocumentary · War
1 OscarIn late 1944, even as they faced imminent defeat, the Nazis expended enormous resources to kill or deport over 425,000 Jews during the "cleansing" of Hungary. This Oscar-winning documentary, executive produced by Steven Spielberg,...
Netflix - #6793#6793
MAXSuper/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
2024 · Movie · 1h 44mDocumentary · Biography
Reeve's rise to becoming a film star follows with a near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down. After the accident, he became an activist for spinal cord injury treatments and disability ri...
MAX - #6993#6993
Paramount+Attica
2021 · Movie · 1h 56mDocumentary · History
This unnervingly vivid dive into the 1971 uprising from Emmy® winning director Stanley Nelson sheds new light on the enduring violence and racism of the prison system and highlights the urgent, ongoing need for reform 50 years later.
Paramount+ - #7193#7193
NetflixThe Elephant Whisperers
2022 · Movie · Tamil · 41mDocumentary
1 OscarBomman and Bellie, a couple in South India, devote their lives to caring for an orphaned baby elephant named Raghu, forging a family like no other that tests the barrier between the human and the animal world.
Netflix - #8992#8992
MAXGimme Shelter
1970 · Movie · 1h 31mDocumentary · Thriller
When three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hells Angels at San Francisco's Altamont Speedway, the bloody slash that transformed a decade's dreams into disillusionment was immortalized on t...
MAX - #9692#9692
NetflixWinter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom
2015 · Movie · 1h 42mDocumentary · History
A documentary on the unrest in Ukraine during 2013 and 2014, as student demonstrations supporting European integration grew into a violent revolution calling for the resignation of President Viktor F. Yanukovich.
Netflix - #10591#10591
NetflixAmerican Factory
2019 · Movie · 1h 50mDocumentary
1 OscarIn post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a factory in an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class...
Netflix - #11191#11191
MAXMea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God
2012 · Movie · 1h 46mDocumentary
3 EmmysAlex Gibney explores the charged issue of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, following a trail from the first known protest against clerical sexual abuse in the United States and all the way to the Vatican.
MAX - #11391#11391
MAXTony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off
2022 · Movie · 2h 15mDocumentary · Biography
Follows famous skater Tony Hawk's personal life, career and relationship with skateboarding, including never-before-seen footage and unprecedented access to Hawk, along with interviews with figures from the skateboarding world.
MAX - #11591#11591
MAXGrey Gardens
1976 · Movie · 1h 35mDocumentary · Comedy · Drama
Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, two aging, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, are the sole inhabitants of a Long Island estate. The women reveal themselves to be misfits with outsized, engaging personalities. Much of the conversation is centered on their pasts, as mother and daughter now rarely leave home.
MAX - #11691#11691
MAXFirst Cousin Once Removed
2012 · Movie · 1h 18mDocumentary
Acclaimed filmmaker Alan Berliner chronicles the deeply personal story of his mother's first cousin--well-known poet/translator/professor Edwin Honig--on his journey into the depths of Alzheimer's disease. Shot over the course of ...
MAX - #11891#11891
NetflixJim Gaffigan: Obsessed
2014 · Movie · 1hDocumentary · Comedy
Jim Gaffigan bursts back on the scene with this eagerly anticipated fourth comedy special. Dubbed the "King of Clean Comedy" by The Wall Street Journal, Jim's obsession with all things food comes to fruition on "Obsessed" as he ta...
Netflix - #13791#13791
Paramount+Argo
2012 · Movie · 2hBiography · Drama · History
3 OscarsActing under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.
Paramount+ - #15890#15890
MAXEscape from Kabul
2021 · Movie · 1h 13mDocumentary · History
Unfolding over 18 monumental days in August 2021, this deeply immersive and emotional documentary combines never-before-seen archival footage from those on the ground at the airport with exclusive interviews with people who were there throughout the period, including Afghan citizens attempting to flee, U.S. Marines tasked with managing the evacuation, and Taliban commanders and fighters who had recently taken the city.
MAX - #16790#16790
MAXBuena Vista Social Club
1999 · Movie · 1h 45mDocumentary
Aging Cuban musicians whose talents had been virtually forgotten following Castro's takeover of Cuba, are brought out of retirement by Ry Cooder, who travelled to Havana in order to bring the musicians together, resulting in trium...
MAX - #17890#17890
NetflixChef's Table
2015–2024 · Series · 7 seasonsDocumentary · Biography
Chef's Table goes inside the lives and kitchens of six of the world's most renowned international chefs. Each episode focuses on a single chef and their unique look at their lives, talents and passion from their piece of culinary ...
Netflix - #19289#19289
NetflixJim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton
2017 · Movie · 1h 34mDocumentary
A behind-the-scenes look at how Jim Carrey adopted the persona of idiosyncratic comedian Andy Kaufman on the set of Man on the Moon (1999).
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